Anyone who has worked in sales - especially in a B2B environment - has faced objections at one stage or another. As frustrating as this can be, it should actually be welcomed because it can give you a helpful insight into how to close more sales in the future.
In fact, the ability to handle (and overcome!) sales objections is what makes a truly great salesperson. Understanding the most common sales objections and learning the most effective sales objection handling techniques there are is the best way to prepare yourself in the tough world of sales.
What is a Sales Objection?
A sales objection is a reason or argument given by the prospect for why they aren't ready to buy the product or service you're trying to sell them. Usually this will revolve around the common sales objections list of
budget, authority and timing.
In order to succeed as a salesperson, you will need to prepare yourself for the potential objections raised by your prospect and understand
how to handle them. Just remember, an objection is not the same thing as a rejection, so cover their concerns until your prospect is satisfied and ready to buy.
The Top 3 Common Sales Objections
Working in B2B sales will see you face all sorts of objections, but don't make the mistake of trying to handle everything in a blur of reactive behavior. If you look for patterns, you'll see that some of the most familiar sales objections will actually revolve around these three main areas:
- Budget: "You've got a great product here, but it's more than we want to spend."
- Authority: "We could really use this service, but my boss wouldn't agree to it."
- Timing: "This is great, but it's just not the right time at the moment."
The above sales objection examples are pretty typical, which is a good thing because it makes it much easier to prepare a sales objection handling system. So, let's take a look at each of these key objections and find out how we can handle them.
Budget
This is without doubt one of the
most common objections salespeople face in any selling environment. Oftentimes, a prospective customer will tell you that they like your product or service, but they simply cannot afford it. They often follow this up by asking you for a discount! When it comes down to money, how do you handle this objection?
This may seem like a dead end, but what you need to do is get down to the root of the problem. It may just come down to the fact that they don't place the same value on the product as the price they need to pay. So if you demonstrate the value of your product or service, and even how much money it could save them, you can address the issue of money in a positive way.
Authority
This is another annoying objection, usually in B2B sales, but in retail, it can come up with the comment "I'm afraid I need to ask my husband/wife/partner". This happens when the buying process involves more than one decision maker. But take heart: just because you can't close the sale straight away doesn't mean that you've been defeated.
One way to respond to this is to have material prepared that can be handed over to the other decision makers, or the one in charge. Convince your prospect that it will be a great asset to the company and they should relay this information onto others.
By preparing easy to read material that essentially sums up your sales pitch, you can make the process a whole lot easier and increase your chances of your product being passed onto the head honcho.
Timing
If someone talks to you about timing, you need to figure out if they really mean there's a problem with timing, or if they're just looking for a way to stall. It could be that they genuinely don't have the budget for it right now, but they have funding coming up, in which case it would be better to wait and then follow up.
However, you can overcome this objection by convincing them that
they shouldn't wait as they'll be losing out by not investing in your solution straight away. Do your research so you can back this up with numbers and a timeline. Work out their costs, and the benefits, and hey presto, you have an ROI they can't ignore...
3 Tips for Handling Sales Objections
Quite often salespeople will fall at the first hurdle. They'll hear these objections and decide that their potential customer just isn't interested, or there's just no way to make this sale happen. But there are ways to overcome these sales objections and if you draw up a list of common sales objections, you can prepare answers to them (make it several for each so you get flexibility). In this way you can massively improve your sales techniques ... and see a big increase in sales.
1. Preparation
The best way to handle an objection is to be ready for it so you don't lose your way when it comes up. Prepare some answers that can be used in a variety of situations, such as those relating to the value of your product or service, identifying the customer's likely need for it and getting together some convincing numbers.
2. Finding out the real problem
As you can imagine, the initial objection doesn't always reveal the true problem. So if you dig for information, you can help to address the real problem at hand and offer a suitable solution.
3. Quantify the benefits
It's always important to stick to the facts, but don't let that inhibit your enthusiasm for what you're selling. After all, if you don't
sound positive, how can you expect the person you're talking to to buy into it? Sell your product or service using quantifiable benefits, not emotion or intuition. Let's face it, it's much easier to sell when you have the hard facts to back you up. And as always, you'll find that preparation is the key.
Round Up
Identifying likely sales objections is the first step to understanding the best way to tackle them. The most important thing is to make sure you're well prepared before going in and delivering your sales pitch. After all, you don't want to find yourself in a situation where you lose out on a sale just because you didn't come prepared.
With some dedicated work - and a chunk of practice - you should be able to offer a solution to almost any objection, whether it's related to price, time or authority.
And by having answers prepared, you'll have the confidence to make the sale happen where once you probably didn't.
What's not to like?
