Understanding & Handling Objections Part 1

Handling objections is what selling is all about. Without objections you have no direction and cannot close. It is quite normal for customers to have concerns about making the buying decision. These concerns are presented in the form of an objection. Don’t let objections dampen your enthusiasm, rather see them as an opportunity to provide more information and find direction to continue closing.

Customers usually don’t make the decision to buy until they have justified it. I’m sure that most of you have a dream that one day you’ll visit a customer, do a presentation, they’ll agree with everything you say and then help you fill out the order.    That’s a dream! If it’s a dream and you laugh about it, then why are you so upset when your customer presents you with an objection? Most sales people fear objections because they think it means no. You have to always be thinking positively to be able to handle objections.

An objection from a customer means that they are not completely convinced yet. It is a request for more information and justification as to why they should buy. It means, “if you can give me an answer that satisfies my concern (objection) I’ll buy” Remember an objection is what we call it, to the customer it’s a concern.

So rather see objections as the customers concern about a particular point relating to your product or service that they need more information on, rather than an objection. An objection means they’re interested in buying your product or service but need a little more convincing on the particular point that they have raised as an objection. Remember, you are the seller, they are the buyer, and they need you to help them make the decision to buy!

Every product, service and Industry will have one or two common objections that the customer will raise. If you’re getting lots of objections regularly then you as a salesperson have not done your job properly. You have not been convincing enough during the sales process. Most objections that customers raise are defense mechanisms. They’ve used them before on less professional salespeople and it worked. It’s a way of avoiding or delaying the buying decision. Minor objections are what customers use to slow things down during the sales process. Don’t take objections personally, it’s a part of selling, it’s a part of your job.

Expect to get objections – in fact, look forward to them because this indicates that the customer is interested in your product or service and just needs you to resolve their query (Objection) before they say YES. It’s the customer’s way of making sure you’ve covered every point that is of concern to them. Salespeople spend far too much time handling far too many objections. You should concentrate on eliminating objections by doing a proper presentation of your product or service. You should be asking questions and getting commitments along the way. This will eliminate a lot of minor objections towards the end of the sales process.

Make sure that you are matching the benefits of your product or service to their requirements (Needs)

The only real objections a customer should have once you have started closing are:
PRICE, VALUE, SERVICE, DELIVERY, TIMING and THE END RESULT.
At this point they should have bought you, your company and your product or service.

Determine Your Success in Sales - Part 1

The key to success in sales is having the right attitude and being motivated to “Be there”. I don’t believe that salespeople actually want to be lazy and unsuccessful. Most salespeople get out of bed in the morning and go to work with the intention of doing things well. We’re not negative people, we’re not demotivated people and we’re not lazy people.

We’re all good people, we all have good intentions but we sometimes we just have the wrong attitude.

We believe that it is the customer’s responsibility to bring enthusiasm into the sales process. And if we don’t see their enthusiasm we believe that they are not interested in buying.

It is the salespersons responsibility to be enthusiastic about what they are doing. They need to be enthusiastic about their product, their company, their service and themselves; in short they need to be enthusiastic about SELLING! An attitude is a powerful thing in sales, and is something that can be changed and can be improved. I’m tired of salespeople complaining about everything and looking for all sorts of excuses for not selling. The politics, the economy, the weather, the customer, the price, the leads and even in some cases, blaming their spouses for not achieving their sales targets. I’m’ tired of salespeople just not being enthusiastic about what they do.

There’s not much point being in sales unless you are enthusiastic about it! Most salespeople are just not proud of who they are and what they do.

As an example, retail sales staff are in most cases disinterested, unskilled and lazy.

They very seldom approach you when you walk into the store. And when you do eventually get someone to assist you, you get the feeling that they do not actually want to do this and are only doing it because they have to.

I am sure that you have had the experience before where you walk into a store to buy something and you ask the salesperson something specific like a delivery date or availability of a colour and they say “I don’t know, I’m just the salesperson here”.

“What do you mean, just the salesperson, you are the most important person in the store!”

You are the person who delivers on your companies’ promise of a good shopping experience.

If salespeople just believe that they are the most important person in the organization, if they just feel proud of serving customers, then everyone would benefit; them, their customer, their company and their families. When salespeople don’t feel proud of who they are and what they do then they start believing that being mediocre is acceptable and end up complaining about how tough it is to be a salesperson. To get out of this situation you need to improve your attitude.

Work on getting an “E.E.E” accreditation! (ENERGY, ENTHUSIASM AND EXCITEMENT)
Start believing that you are an important person; start believing that what you do is important, because if you don’t, no one else is going to, least of all the customer.
Interested in booking Ray for Training, a Keynote Presentation or as a Conference Speaker? Click Here.