Objections Are Good
No, I’m not crazy. Objections are good. Very rarely will you find yourself in a sales presentation that the potential customer really has no objections. Sometimes they just yes you to death to get through it with no real intention of buying. So how do we bring these out the right way?
First, I find objections as a sign of a smart buyer. A buyer who has no questions or objections means 1 of 2 things:
- You talked way too much and didn’t ask the customer questions
- Very naive buyer who can’t say no
Neither of which are really a solid sales approach. From time to time you will have those customers that a piece of cheese could have sold. Those aren’t the kind of sales you should focus on as the reality of this is that this situation will rarely come around. A naive buyer will result in someone that will be calling you quite a bit after the sale is completed with questions and/or complaints.
Don’t fear objections, welcome them. It is a lot easier to handle objections early in the sales process rather than later. You can do this a variety of ways. The best is open ended questions. You can start with a direct question: Do you feel this would fit your needs? Don’t move on to closing, there might be other things.
- What about this product do you feel suits your needs?
Then build the value about that particular point. Ask them other questions: What else is important to you when selecting…?
The last thing you want is to find yourself near the end of the sales process fitting one need but missing 2 of the more important ones which will bring objections and they may arise at a time that is too late to save the sale.
Too many sales reps fear rejection and try to steer away from objections. Bringing out objections the customer has shows the customer that you actually care about what is good for them. Sometimes you will find that you saved a future sale or sales by not selling something the customer would not need by realizing their true objections.
Bringing out objections early in the sales process also will help keep false objections from coming up where the customer just makes up reasons not to buy. They feel comfortable with you and know they can share the real reasons they don’t feel comfortable with something and won’t feel pushed into something they don’t want to do.
So don’t try to bury customer objections, welcome them with open arms and you will find your relationship much stronger with the customer and will have built trust up. You may not have something that will fit what they need today, but you never know what the future will bring and you don’t want to miss future opportunities.