When it comes to building a sales process, objections are inevitable. Every person you speak with will have questions or reservations about the product or service you offer. If they didn’t, they would have already bought from you.
Objections shouldn’t stop you in your tracks. Objections are an opportunity. They are a request for more information and a signal to you that the buyer is engaged.
The opportunity for more information comes from the fact that a lot of objections are just misunderstandings. The prospect doesn’t fully understand your integration with their other software products or they don’t understand the value they’ll get. Typically, you can work through these types of objections by reviewing some aspects of your product or service and ensuring they’re clear on exactly what you do.
But what about the other kinds? The kinds where a prospect says “you’re too expensive” or “your product doesn’t do XYZ.”
Those are different kinds of objections that you can often solve with more information. This objection is potentially giving you feedback on how to improve your product or service in the long run. If you’re doing an excellent job of gathering this information from prospective clients, you can start to look for patterns in what they’re saying.
The key to being successful is to learn how to uncover and resolve objections quickly and effectively. At this point, you can greatly benefit from sales consulting. There is nothing worse than letting an objection go unaddressed through the sales process. The faster you isolate the objection and resolve it, the quicker your prospect can let go of the objection and move into a buyer’s mindset.
There are four steps you can follow to help your buyer feel more at ease:
1. Listen to the Objections
Listening is key. When trying to surface objections through the sales process, the buyer will often provide what’s known as a false objection. They might say that they don’t have the budget when what they really object to is the product or their trust in you.
Don’t get defensive or try to provide solutions right away. Give your prospect space and allow them to share all of their concerns freely while you practice your active listening skills to take in what they are saying.
2. Acknowledge what you heard.
Once the prospect has expressed their concern, take a moment, and repeat back what you heard to ensure you understand what they’re saying. This is an important step as not only does it clarify their points, but it helps the prospect to feel heard and valued. All of this enables you to build trust.
3. Make a statement to validate their concerns.
Once you’ve confirmed that you understand where your prospect is coming from, you can continue to build trust by empathizing with your prospect and validating their point of view.
For example, if you are selling a marketing automation software and your prospect is wary that making a switch will cause confusion or their worried data could be lost in the transition, you could say, “I understand, changing platforms can feel daunting. Thankfully, we have an incredible tech support team who has experience working with similar organizations, and can handle a seamless transition for you.”
When you respond by acknowledging that their concern is valid while offering a solution, you can mitigate their fears and increase trust.
4. Ask a follow-up question
Once you hear an objection, you must keep things moving. If you’ve followed the steps up until this point, you still might feel your prospect pulling away. Use follow-up questions as a way to keep them engaged and dig a little deeper to uncover any additional roadblocks.
Remember that each sale is different, so even though you might think you understand what your prospect needs, you still need to bridge the gap to their desired outcome. Use open-ended questions to uncover a need and dig deeper with at least three additional questions to find the why behind that need. Allow your prospect to do 75% of the talking as they will use that time to open up and reveal pain points you can help solve.
Remember, the more information they provide, the more you have to work with to potentially turn the sale around. In this video, Vice President of Sales for Cultivate Advisors, Nicole Gallop, demonstrates how to handle objections both offensively and defensively.
Adding this tactic to your sales process can help you uncover your buyer’s needs and start closing more deals. If you’re not sure where to start or need more help with your sales process, you don’t have to go at it alone. Schedule a free two-hour sales consulting session with Cultivate Advisors to dig into your business.
