Don Dennison

The Sales Cycle: Point # 5 Handling Objections, Part I



Posted: Sunday, November 05, 2006

by
One Cup International consulting Group



In the next three articles, let’s review in detail, how to handle customers’ objections. How do you deal with objections? Here are three strategies that you can put into immediate use, that will make your potential customers’ objections work for you, rather than against you.

1. See the objection as a question:

If the salesperson sees the objection “your price is too high" as an attack, the natural tendency would be to defend your price. This puts the potential customer and the salesperson in an attacker/defender relationship, a difficult relationship in which to gain respect and trust from the potential customer. However, if the salesperson mentally changes this objection into a question, “ Why are your prices so high?," he can proceed to explain his price to the prospect. This puts the two of them into a client/consultant relationship, which is a much stronger position for the salesperson.

2. Turn the objection into a reason for buying:

 If the salesperson can show the potential customer that whatever the objection is, it is actually the reason to buy, he will effectively defuse the objection. For example, if the prospect says, “your price is too high," the salesperson counters with “that’s the very reason you should buy. Our prices are an indication of the value you will be getting from our company. And you do want value for your dollar, don’t you?" This causes the potential customer to view prices as a matter of value rather than a matter of dollars, and this makes his or her buying decision easier to make.

3. Smoke out all-important objections:

 If you feel the potential customer has some reason for not using your product or service that he or she hasn’t stated, simply ask him or her what it is. After the person tells you, ask if that is the only reason he or she isn’t buying. If he or she says “no," you continue asking until all the objections are out in the open. If he or she says that is the only objection that they have, then ask if you were to eliminate that objection, would you buy? This is the question that you need a “yes" answer to, in order to continue. Once you have the yes, the prospect is committed to buying, if you successfully eliminate the buyer’s one objection. Now you can focus your sales presentation on this one point, and once you’ve cleared it up, you have the sale.



Let me close with a tongue twister written by a friend, Richard Miller, who now works for Starbucks Corporation, as Regional Sales Manager in California. I quote “The facts, the reasoning from the facts, and the conclusion arrived at from the reasoning: To understand the objection, you have to know all three." You come to your own conclusion.

In the next article, we will look at four more points of Handling Objections.

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