Whenever you are going to sell something, be it yourself or for the company you work for, you will always meet objections. Things will not always go as smooth as one might hope and you will have to find new ways to convince your audience that you are offering quality.
What I have found to be the best approach is to think it over ahead of time.
What objections could they have? What could I reply? What reasons might they have to object? How to I turn that into an advantage? And so on.
By preparing this way you will be able to calmly and with focus answer any objection.
Since we usually sell the same products, as long as you don’t change company, you can do this exercise once and be pretty prepared for all future meetings.
These 8 complaints are the most regular I get in my industry. I have also listed our most used replies to each. I would love to hear your thoughts and the toughest complaints you face in your professional life.
1. Can you please send me something?
You cannot say no, you have to be okej with sending them information. Otherwise they will be questioning why you don’t want to send them something.
I have always felt this is a great way to get their personal information. You get their email address, promise to send something, but don’t hang up or leave. Keep on selling, you have promised to send them information, which makes them relax. You can now start asking them more questions about how they work today, how they would like things to work and what they think of your solution.
If you do this well, your customers will forget all about the promise of sending them information and you will be able to send them their confirmation at once, to the email they already provided.
2. I want to wait
Before you start replying to their objections you need to know why they want to wait. Once you know this you will be able to reply, with a reason not to wait. Since you know the benefits of your products and know why they should be using them now, instead of tomorrow, tell them that. Explain to them why waiting won’t serve their purpose.
3. I am not interested
Again, we first need to know why they aren’t interested. Once you have gotten the answer you can start a dialogue and build trust, turning their reasons not to buy into reasons to listen.
You will notice quickly that it is the same reasons that arise again and again to why your customers aren’t interested, prepare answers for each so that you can reply quickly and professionally to each objection.
4. I hate you
We salesmen are sadly often not treated like people. No one would say this off hand to a stranger they just met, but we salesmen meet it all the time.
Make sure to understand why they say it and try to explain that you aren’t there to trick them into anything, but to help them solve a problem.
5. I have no need
Of course they have no need, that is why they didn’t call you at once. They don’t know why they should use you, or they would.
Ask what they do today to solve the problem or confront the issue? Tell them how your product or service could do it any better.
You could also reply “Many of my customers said that before they had the chance to hear about the benefits our service provides. I am curious, have you thought about using this type of a service before?”
This will start a conversation giving you the chance to prove your point.
6. I use a different method
This will of course spark your interest; ask them what they do today, how it is working for them and so on. Compare it to your solution and see if you cannot prove that you have one that is superior.
7. I do not believe you provide quality
In this case I love to use referrals, saying something such as
“Many of my customers, for example X,Y and Z, said the exact before they had the chance to hear about the benefits our service provides. I am curious, have you thought about using this type of a service before?”
It works in most cases.
8. I am too busy
There are two different ways to approach this, either by asking when you can call back or getting them to talk about themselves. Whenever someone gets to talk about themselves, time issues vanish.
Asking questions like, “I am so sorry, I was just wondering, how you solve this problem today?” and then listening. Once they have explained, they will be open to your reply and the time issue will be gone.
These are the most common objections I meet in sales and how I usually handle them. Different industries will of course have very different objections and questions, but many are similar. Do you have any objections you could add to this list? Other replies? Mindsets? What works well for you and what doesn’t?
Please share with us in the commenting area below.
Photo Credit: The U.S. Army
