28. How to Identify Objections in Sales Conversations

Sales & Business Growth for Busy Women | Sales Skills, Marketing Strategy, Lead Generation, Time Management for Women in Business

Episode 28 - How to Identify Objections in Sales Conversations

Hello and welcome back to Sales & Business Strategy for Women Podcast where we talk all things Business Growth! If you are wanting to learn or uplevel sales skills, business growth strategies, and how to manage your time while doing it, you are in the right place!

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I’m Lindsay Fletcher, your host for Sales & Business Strategy for Women. I’m a mom, wife of 4, dog mom, Jesus follower and multiple six figure small business owner. If you haven’t already, please follow this show so that you don’t miss an episode!

In today’s episode, I discuss what sales objections are and how to identify them.

Many people view objections as points in the sales process where the prospect or customer says no. I hope to widen your view of objections. Objections are really anything that stalls or halts the sales process from closing. This could be the prospect’s or customer’s timeline, budget, their inability to make a decision, or their inability to move forward. They can also be hurdles that you will need to overcome. Many times the things that I just mentioned are actually smokescreens that people use to avoid high pressure salespeople.

Just a friendly reminder, that objections are buying signals, and they are signs that you have built trust with this prospect or customer. Until this person says no to you and or purchases from someone else, they are still in your pipeline. Objections are also not personal.

I was recently in a sales coaching session with a client where I identified that he wasn’t properly labeling objections in his mind during his sales conversations. He was categorizing actual objections from the customers as “just facts” about them. When we started the session, he told me that when a customer says that they have a timeline to purchase his product in 1.5 to 2 years, he was taking that as fact rather than an objection or an obstacle or smokescreen. I want you to start thinking of these types of “facts” as “objections”, because they are simply hurdles that might be able to be overcome rather than just facts.

Now, I understand that this could actually be their timeline and that their sale won’t actually close for 1.5 to 2 years. However, there is so much to be done in the meantime, and an excited buyer will often speed up their timeline if they are excited about the purchase, if they really really want it. Buyers will actually look for information that goes along with their want or need for your product or service so that they can convince themselves they should move up the timeline. Timeline is just one example of an objection or hurdle.

In my client’s industry, there is a significant timeline that they need to follow from the time the customer signs the contract until the time that they actually receive the product - somewhere between 10-12 months. And in his case, there is a lot to be discussed, choices to be made, and customization that takes place. So the particular customer that has a 1.5-2 year timeline isn’t actually too far off. There is a lot of selling and closing that can happen between now and the time of signing the contract and closing the sale. There is a lot of time to build a relationship. There is also pricing to lock-in. Again, don’t let something like a timeline detour you from going after the sale. Everything is changeable. Is that even a word? And when a customer wants something bad enough, I mean everything is changeable.

So now that you know what objections are and how to identify them in your conversations, I want you to go back through your recent sales conversations and identify the objections that you might have missed. This might give you a reason to follow up with this prospect or customer to learn more about their situation and objection(s). Use this to help you identify them better in the future so that you are prepared to handle these objections and move your sales process forward.

Thank you again for joining me for this episode of Sales & Business Strategy for Women! Please follow this show where you listen to podcasts so you don’t miss an episode!

XO,

Lindsay Fletcher

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Objection Handling | Sales Objection Identification | How to identify sales objections | Overcoming Objections | Sales Training for Women | Business Growth Strategies | Sales Skills Development | Business Coaching for Women | Women in Business | Sales Confidence | Entrepreneurship Tips | Client Relationship Management | How to Sell Services | How to Sell Products | How to Grow My Business