Handling Objections in Sales

Top Secrets of Marketing & Sales

Each time we’re handling objections in sales, we should get better at it. Every sales call you have, every objection you ever receive, if you’re able to document the primary questions and objections and concerns that you get, and you can properly document your best responses to that — the ones that have gotten you the best results — now you build up an arsenal of material that allows you to stage those responses up front, make them part of the presentation, part of the reason to buy from you rather than your competitor.

David: Hi, and welcome back. In today’s episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will discuss why salespeople struggle handling objections in sales. Welcome back, Jay.

Jay: Hey, thank you, David. Another great discussion. I feel like we get into just kind of the same old responses, or we feel like at the first rejection, “Oh, that’s a no. So I move on to the next person.”

David: Yeah, I give up when in fact, most objections indicate interest. And sometimes salespeople forget this. A lot of them know it and they forget it, but some don’t even realize it.

They think, okay, if they object, they don’t like it. They don’t want it. They reject me. They hate me. All these types of things. Most of which are not true. And maybe none of them are true.

But when somebody objects or raises some sort of objection to what you say, it means, “okay, you have me interested enough to ask the question. Otherwise I would say, no, not interested at all. Thanks.”

So that’s one important aspect of it, is that if you struggle handling objections in sales, part of it might just be your mindset. If you believe that an objection means non-interest, then you kind of shoot yourself in the foot to start out with.

Jay: Yeah, such a great point. I think you have to convert your thinking a little bit and look at rejection or questions as an opportunity.

This is kind of side thing, but you know, in the restaurant business where I started out, people were always afraid of customer complaints. And I always felt like these are an opportunity. They create an opportunity to build loyalty because none of us expect anybody to be perfect. Well, some people do, and some people you can’t please, right?

But they do expect you to resolve it. And so, I always felt like if I can really resolve this situation well, I build loyalty. Because they know that if they come here, they will be treated well. And I think rejections are the same depending on how you handle them.

David: Yeah, no question. And what you talk about, rejections, especially if it’s after they’ve received the service, right? If you come to a restaurant and you had a bad experience, that’s an after the fact, then it’s remedial. You have to fix that.

In a sales situation, they haven’t tried the food yet, right? So this is up front, this would be like, well, why should I even come into your restaurant in the first place? And that’s where you’ve got to be able to have your messaging dialed in to the point where it makes such perfect sense for them to choose the right option, as far as you’re concerned. To come into the restaurant or to take advantage of whatever it is that you offer, that they will give you a shot.

So when people struggle handling objections in sales, in some cases, it’s that they haven’t documented the objections they’ve gotten in the past. And if you don’t come up with answers, to the things that come up again, and again, and again, that is really a bad sign.

I’ve seen this recently on TV. I try never to talk politics on this podcast, but sometimes people ask the same question over and over and they never come up with a good answer to it.

Jay: Yeah.

David: And that doesn’t make sense. What you need to be able to do when you sell yourself, when you sell your business, when you sell an idea, is you need to be able to identify what are the most common questions I get?

What are the most common complaints or objections that I get about the possibility of doing whatever it is that I would like to have you do as a result of what I sell?

And If you got that objection once and you didn’t have an answer, okay, it gives you sort of an excuse. But then if you don’t come up with an answer, and you don’t have the right answer for that the second time it’s asked, now it’s not a matter of not knowing. Now it’s a matter of negligence.

Jay: Yeah, I totally agree with you. You’ve got to keep track of those types of things and you’ve always got to adjust your pitch and your sales calls and those kind of things we talk about that a lot in this podcast, but David, I think that how you respond in those first seconds to the question or to the rejection is more important than your actual response.

I see this. I experience it. Before I finish expressing the concern, they jump in with a pre-packaged, “oh, you said A, so on my flow chart, that means go to C.”

And for me, that tells me instantly this person doesn’t care about me. They’re not interested in my concerns.

So to me, when you listen And respond to what is said is much more important than the follow up line, because that shows to them this person cares.

David: No question. And that’s sort of the other side of the equation, where you have some objections that come up and they indicate interest, and then there are other objections that come up that indicate I targeted the wrong person.

Some questions that come up are disqualifiers, because if they immediately go to antagonistic responses and negativity, and if it starts going down a spiral, that can, in many cases, tell you that you’re dealing with the wrong person. You’re dealing with someone who is unqualified to buy from you.

And ideally the way that you can handle those types of objections is make sure that you’ve qualified people correctly upfront so that the conversation you’re having is with rational people who are actually good prospects for the products and services you offer.

Jay: Yeah, I think that’s important. I’ll just give you an example.

I’m on the phone all the time. You know, this, I can’t tell you how many people who, I get, who have spoken to my competitors and after they speak with me, they use this phrase. They say, “thank you for listening.”

And that to me, is powerful because when you’re on a call with somebody and they don’t feel like they’re being listened to, it’s such a difference.

So that’s how I know I’ve built a relationship. I haven’t just finished a sales call.

David: Yeah. And there’s also the element of preempting this type of thing. Because if you’re able to address the most commonly asked objections, before they come up as a question, you’re far better off.

So each time we do this, we should get better at it. Every sales call you have, every objection you ever receive, if you’re able to document the primary questions and objections and concerns that you get, and you can,properly document your best responses to that, the ones that have gotten you the best results.

Now you’re building up an arsenal of material that’s going to allow you to stage that stuff up front, make that stuff part of the presentation, part of the reason to buy from you rather than your competitor.

And it doesn’t matter what the objection is. I mean, if it’s a pricing objection, if it’s a speed of service objection, or not even an objection, if it’s a question, they’re saying, “Hey, well, you seem to be more expensive. Why is that the case?”

You want to make sure that your answer to that question is the reason that they should choose you rather than not. You don’t want to be operating from a position of defending your position. “Well, yeah, we’re a little more expensive, but we’re really good. And we really try harder.”

I mean, I guess try harder worked well for the car company that used that as a mantra for a lot of years. But for the rest of us, that usually doesn’t work. You need to be able to say, well, “yes, we’re more expensive. And here’s why. It’s because we provide this and they don’t. it’s because we provide that and they don’t.”

And provide all the best reasons for why, even though, yeah, it’s a little more expensive, they will get so much more in value that it’s the reason they should buy from you rather than not buy from you, as opposed to saying, well, yeah, we are more expensive. I understand if you want to keep it cheap.

And that’s, a problem among salespeople is that if they’ve got their own mental ticks about what is acceptable in terms of price and what isn’t, then they can let some of that creep over into the conversation.

So make sure that you’re really all over your messaging on that is going to be huge.

Jay: Yeah. So powerful. I have to tell you, I do, eight to 10 consultations a day. Very rarely will you surprise me with a question that I haven’t heard. And so you’re exactly right. Over time, I have developed a way to deal with a lot of those questions up front. And what’s interesting is that tells people that I know them and I know the situation, right?

It immediately establishes me as the expert. And if they can see me as an expert, they’re like, “wow, this guy’s speaking to me.”

Well, no, actually, I know everybody, in your similar niche. I, have learned that this is what you need and what you’re looking for. So it really positions you well.

David: It does. And all the things that we talk about in these podcasts flow into exactly what you just said about positioning you as the expert.

Because if you identify the right methods of first contact that suit your personality, suit your approach, and suit the people that you contat… if you utilize those methods of first contact, or if you anticipate the objections that most often come up, turn them into reasons to buy instead of not to buy and build those into your presentation upfront, you can not only eliminate those objections before they come up, you can use them as a reason to get people enthused about buying from you.

So a lot of it is strategic, but it’s also day-to-day, task oriented, identify what are the things they say, and how can I build this into my process, build this into my standard operating procedure, so that this particular objection that I’ve gotten more than once is not likely to trip me up down the road.

Jay: Yeah, very good. And they also teach me what to ask. There are certain questions that I ask that tell them instantly that I know what I’m talking about, right?

So sometimes it’s not necessary to just dive in and spill all the information. I know now that if I ask them a certain question, they’re like, okay, if this guy asked me that, he really knows my industry.

Cause that’s a very unique question, right? So sometimes you don’t want to just spill it up front, but be strategic in what you ask.

David: Yeah, it’s an excellent point. We don’t always have to immediately answer the question because if somebody is asking us or fielding an objection, that seems like it’s about to derail the sale, we may need to find out how important that is to the person.

Because sometimes people ask us questions or they will initiate an objection and they don’t even really care about the answer. So sometimes if they ask a question like that, and it doesn’t seem relevant to what you’re talking about, you can say, well, how important is that to you? I know that I’ve had conversations with people where I’ve said that and they’re like, yeah, you know what? That’s really not all that important.

It’s like, okay, well then you don’t have to address it at all. Some people are hesitant to ask things like that, but when you’re engaged in conversation instead of monologue, it’s a lot easier to be able to ask those kinds of questions, have honest conversations that have integrity to them and then advance the sale and help the people that you’re there to help.

Jay: Yeah, I love that. If you can make it feel like a conversation, you’ve won.

David: If it’s good conversation, yeah. Not just feel like it, actual conversations, right?

Jay: That’s right. That’s right. David, how do people find out more?

David: Go to TopSecrets.com/call. Check out the video on that page. If it makes sense to have a conversation with myself or my team, we’d love to have that conversation. So many times we get stopped in our tracks by things that should not stop us in our tracks. When you have procedures and processes that allow you to blow through those bottlenecks, it has an incredible impact on your ability to serve more people, to sell to more people, and to provide your solutions to more of the people who need that solution right now.

Jay: Yeah, so true. David, as always, it’s a pleasure.

David: Thank you so much, Jay.

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