subject: Tips For Handling Customer Objections [print this page] Client objections form part of the normal selling process, as any sales training expert will tell you. Indeed, even experienced salespeople have to overcome client objections. Whilst there may be many forms in which a customer objection is phrased, the three common themes that result in objections being raised are: 1) The client does not see the benefits of the sales proposal, or 2) the client wanting to pretend that the solution is not quite suitable so they can negotiate for more, or 3) the salesperson's way of presenting was poor. In this last situation the sales talk did not convince the client because it somehow did not meet their real needs.
Even the best sales professional has to face objections as part and parcel of their daily sales job. Whilst I wouldn't be so bold as to say that you can win them all, the tips that follow will give you a much higher chance of getting around the objection and securing the business.
Sales people - especially those with a strong technical background - will often overload the customer with the jargon of their industry. Whilst the jargon sounds impressive, if your customer doesn't understand it then you will be hindering the sales case. The cure for this ailment is for the sales manager to emphasise to all customer contact staff the importance of imparting all company information in customer friendly terminology. The term "Features and benefits" should be replaced with "Benefits and features", which will guarantee that customers and prospects hear what they want to hear.
Professional buyers want to secure the best deal they can get and they are very good at doing this. Consequently, they will raise a number of objections whose sole aim is to squeeze the sales person for an additional one, two, or three percent discount.
The professional buyer may articulate the objection as "too expensive", in which case the sales person must establish the underlying meaning. It could mean that the customer doesn't have enough budget; they are comparing the sales proposal to another proposal supplied by a rival supplier; or they don't perceive the proposal as offering sufficient value for money. Faced with this, the salesperson must uncover the customer's thought process and then justify their asking price by presenting the benefits, which represent the basis for that price in the first place.
Alternatively, the professional buyer may inform the salesperson that their offer isn't really quite right for them, but as they've been so nice in dropping by, what would be the best package that they could offer? I have heard sales training experts refer to this as the "Red Herring" technique, where the sales person's attention is deflected away from the real issue - the desire for a better deal - to a made up situation of non-conformity with client requirements. You can certainly anticipate the result.
The best method to manage this type of scenario is to constantly search for positive client feedback. If the customer has been signaling approval of the proposal as the call has been progressing, it is much more difficult psychologically to raise an objection of this nature when asked to commit to an order. I like to use the example of a motor boat, passing through a number of lock gates. After each gate is closed water fills the lock raising the boat to a higher level. It's just the same with customer feedback - every tiny "yes" that is said makes the last "yes" more of a formality, rather than a key buying decision.
Lastly, we have the objection that is raised when the salesperson trying to close the deal, but when the customer really hasn't been persuaded. The key to getting around this type of objection is to prevent it occurring in the first place. The salesperson must discover completely what the customer's needs are. Do they want to minimise accidents? Reduce inventory? Speed up order processing? Are they genuinely under margin pressure, and looking to reduce costs? Unless the underlying buying motivations are discovered by the salesperson, the chances of successfully closing the sale are minimal. As sales training experts tell us: It's futile selling your product or service on price, if quality is the main concern of the customer!
