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Usually feared, sometimes ignored, objections are going to come your way. If you’re properly trained on handling objections the RIGHT way, you’ll know longer have an issue with them.
The Two Ways to Beat Objections!
There are two fundamental strategies to deal with or ‘beat’ objections: 1) “Pre-beating” the objection(s) or 2) “Post-beating” the objection(s)
Pre-Beating Objections
Without a doubt, the BEST way to handle objections any EVERY CASE is to bring the potential or ‘most likely’ objections up FIRST in your presentation. Most sales people will tell you that they normally receive the same types of objections, and our sales cycle automatically is built to deal with the Qualifying and Procrastination which will usually surface in EVERY sales presentation.
The psychology of bringing up the objection first is that through my experience, WHOEVER BRINGS UP THE OBJECTION FIRST USUALLY WINS! I can’t honestly say why this is true, but IT WORKS time and time again. Let’s use a non-sales related example. If you’re on a trip with your spouse or a friend, and you know he or she doesn’t necessarily like talk shows on the radio, then you can handle this two ways. First, you can go ahead and dial the Rush Limbaugh show and watch as your partner starts to exhibit disgruntlement, or two, you can ‘pre-beat’ this disgruntlement or objection by bringing it up first by saying, “I know you might be in the mood for music, but if you don’t mind, I’d really appreciate it if you could find it in your heart of hearts to let me listen to Rush for a little while. It will help keep me awake. You could even take a nap if you want, then I PROMISE, later, you can have complete control of the dial!” Now, by bringing it up first, what’s your partner going to say! Unless his or her ‘will’ is so great that they steam-roll you, you have a GREAT chance of proceeding to listen to Rush without meeting much or any resistance!
This is EXACTLY how it works in sales too!
If your product is high-priced, BRING IT UP FIRST! “Joe, I know we’re not the cheapest out there! But like Terry was telling me at ABC company, you know there are obvious reasons why you wouldn’t want to settle on the cheapest thing in the world! You get what you pay for!”
If the economy is bad, “You know Joe, I was talking to Terry about how the economy’s been sluggish, which is why she chose to move forward with this now, since interest rates are flexible and she thought that having the XYZ product would give her a competitive edge while all her competitors have slithered into their ‘safety cave.’!
Whatever the common objections you normally receive, don’t be hesitate to BRING THEM UP FIRST! In fact, at our company, we even built a ‘mini-sales talk’ to handle about 10 of the most common objections within a 45 to 60 second time
interval- for example:
“You know Joe, there are probably five or six reasons Terry, Bob, and Mike all went forward with our XYZ product. First of all, they all wanted to invest in a product that would last, and that was backed up with by a great company! So sure, we’re not the cheapest, but hey, you get what you pay for! Especially in these tougher economic times- Terry was telling me how now was probably the best time to move forward while rates are low. And she felt now was the time to move forward while all her competitors were living in fear! Another reason I’m doing well is that the XYZ is built for small to medium sized companies! I guess the larger company’s sometime miss out on great products like this! Then there’s always the fact that companies like Terry’s really enjoy investing in products now to save them a ton of time later, even though it might mean an investment in time and training. And finally, everyone’s telling me that their customers will really enjoy having the benefit of utilizing a product like XYZ, especially in smaller communities like yours!
In the above example, I just ‘pre-beat 4 or 5 major objections!
The two biggest objections that our sales cycle automatically attempts to pre-beat are the two BIGGEST SALES KILLERS OF ALL TIME: 1) Qualifying your decision maker, and 2) pre-beating the procrastination objection or ‘de-procrastinating your decision maker.’ If you don’t MAKE SURE you deal with these upfront, they almost ALWAYS come back to get you! (see Presentation- Qualifying and Procrastination.)
You can even ‘pre-beat’ small objections on the fly like, “I know your busy Ted, but…” or “I know you just purchased a similar item like this last year but…” or to the secretary, “I know Mr. Smith never sees sales people, but….”
Now everyone gets ‘burnt’ by objections brought up ‘after the fact,’ and nobody’s perfect enough to ‘pre-beat’ EVERY objection in EVERY presentation. So when someone brings up an objection that you weren’t expecting, you still have a shot!
Post-Beating Objections
When someone brings up an objection that you hadn’t previously covered, all you have to do is use ‘Feel, Felt, Found’ to give you a shot at ‘post-beating the objection
Feel, Felt, Found
Here’s how it works. Once someone brings up the objection, use third-person selling to ‘post-beat’ it! Using our radio example from earlier, say you go ahead and put Rush Limbaugh on the radio and your friend says, “Come on, you know I don’t like talk radio.” Instead of saying, “O.K.,” try this: “Well Mike, I know how you FEEL, another friend of mine, Terry, doesn’t really like talk radio either. But what Terry found was by letting me listen to my show, it really helped me stay awake, and besides- she actually started to not mind the talk show stuff so much!”
Another example. Say your prospect brings up the price objection after the fact and says, “Bill, I really like the XYZ, but it seems to be a pretty expensive item.” You can then say, “ Mike, I know how you feel. Terry over at ABC FELT the same way. But when she really started thinking about it, she FOUND that in the long run, it more than paid for itself when you consider ‘down-time,’ replacement parts for CHEAP units, and the possibility of working with a company that sells cheaper stuff- ARE THEY REALLY GOING TO BACK UP THEIR PRODUCTS? Like Terry said, I guess you get what you pay for!”
Now, obviously the feel, felt, found method is not as strong as pre-beating the objections to begin with, and you have to make certain that you have name-based rapport that makes sense to your prospect. And NEVER mislead or lie to your prospect. (We also discuss in other parts of this manual the issue of confidentiality- use your head!)
But at least now you know about the two standard ways to handle objections, all you have to do is give them a try. YOU’LL DEFINITELY LIKE THE RESULTS!
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