Objection Handling

Are you closing as many sales as you would like?  Are you making the money you think you should be making?  If not, there are only two possible reasons.  Either you are not getting in front of enough of the right people or too many people are telling you “No!”.   If the latter is where you find yourself, then keep reading.

Let me start by saying that this is not about how to overcome any objection.  Anyone who tells you they can teach you how to overcome an objection is misleading you.  You simply cannot overcome every objection nor should you. The real key is learning how to handle objections properly so you are more effective.  For example, have you ever had someone tell you “I am just not interested”, “it’s just not in the budget”, “we decided to go with someone else” or some other form of “No”?  In that moment, how did you feel?  Were you shocked?  Offended?  Hurt?  Did you get defensive?  Did you roll up your sleeves and settle in for a battle of wits and will?  Did you want to crawl in a hole? (i.e., head to Starbucks and not make any more sales calls for the day/week/month….EVER?)

The point is, the real problem with objections isn’t the objection itself but rather how we are affected by it and in turn respond to it.  It has been shown that a sales person who is negatively affected during a selling opportunity is twice as likely to fail to close their next opportunity as someone who has a positive experience.  In fact, nearly 30% won’t even attempt it.

Why does this happen?  Simply put, people take sales objections personally.  When this happens our natural tendency as human is to trigger an emotional response.  Have you ever heard an objection from a prospect and found yourself  getting flushed and hot, maybe a little nervous, or perhaps you even got angry…that is your emotions on the rise.  When emotions increase, it short circuits the part of your brain that thinks logically.  When your emotions go up, your intelligence goes down.  Sales people then either panic or they resort to the classic “value dump”.  It’s as if the prospect had said, “I’m obviously too dumb to understand the value of what you’re talking about so please convince me so I will see the light and say yes.”  Have you ever done this?  Tell the truth.

So how should you handle the objection?  The very first step is you must condition yourself to have a low emotional response to the objection.  Have you ever been given an objection that you completely blew at the moment (high emotional response), but thought of a great comeback 10 minutes later?  Why did that happen?  It’s because 10 minutes later, you were out of the heat and able to think (low emotional response).  The key is being able to do that in the moment.  By keeping your emotional response low, you will be able to engage your prospect clearly, discover the source of the objection, deal with the real objection, and maintain momentum in your day regardless of the outcome.  If you want to close more deals and make more money you simply must master this process.

Andy Lowe, SalesPartners-NorthPoint

For nearly two decades our team has worked with thousands of business owners, entrepreneurs and sales professionals just like you to help them increase their results by mastering the process of sales.  If you would like to more on this subject, join us for one of our Objection Handling practice sessions or schedule a time for us to come to your business and train your team on Objection Handling.  Contact SalesPartners-NorthPoint at (404) 277-2474 or through our website at  www.SalesPartnersNorthPoint.com

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