Personal Selling 4 Handling Objections How to use objections to your advantage in a sales presentation

Listen Before Responding Resist the temptation to respond immediately. Ask them to talk about it in more detail You can uncover all of their thoughts, both positive and negative, their hot buttons. Gives you something to work with. Now you can address all of their concerns. Encourage prospect to talk. Listen, Isolate, Clarify, Confirm. Then DISARM.

DISARM Remove negative attitudes and feelings May need to start early –Prospect won’t listen until objection resolved Avoid arguments and confrontations Keep discussion upbeat and positive “I can understand why you feel that way…” Maintain professional tone If you don’t completely understand the objection, ask customer to expound Like a minefield: locate, uncover, remove

Anticipation Before the meeting Put yourself in customer’s shoes Think about why they wouldn’t want to buy Prepare responses to each objection You can’t anticipate them all, but you can figure out almost all.

Understanding What is the reason behind the objection? Is it real or just a tactic? If real, is it something that you can address? Is it objection or rejection?

Don’t Handle Non-Objections A negative comment might not be an objection. (Volvos are boring.) No need to rise to deal with. Just “low-key” it. (Safety is boring. Or We have great engineers, not stylists.) Don’t create objections by talking too long, and not closing on cue. Know when to shut up.

Classify the Objection Function of customer’s perception. A valid objection is content based. –Factual, logical, may be in error Others are visceral, or relationship based. –Emotional, not rational Visceral objections are often smokescreens, excuses, or red herrings. Hard to deal with the visceral objections with logic. They keep on objecting.

Dealing with Visceral Objections DON’T! They are negative, no-win. Shift conversation away from relationship and toward facts and content. Try to address any loose ends (that may cause this reaction) at start of meeting. Don’t start with a dissatisfied customer. Feel/Felt/Found Response –won’t work in extreme cases

Turn Visceral Objection Around Shift focus to facts Address need –I have no time to see you. –That’s why you need to see me. I can save you time (an hour a day). Be careful of hidden visceral objections. Customer may say they prefer competitor for rational reason, but really prefer them because they’ve been working with them.

Dealing with Valid Objections: Denial NASA Photo of Da Nile

Valid Objections: Deny/Refute Usually straight-forward, factual, logical Move right into close from the objection Deny/Refute –Introduce new facts –Recast the facts in different light –Careful not to prove customer wrong –Just let them be more right If you can’t deny or refute, then yield

Valid Objections: Yield Make a disarming statement, and then yield Quickly acknowledge the customer’s objection and then immediately move on –Cite compensating benefits –Offset their objection with something more valuable Don’t get hung up on objection

Objection  Close Whether using denial (not de riva in Egypt), or yielding, use it as an opportunity to move directly to closing Once you have adequately addressed their issues, there is nothing in the way of them buying from you. “Yes, BiffCo does offer a lower sale price, but the lower maintenance costs of the BobCo makes it a better buy in the long run, doesn’t it? (Getting customer agreement!)

Move On After handling objections, move on with the presentation. Don’t get sidetracked. Don’t lose your momentum. Get on to the close, or at least get the presentation back on track. Let objections help to steer your presentation, but don’t let them derail you.