OVERCOMING OBJECTIONS

SALES TECHNIQUES BY SALES POWER SCHOOL®

What is objections in sales?

Objection is a reservation or doubt about something or someone. In English, objections are defined as 'expression and feeling disapproving, opposition to something'. Sometimes this term also means 'disliking something or someone' or 'formal protest and verbal disapproval of what has been said or happened'.

In direct sales, objections usually appear at different stages highlighted in the structure of the trade conversation. Sometimes they can occur even at the very beginning, as soon as we say hello to our interlocutor and briefly present the purpose of our conversation. They rarely appear during the closing of sales, which is usually a sign that we should resolve a particular customer doubt, because the lack of our response can result in a definitive refusal to buy.

The appearance of objections from the customer, otherwise referred to as reservations, can be caused by many factors, 11 of which I am presenting below:

- Too intrusive sales style.

Methods of communicating sellers with customers can repeatedly resemble an acrobatic style. Oh, how much I don't like when professional traders associate themselves with intrusive salesmen! Yes, it is the style of intrusive sellers that causes numerous negative reactions of customers. If you had been once recalled by typical merchants, then you would have known  what I'm talking about. Street sellers of various bizarre articles are a classic example of this – in their sales style, which is in fact a lack of any style, an intrusive monologue dominates, which means not asking questions, not listening to the customer, literally "pressing" him products by force. "Selling forcibly" causes counterproductive reactions. The more pressure we put on the customer, the more resistance we cause.

- Wrong time to conduct sales conversations

A professional seller should make commercial talks best when a potential buyer is ready to make a purchase decision. If He has not predetermined a purchase date, His response to our contact would be able to have many objections. As professionals, we should know and understand that there is not always a good time to raise issues related to the purchase of a new product or service. Any attempt to finalize sales can cause annoyance in our customers, and defeating their objections will not have the expected effect. Sales talks are best postponed for the future. In a word, the closer to the planned purchase date, the more the customer's willingness to talk increases.

- The existence of certain reasons that the customer does not want to tell us

Sometimes there may be some circumstances behind numerous objections that will never be disclosed by customers. It seems to us that we have used all of the known sales techniques (all discussed in this book), but at the end the customer has not decided to buy. Well, sometimes there may be some reasons that are not directly related to the subject of the trade conversation. Sometimes our interlocutor can establish some relationships with our competitors that go beyond the usual people-to-people acquaintances. They have often been built through some capital links and other liabilities that do not allow them to cooperate with the new company. As a rule, in such situations, customers do not want to comment too much about the reasons for their doubts and reluctance to buy, resorting to evasive answers.

- No funds to buy our product

Very often, a customer without certain financial resources will systematically weaken our sales presentation, accusing our product and our company of many flaws. It is not uncommon for the seller himself to address all sorts of verbal blasphemy. In many cases, this is simply a sign of not having enough financial resources.

- No feeling of need to buy

Objections of this kind seem to reflect strictly  the quality of the trade conversation. A salesperson who does not research needs at the first stage of a sales conversation often tries to push the customer to buy further, completely unaware that the reasons for such a situation is, that he can search in his sales style.

- No seller-customer relationship

- No reaction to what the customer says

- The customer can tell us untruths

-The Customer uses certain verbal licks to weaken the seller

- Customer not in accordance with the sales strategy

- Negative attitude of the customer towards the seller.

One of the most important techniques for dealing with reservations is
TO SHOW OUR UNDERSTANDING TO THE CUSTOMER

Therefore, there is recommended to use such as phrases:

"I understand You"
"In Your place, I would certainly feel the same"
"If I were you, I would feel the same"
"I am not surprised that You are reacting in this way, at all "
"Like You, I would feel similar emotions in this situation"
"If it had happened to me, I would have certainly reacted even more negatively"

Another technique for neutralizing objections, as soon as understanding and respect is shown, is asking open ended question.

Examples:

Customer:
"I have had a bad experience in working with companies offering similar products"

Stage 1. Showing understanding for customer choices

Seller: "I understand You. Many of my current customers have had similar concerns, that similar situations could happen again.”

Stage 2. Open question for customer objections:

Seller: "What really happened in your situation? "
Seller: "What specific promises and needs remained uncovered? "

More information you will find in book:"The art of selling in practice: practical training guidebook" was written by Krzysztof Czupryński