Objections making you freeze?

Sales reps are always telling me about objections the clients are throwing at them.

So, I want to discuss the psychology behind roadblocks, obstacles and objections in general.

Your client is going to have questions

They may show up as objections, inquisitiveness, bluntness, rudeness, obstacles – they may show up in them not returning your call or replying to your email.  In most part they show up by the client not doing business with you.  This should all be par of the course and absolutely none of this should annoy or upset you, it is part of the process of your development and part of your evolution to read the signals and understand where your client is at.

Lets start at the beginning, how to set yourself up so that the objections are minimal.

Set yourself up:

1. Doing comprehensive due diligence over that meeting prep – frankly you should be aware off and have answers to, every possible roadblock you think will come up – so ensure you have done thorough meeting prep.
2. In your weekly sales meetings you need to have covered every objection out there, you should know why it comes up and what to do about it.
3. When it comes to the meeting you need to ensure your intent is to understand your client. Not Sell at them. Most reps are ‘inward focused’ i.e they turn up and do a ‘spray and prey’ spraying the client with all the reasons (features and benefits) they should do business with them. What you need to be doing is less talking and more listening.
   Carefully thought out intelligent questions should prompt your client to discuss their needs, wants desires and here is the clincher –  whilst they are talking you are getting information.

How to ensure the objections are minimal or taken take off

1. Your client, when asked the right questions, will be telling you all you need to know about where their headspace is in.
2. You need to be absolutely present and recognising the clients knowledge of the problem, their beliefs around the possible solutions on offer and what they say and how they say it.
3. You are hearing they think you are better, worst than the competitor. They think your product ‘A’ does a, b, c when in fact it does d, e, f… you hear what they have tried before, what worked, what didn’t work and crucially what they THINK will work and why.

How to educate your client

This is down to practice, tone and intent.
You need to have practiced educating a client that’s open to being informed, one that isn’t open, one that has an ego over being right, one that thinks they know it all already, one that will be blind sided when you point out how your solution is in-fact different to what they think.
The key with ‘presenting’ /’educating’ and ‘informing’ is to do so from a place of care. Be ‘beside’ them – as a partner who is genuinely interested in them having the right solution.
So, read the signals and pick your timing.  Great opening lines may be ‘I’m so glad you have shared that, with xyz you do get that extended warantee, its 10 years…’ basically you avoid saying ‘I’m sorry to say’,  ‘you are incorrect’ or ‘you are wrong’.

What to do

Help your team by coaching them on all the objections that come up, start a easily accessible document so that the team can practice, be armed and confident