Are customer objections inevitable?

Are customer objections truly inevitable?

Some might tell you that they can be avoided with good prior work...

And maybe that happens sometimes, but experience shows us that even those objections we have anticipated and addressed eventually come up.

That's if we're not dealing with a "creative" potential customer who can come up with objections we hadn't even imagined on a sleepless night.

So, objections will appear, but your sales team can "guide" which ones will come up.

Without manipulating the customer, just by focusing on one thing or another.

OLD SCHOOL SELLERS

Imagine an "old school" salesperson.

One of those who approaches a potential client, qualifies them with a quick glance, and starts delivering their "standard pitch"...

Can you picture it?

It's easy; there are still many salespeople like that.

You might even have one or more on your team.

What will their "standard pitch" be about?

99.9% of the time, their "standard pitch" is about the virtues and features of the product or service they want to sell.

But the product is what it is, so, is the client going to argue about the product, which is as it is?

Usually, there's no option for that.

So, if the product doesn't convince them, they'll simply give a typical excuse, and that's it!

They will argue about the color, about the size (too big or too small), about energy consumption, about speed, about its price... about its price...

The salesperson won't learn much, except for a series of generic excuses and maybe a price discussion.

CONSULTATIVE SELLERS

Now let's imagine another type of salesperson, whom we'll call "consultative."

The salesperson approaches the client, makes an initial assessment, and then asks well-thought-out questions to delve deeper into qualifying the client.

Then they listen, connect the dots, get a clear idea of what needs improvement or solving, and validate their conclusion with the potential client.

The salesperson doesn't talk about their product but rather develops a solution for the problem and explains it (either then or in a subsequent meeting).

They focus on explaining how they will solve the client's problem, in what timeframe, what the client will get in return, and with what products or services they will resolve it.

What can the client object to?

About the product? Not really, it's not the main topic, the seller almost didn't talk about it yet..

About the price? But it hasn't even been discussed yet!

The objections will be about whether the solution is suitable, if the main benefit is sufficient, etc.

OBJECTIONS THAT HELP CLOSE THE SALE

The secret is that these are objections THAT HELP FINE-TUNE THE PROPOSAL.

We can incorporate them into the proposal, adjust the solution better, and present it again.

The client will see that their objections have been addressed and solved, and they might present others... which we will handle the same way.

There will come a moment when the client can only say, "Okay, what we just reviewed now works for me."

And then, only then, can we talk about the price and, if necessary, the products we'll use.

There will be some discussion about the price, of course, but under these circumstances, there's always less debate than with the "old school" seller.

ASK YOURSELF A FEW QUESTIONS

Now, as a manager, ask yourself a few questions:

• Which sales approach will usually yield better results?
• In which sales approach will there be more discussion about the price and therefore a lower final price?
• Which sales approach can generate more satisfied and loyal (thus, recurring) customers more frequently?
• To what extent are your sellers "old school" or "consultative"?

Be absolutely honest in your answers, because you might conclude that your team isn't taking full advantage of all the opportunities in front of them.

And that's precisely what we do at B2BEXPERTS.

We teach your team, your company, to work differently, with a clear and different method.

And, most importantly, we follow up to help them put it into practice (if they don't, what's the point?).

You know, B2BEXPERTS transforms B2B teams, who work with a method and achieve better results.

Get in contact with me and we can talk about your worries and what does your company need to dramatically improve results.

And, once you do so, also connect with me in Linkedin and subscribe this newsletter. It will be really useful for you!.

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