Sales killer: Objections

Article by: Dr Hussein Saad: Sales Mastery Program

Sales Training Fails to Teach the Vital Skill of Handling Objections

If you visualize the overall skill set of salespeople as a chain that connects sellers to buyers, one of the weakest links in that chain is the ability to handle objections.

The latest research has found that 64% of salespeople fail to close. Since 64% fail to ask for commitment that means that the percentage of salespeople who can’t 90% of salespeople are handle objections must be even higher—because you won’t even hear a customer’s objection unless you ask for the business. As a matter of fact, data have shown that more than 90%   of salespeople are ineffective at uncovering and then resolving objections.

This is a BIG problem! Since objections are present in most selling situations, it’s no wonder so many salespeople aren’t hitting quota.

When we take a deeper look at the problem, again based on research, it becomes clear why such a large percentage of salespeople fail to deal with objections, despite the huge sums spent on sales training: The objection-handling techniques taught by most sales training companies are extremely wrong. And, I'm talking about well-known training outfits, those that share the Top 20 Sales companies. In this white paper, I'll give you a number of reasons why sales training companies fail to teach effective methods for dealing with objections. And, I'll describe in detail what research demonstrates is the only right way to improve your sales team's effectiveness at the vital skill of handling objections.

 Companies and Sales people Blame the INTERNET:

 One of the prestigious sales training companies I mentioned seems to want to blame every sales challenge on the existence of the internet. In the case of objections, they say that because the internet gives customers access to more information, your customers develop inaccurate perceptions of your solutions or come to believe that other solutions might be better than yours.

As if neither of these perceptions were present before the internet existed.

The thinking is that because of the internet, salespeople today face more objections. Even if this were the case, it's not the heart of the problem.

The reality is, regardless of the quantity of objections, salespeople are not being taught the proper methods for avoiding or resolving them.

 It’s time to wake up

 I would say that the birth of the modern "sales force" took place about 150 years ago. The Industrial Revolution created innovations in manufacturing that allowed companies to mass-produce products. Once we started to build inventories of products, we needed a sales force to create demand, negotiate sales, and compete with other companies' products.

 I've been around the selling world for about 25 of those 150 years, and the way most salespeople are taught to handle objections hasn't changed much during that time tenure. In the course of my research on the sales training field, I've read more than 500 books on selling. Almost every one of them addresses the topic of objections and describes methods for dealing with them. The techniques taught by the masters of selling 40 years ago are very similar to those being advocated by many of the top players in sales training today.

When I was a new sales rep, I was taught several interesting techniques for handling objections. Does anyone of you "Feel, Felt, Found" Method?

"I know you feel that way"----- "Other people felt that way until they found that we are xxxxxx"

It didn't work then, and doesn't work now. But, if it sounds familiar, that might be because you heard something very much like it in a sales training course you attended last week.

Another example is by Zig Ziglar who taught us that" If you don't encounter "objections during your presentation, you do not have a prospect"

-- Objections are an expression of interest."

Many of today's Top 20 sales trainers say the same thing. Here are direct quotes from three of them:

I've often suspected that sales trainers repeat this stuff just to give their audience a ray of hope.

 They tell us the following:

 1. Listen. This sounds perfectly logical. But, isn't listening something you should have been doing during the entire sales conversation? It seems ridiculous to me that "listen" would be the first suggestion for handling an objection.

 2. Question. I totally agree with this. You'll see why when I give you my definition of an objection. The problem with the advice that most sales trainers dole out is that it doesn't provide enough direction about what kinds of questions can either avoid or resolve the objection. Ask questions? Swell. But, which questions should we ask?

 3. Respond. Here's where one Top 20 trainer, in particular, goes off the rail with psychological mumbo jumbo. I don't mind hearing a little about the psychology of selling, but please follow it up with something practical that we can actually do.

 4. Confirm. This involves asking the customer if you've satisfied the objection. I can't argue with the need to do this.

But, the objective of every customer contact must be to gain agreement to move forward to the next stage in the sales process. Confirming that you handled the objection doesn't necessarily move the sale to the next stage.

You still must Ask for a Commitment to do that. Unfortunately, none of these trainers remember to mention that.

These methods simply don't provide salespeople with enough power and tools to consistently resolve or avoid objections.

 One of the biggest problems with training from many of the top sales training companies is that their objection-handling methods don't fit comfortably within the selling systems they promote. Their solutions are essentially veiling to hide the real problem and detours.

And, don't we all hate detours? You're driving along the road and-Oh-oh!-here comes the detour sign. Turn off the route you're following, zigzag around for a while, and hope that you wind up back on the road you want. There ought to be a way to handle objections that allows you to stay on the path to gaining a sale. No detours!

 The difference between Stall & Objection:

 When you ask for commitment during a sales conversation and you don't get a positive response, you often will hear what is commonly called a stall or an objection. Every other sales training company I know treats stalls and objections as if they were the same thing. That's dead wrong. It's important to distinguish between them because they are not the same.

 An objection comes when there is a specific reason why your prospect does not intend to buy from you yet. The reason always relates to one of the five buying decisions that every customer makes in the course of every major sale:

 An objecting customer might challenge you on your price. Or they might be more sold on a competitor's company or salesperson. Or they might question the need to own the product you are offering. While an objection relates to a specific buying decision, a stalling customer does not have a specific reason for declining to make a commitment. Stalls may sound different, but they all mean the same thing: "I'm not quite sold yet; I need you to sell me some more."

Is it a Stall or an Objection? 

 Again, every other sales training company puts stalls and objections into the same Bucket and suggests that salespeople deal with them using the same techniques. This is dead wrong. It's no wonder most salespeople can't handle either a stall or an objection successfully.

 How to Handle a Stall

 Because your prospect does not have a specific reason for stalling, it is never appropriate to challenge a stall. For example, when a customer tells you he wants to think it over, do not say something like: "What do you mean you want to think about it?" or, "What exactly do you want to think over?"

Challenging a stall pushes the customer to think up reasons why he is hesitating. If a customer has no specific reason for stalling, your challenge forces him to come up with one. This can create a conflict.

Once he gives you a reason, he will be inclined to defend it. This can create a conflict and apply pressure on the prospect. We want to avoid conflict, especially when we are trying to gain commitment. We want to use persuasion, not pressure.

I said above that all stalls mean the same thing: "I'm not sold yet; sell me some more." The correct response to a stall is to give customers exactly what they are asking for: Sell them some more. The way to do this is to connect a capability that you haven't presented yet to a need that you know your customer has. Begin with a statement that will Tie-Back to the need.

Present the solution (Feature) and the Benefit the customer will receive from it. Then ask an open-ended question to determine how well the capability hits the mark.

In Action Selling they call this a TFBR (Tie-Back, Feature, Benefit, Reaction).

When the customer’s response to your reaction question is positive, Ask for Commitment to move the sales process forward. I have created a Universal stall Breaker. This is a capability to which virtually all customers respond positively.

When you handle a stall properly and then ask for a commitment to move forward, you will not hear another stall. Instead, the customer will either make a commitment to you or will reveal an objection. Sometimes there is an objection hiding behind a stall. But, we won’t know this until we uncover it. That’s another reason why we don’t challenge stalls.

Here’s an example of how to handle a Stall:

THE BIG PICTURE

I HOPE THIS GIVES YOU A GLIMPSE ON A DIFFERENT SALES PROCESS.

Thank you for reading and let me know if I can be of any assistance.

Dr. Hussein Saad

Sales Strategist and Professional Coach