Three Tips to Handle Objections

For many inexperienced salespeople, the first thing they think about when it comes to selling a product or service is the fact that they will hear objections.?They dread the word “no” and try to avoid objections even when they can clearly see that they exist. They view objections as a minefield which must be avoided.?They plow ahead with their pitch hoping they’ll say some magic words that will make them evaporate. Unfortunately, they most often experience the unaddressed concerns rising up at some point and ‘tanking’ the sale.

Our One of a Kind sales team has completed thousands of cold calls.?And there is no doubt that salespeople will hear the word “no” many times.?But in our experience, we find it best to acknowledge a prospect’s objections and quickly determine whether they can be overcome. When you can overcome them, you can proceed with a greater likelihood of success. If you can’t, you then move on to another prospect quickly.

Disrupt the Pattern

Cold calls have a typical flow.?The way this happens may vary but at the end of a preliminary introduction, our team members may say something like, “how does that sound to you?” It is at this point when the prospect might say, “I’m fine – I don’t need anything.” That is a “no.”?The prospect’s expectation is that the salesperson will say “thanks for your time” and end the call.?This is the normal “pattern” of a sales call.?But our professional selling team is prepared with rebuttals that disrupt the typical pattern.

Prepare “Rebuttals”

A disruptive response to a “no” might be, “Wow, how did you manage to avoid this problem?”?What this approach does is keep the conversation going. Follow up questions could be: “Can you tell me how you did that?” or “How long did that take?” Followed by “I guess you must be hitting your revenue target then.” Moving further with “Would you like to improve that performance?”

You’ve read before that we believe in using scripts because they help us internalize our messaging.?Because we prepare in advance, we have an arsenal of rebuttals at the ready.?So, when the “no” happens, while it may be disconcerting, we don’t have to “figure out” what to say next.

Three Times is Enough

We adopt approach of using three rebuttals to a “no.” The rebuttals are statements we’ve prepared in advance (incorporated into our script) based on the objections we anticipate. Once we’ve had three unsuccessful attempts at this, we know it’s time to move on. We conclude the interaction, and we actually ask for a referral. For example, we’ll say, “it’s clear we can’t help you today, but perhaps we can in the future. Is there anyone else in your sphere of influence who might be able to benefit from our services?” You’d be surprised – we do get referrals in this way!

At One of a Kind Sales, we are sales experts, and we love cold calling!?If you need help taking your sales team to the next level, give us a call at 908-879-2911 to learn how we can help.