Welcome Objections

Few days back I was reading and searching about some of the online education platforms to explore which one would be more suited for my Son who is in 9th grade and shall be in 10th grade in the next academic year. As any typical parent in India, I am concerned about the performance of my kid in the 10th grade and want to provide the best of support to him. The more I read, the more confused I was as I couldn’t decide which one was the best since all the leading players offer similar claims, therefore, I decided to give a phone call to couple of them to gain better understanding and ease my decision making process.

And something very interesting happened….

I asked certain questions to all of them to clarify my doubts about the offerings and the claims that were made on the overall effectiveness and following are some of the questions I asked (off course not all of them together): -

Q: What is the average batch size of the live online classes?

Q: How is the child learning assessed?

Q: How do you ensure that the child is prepared adequately for the subjective test papers and not only the objective ones?

Q: What is the process of doubt clarification?

Q: What are your top advantages versus other similar online education platforms?

And guess the comment I received during one of the call –

“Sir it looks that you are not at all interested”

My reply: Why do you think so?

“Because I have told you whatever I knew and you are still asking me questions”

Oops!

And It didn’t take me time to hung up the phone and as a matter of fact I couldn't help myself but start reflecting on the discussion with that person from the perspective of “Handling Objections” in a sales process.

Whether you are selling face to face or over the phone,

Whether its B2C, B2B, Retail sales or any other sales environment

Whether it’s a service, a product or a concept that you are selling……doesn’t matter

Customers raise objections when they are interested to buy something and I have experienced that the successful sales people “WELCOME OBJECTIONS” instead of dreading them.

It is very normal for a customer to raise an objection.

So,

What is an objection?

Whenever a customer gives you any response other than saying a “yes” it’s an objection and one should welcome it because it gives you the opportunity to clarify and move closer to the sale, only if you handle it well.

So why do customers raise objections?

May be because: -

They need more information?

They have a doubt about some of the claims you have made?

They can’t visualize the benefits of your products?

They haven’t understood your value proposition?

They want to compare with a similar product or services provide by your competitor?

 Handling objections is both a “science” and an “art”

Science because so much is available around the objection handling processes and best practices and an art because not everyone has the attitude and the skills to do it and therefore it requires “anticipation” and “practice”.

Whenever you get an objection – Use a 3 step process to handle it:

Step 1: Acknowledge and clarify – The skill here is to first clarify your understanding whether you have understood it exactly the way customer has communicated. This can be done by asking questions, listening carefully and paraphrasing.

Step 2: Respond to the objection – It is always beneficial to categorize the objection into one or more of following categories. This will help you to deal with them appropriately.

Skepticism – The customer doubts and doesn’t belief that the claims you are making are true – In this case it will be beneficial to offer proofs, data points, client testimonials, survey results etc.

Misunderstanding – The customer hasn’t understood the benefits of your product clearly or has misinterpreted it – In this case go back and clarify your product benefits linking it to the needs of the customers.

Real – The customer may not have a need or may be your product or service has a real disadvantage – In this case acknowledge, do not defend or make a false claim, instead draw the attention of the customer on your product/service benefits and how those benefits meet the needs of your customer.

Inconvenience – May be you have called the customer at a wrong time or may be the customer is getting inconvenient that he or she will have to learn a new way of using your product and services – In this case schedule an appointment as per the customer convenience and in the latter case show him or her how you can make the learning and application process simple, explain the post-sales support.

Step 3: Confirm Understanding – Similar to the first step, this is your opportunity to test whether the customer has understood your response and does he or she agree to move forward in the conversation, this will also give an opportunity to unearth any other concern that he or she may have – You can ask a simple question

 “Have I answered/addressed your concern?”

If yes, move forward to close and if no, then go through the objection handling steps again.

Last but not the least – The objections can come at any time during the sales process.

Are you up for mastering the art of handling objections? If yes,

Think and write about the top 5 to 10 most common objections you face, take the help of your friends and colleagues, brainstorm to write a script of how you are going to respond to them and then -

Practice

Practice and,

Practice

And like with any other skill, over time, the objection handling will come naturally to you, helping you to shine.  

Happy Selling!