Sales and dealing with objections

If you are a sales professional, then you can relive the times when you have been rejected by a customer after months of follow-up. Peter Heredia, Managing Director, Max Sale Solutions, talks to us not only about how to overcome objections while making a sales pitch, but also on how to decide if the objections are real and can ever be overcome.

We don’t have any reliable statistics, on how many objections raised by customers are actually false, but from our experience, many are. Using the courtroom analogy, many objections are purely tactical and aimed at disrupting a logical process.

There are many reasons why buyers don’t tell you the exact truth, when they don’t want to purchase from you. Let’s look at a few:

- It may not be there decision.

- They were only involving you as they needed a certain number of quotes.

- Their family member or best friend works at your competitor.

- They feel guilty about telling you the real reason.

- Meeting suppliers is a pastime that makes them feel important.

A good way to understand what we are talking about is to look at your sales team’s closing ratio. Most industries range from 10% to 30% success rate, so taking the top sales person’s performance, why are 70% of your potential clients still not buying? Whatever the “false” reasons, don’t spend your valuable time chasing them up. Wouldn’t you like to know, upon submitting a proposal, whether they are  real buyers or not?

As soon as you have closed your sale, (assuming that it has been delivered well) you should either be getting a positive conclusion, or an objection. Never walk away without one or the other.

Once you have the objection you need to understand whether it is true or false. So you should always ask, “If we resolve this objection, would you sign the contract today?” This simple step will save you so much time, heartache and unnecessary rejection.

Let’s be very clear here; you are not committing to resolving the objection but gaining a clear understanding about, whether this is a real objection and will they buy if it is removed or resolved.

If they say yes, then it’s good news. Although they haven’t agreed to buy, from all the complications of making a sale you have now narrowed it down to one last obstacle. If they say no, you have a decision to make. Do you give up there and then? Or do you still pursue the sale as usual?

We recommend you identify and understand the second objection and ask the question again. “If we resolve both the objections would you be willing to sign the contract today?”

Now if they say no, we would recommend that you put it on the back burner and spend little time on this opportunity. Focus on another opportunity with a real buyer. If they say yes, you still have some work to do but at least you know that they are serious and it could be time well spent trying to overcome both  objections.

How does this assist you?

Does it help your closing ratio? Maybe, but the real benefit is the time you save. It doesn’t sound like it will make you much money but let’s see the impact and the additional revenue you will be generating, if your sales cycle is reduced by not having to follow up with potential clients,  that you know you will never win.

Although we have talked about identifying and dealing with real objections throughout this article, it should be remembered that these objections are a good way of finding out the truth about our prospective position. Rather than becoming immediately defensive, we should welcome objections and use them to develop solutions and our relationship with these future customers.

About

Peter Heredia is the Managing Director of Max Sale Solutions. He has worked with sales teams around the globe for more than two decades and has worked in the Middle East for the last ten years.

If you would like to talk to Peter about your sales team, please contact him on peter@maxsalesolutions.com