OVERCOMING OBJECTIONS

Before you learn about overcoming objections lets define what they are.

ANYTHING YOUR CUSTOMER OFFERS AS A REASON NOT TO BUY IS AN OBJECTION

Easy enough to understand, right? To overcome them you must understand the reason why customers offer them up and how to minimize them. Will you sell everyone if you learn this? No. That just isn't the real world.

What you CAN DO is make it easier for your customer to say YES.

When do most people learn to answer an objection?.

When the result of their effort is NO SALE. Then they scratch their head and wonder why.

The light bulb comes on and you figure out what you should have done to overcome it. If you are currently employed in sales I know this has happened to you. By then it's too late. Someone else got the business. What is the best way to keep this from happening to you?

FIRST YOU MUST UNDERSTAND THE OBJECTION

There are millions of objections. How can I possibly figure out a way of overcoming every one of them?
Think for a moment. Are there really millions of objections? There might be a million ways to say things, but there are very few objections that don't belong under just a few headings. Before we go further, don't think I am going to ask you to write down thousands of objections and ways of overcoming them. You don't have time and you wouldn't do it anyway.

Here is what I will ask you to do. Write down the last 5 objections you heard. Just 5. Now, one at a time lets analyze your list. Since you are there and I am here I am going to make up a list for you.

• "The price is too high"
• "I don't like the color
• "I can't afford that"
• "I need it sooner than that"
• "It looks too complicated for me to use"

At first glance they appear to be 5 different objections. Are they? NO. You are hearing one objection. You are just hearing it 5 different ways.



Here is the objection

There is something about price, product, affordability,terms of delivery or ease of use you have neglected to address.

I cannot think of many more things a customer could say that wouldn't fall into this category. So what now?

Restate the objection in the form of a question. This will insure you are certain that what they said is what they meant.

Lets take number 1 from the list above.

The price is too high. Here is what you ask:

"It sounds to me like the only thing keeping us from earning your business is the price, is that correct?"

If the answer is YES you can now address the objection. "If the price were $$$ would you consider going ahead and doing business now?" There might be a yes, a maybe, I might have to think it over. Guess what...do the same thing again. Restate in the form of a question and keep asking.

I recently read a book on negotiating and it took the author 6 pages to say that. Please consider this short exercise my gift to you.

You must do this using your personal style of speech. If you don't you will sound like you are reading a script. With those words of caution practice until you are comfortable.

Speaking of practice. How much do you practice? Take a look here, particularly if you are a football fan.

Make sure you never miss an update to the StayOnTarget training series. All you need to do is let me know where to send it.

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