Selling Skills Training | How to Overcome Objections during Sales Call?
Customers object for many reasons. Objections can be frustrating, but they are also a healthy sign in that your customer is listening critically and considering your proposition.
Objections provide a great way for you to build credibility and move forward in the sale. However, most salespeople don’t handle objections strategically. Instead they get defensive and try to argue with the customer, which just makes the customer defensive in return. Another common response to objections is just the opposite of defensiveness: salespeople give up.
An alternative to “fight” or “flight” responses is to use acknowledgment and questions to understand the objection and obtain the information needed to resolve the objection.
How you respond to key objections ultimately determines whether an objection is a negative or a positive force in the sale, whether it closes down the opportunity or leads to the close.
Traditional methods for dealing with objections give the salesperson the awesome task of changing the customer’s mind. But the best way to think about an objection is that you need more information. Using acknowledgment and question(s) engaging the customer in a collaborative effort to solve the problem.
When a top salesperson in one of the most highly regarded sales organizations in the world was asked his secret for success, he replied, “Empathy.” Acknowledgment and empathy are critical throughout the sales dialogue and are particularly useful in resolving objections.
Acknowledgment says to your customer, “I understand what you have said.” Empathy says, “I care.” Acknowledgment is highly appropriate throughout the dialogue, but especially with objections. Empathy is appropriate when the customer is upset or the situation is more troublesome, personal, serious, or emotional. Both show you care about the customer’s feelings.
In resolving objections, appreciate that most customers know more about their needs than you do. By maintaining the connection with acknowledgment or empathy and learning more about the objection through questioning, you will avoid making assumptions, becoming defensive, or giving up.
