Welcome objections - they’re a sure sign of buyer interest |
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Successful salespeople get far fewer objections than less successful salespeople. Why? Because rather than handle objections, they prevent objections. In the example above, instead of talking about features of the product (“it’s the fastest”), the skillful seller would first employ the SPIN® questioning model to ask, “How important is speed to you?” Then, upon learning that speed is not important, he or she could avoid steering the conversation in a direction that would generate buyer objections. The number of objections can be reduced by more than 50 percent when sellers are trained to: 1) ask questions to discover customer needs, and 2) only talk about the features of their offering that are relevant to those needs. Readers of this paper may find confirmation of this in their own experience: When you were new to the sales profession, did you get more objections than you do now? Most sales consultants agree that objections diminish with experience. Huthwaite recommends “objection prevention” training as part of a comprehensive sales performance improvement program. The objections that cannot be prevented are usually the most serious ones. The best way to handle these is to be frank, acknowledge your weakness, and then concentrate on your competitive strengths. How Major Sales are Really Made:
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This is a myth that persists despite very strong evidence to the contrary. Like many other myths, the reason it won’t die is that it is so comforting. It allows you to believe that when your customers express scepticism about your product or service, it means you are engaging in meaningful dialogue. The reality is that objections are a barrier between you and your customer - and you don’t want a barrier there! Objections shouldn’t be feared, but they certainly shouldn’t be welcomed. An objection is a statement from the customer that they don’t want what you’re offering – possibly because it’s too expensive, but more likely because they don’t see a need for it. “Our machine is the fastest one on the market,” says the salesperson, and the buyer replies, “But speed is not a factor for us.”