Objection is a part of the sales process and it may come in different shapes and sizes. It is a challenging task for sales people to manage clients all day. It has been established that after conducting 209 cold calls, a salesperson generates roughly one appointment or referral. Your sales team conducts hundreds of calls, e-mails, and meetings, but faces more rejections than you can even imagine.
Hence, the first thing that you should understand is that overcoming an objection is the key to your sales team gaining any new customer.
Prevailing over an objection means interacting with a buyer in such a way that it resolves their queries and solves their concerns. The key behind how to gain a new customer or lose an opportunity is how a sales rep handles objections.
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Defining Objection
Before moving further, let’s understand what an objection is. Usually, when we think about an objection, the word ‘No’ comes into mind. By sales objection, we mean an expression from a buyer indicating that there is a barrier between what they want and what you are offering. It is not easy to convince a buyer. The journey of a salesperson is like a rollercoaster ride filled with ups, downs, objections, and rejections.
The Concept of Objection Handling
It is true that selling is a complex process. On many occasions, leading companies have a tough time in closing sales. There are many factors which drive sales along with many challenges that come in the way. However, one of the key points to focus on is how to handle sales objections and customer concerns through objection handling.
Objection handling provides salespeople with the confidence, insights, and ability to handle sales objections of customers. Furthermore, they can understand how each customer behaves, and can segregate them accordingly.
Importance of Objection Handling
Your sales team may experience objections from clients in different forms. However, no matter what the type of objection is, they should be prepared for it. If you want to know about the importance of objection handling, here is a brief explanation of the same:
- When you face objections from prospects, note them down and analyze them. This will help you to be prepared with responses and solutions to such objections in the future.
- After listening to objections, analyze them to understand whether you are using the wrong sales technique to convince a prospect.
- Objections can help you to qualify prospects. This way, you won’t waste your time on non-targeted customer groups, which, in turn, decreases your closing rate. Instead, you can put your focus on a genuine targeted prospect.
What are The Different Types of Sales Objection?
Moving further, let’s discuss the ten significant sales objections.
1. Lack of need
In this type of objection, the buyer doesn’t perceive that they have a problem. As such, they don’t resonate with the product or service that you are offering.
2. Lack of urgency
In this case, the buyers don’t really understand the full impact and value of the service that you are offering. They may not feel any urgency of availing your service.
3. Lack of trust
The buyers feel uncertain about the product or service you are offering, and its value or outcome. They may have the need or want of the product or service, but may be uncertain about your capability to deliver what you say you will.
4. Lack of budget
Pricing is one of the very common objections that may have other objections in disguise. They may object because they want a flexible billing option and do not want to make the full payment upfront.
5. Product objection
A prospective client may also object based on the features or quality offered by the product. They may not fully understand the functionality of the product or compare its features with your competitor’s products.
This is a type of objection which usually comes from well-established companies. The prospect may say that they don’t call the shots here and they have to seek permission from their superiors.
7. Source objection
In case of a source objection, a prospect may not have any problem using your product or service, but may be uncertain about doing business with you as a company or a sales person.
8. Contentedness objection
A prospective client may be content with the current product or service that they are using. But this doesn’t mean that all their requirements are fully satisfied.
Time-related objection may occur because of the prospect’s lack of resources. However, the prospect may try to mask it by stating that they are too busy to talk or may even ask you to call back some time later.
10. Aggressive objection
This is a type of objection that you will come across sometimes. A prospect may turn down your offer in a very harsh manner.
Responding To Sales Objections
The first point to shed light on is that as salespeople, your team needs to accept the fact that objection is a part of their job description. Hence, they have to dig deeper and give their very best to overcome this hurdle and transform a ‘NO’ into a ‘YES’.
Let’s take a look at some common sales objections and how to deal with them:
“The price is out of my range”
As explained above, price is the most common sales objection which prospects will use to turn down your offer. However, your sales representative should try to convince the client that the price may be a bit high, but it would be beneficial for the company in the long run, and would assist the client in many ways. Your sales team can also dig deeper and offer the clients a flexible payment structure.
“I’ll get back to you”
This is a classic lack of urgency objection in which the prospects say that they cannot give your sales reps any answer before consulting their superiors. In such situations, a salesperson can act sharply and ask if they can directly contact the prospect’s superior and talk about the offer that can benefit their business.
“I don’t think your company is the right fit for us”
Many clients will use this objection to mask their uncertainty about using the services of your company. Your salesperson should be able to read between the lines and convince the client about the product and how it is better than its competitors. Plus, offering the clients a trial period and discount can further help them to gain the client’s trust.
“I like your offer but I don’t need it right now”
This is one of the toughest sales objections to tackle because the prospect has already said that they don’t require your service or product, while shutting the window of opportunity. In this case, your sales rep can ask their opinion about your product or service and try to convince them that it meets the nature of their business. However, if this strategy doesn’t work, then your sales rep needs to step back and learn more about the prospect, their preferences from competitors, and so on.
Overcoming Objections Efficiently
Your sales reps can follow this simple and efficient process to handle objections and proceed effectively:
- Listen- Upon hearing an objection, sellers shouldn’t respond immediately. Rather, they should try to understand their concern and give them room to speak. This way, they may realize that the first objection isn’t really a problem at all.
- Understand- In the next step, they should try to understand that there may be many underlying issues behind the objection from the buyer. The buyer often doesn’t tell the true reason behind their rejection of an offer. By digging deeper, the sales reps can get to the bottom of the reason why the buyer isn’t ready to accept the offer.
- Respond- Once they have understood the buyer’s concerns. The sales reps can take steps to resolve the issue immediately. In case of an objection, your sales reps can let the prospect know about the next step they need to take and when they will get back to them.
- Confirm- The salesperson should try to gain commitment from the buyers on the resolution. Instead of assuming anything, they should seek feedback from the buyers if they are satisfied with the resolution. Ask if the prospect has any further concerns, and move ahead only when those concerns are resolved.
Following these four steps will help the sales people to earn the trust of the buyer. This may eventually help them to overcome any rejection from the client and make successful sales.
Prepare Beforehand for Common Objections
To gain better outcomes, your sales team should prepare a list of common objections they may have to hear from prospective clients. Then, they should try to answer the following questions:
- How can they respond to these objections?
- What are the different responses or negotiations techniques that they can use for each situation?
- What are the future actions that they can take to minimize such objections?
Following this process can help your sales team to not only overcome sales, but win more sales as well.
A growing business like yours can utilize the services of a CRM like Kylas to simplify the sales process and to handle objections effectively.
Also read: 101 on Developing an ECommerce Website
