5 Steps to Handle Any Sales Objection
No matter how amazing your sales process, pitch or marketing efforts are - potential buyers are going to throw numerous objections at your sales team throughout every step of their buyer journey.
Being able to consistently handle these objections effectively, will either make or break a new deal being won or lost. Very few sales reps have the natural ability or skills to handle objections on their own, which means as a sales leader you need to arm them with Objection handles to set them up for success.
Properly handling an objection will mean the buyer will better understand the value you add and clear up some uncertainty about working with you. On the other hand, mishandling an objection will leave your buyer confused, frustrated and build evidence that your solution is not right for them.
Below you’ll learn about two extremely effective Objection handling frameworks. One I learned from doing a massive amount cold calls throughout my career and the second I learned during a Dale Carnegie training at a former company. These will serve as structured ways that will help your sales team overcome any objection a prospect throws at them.
The False Objection
This is the first type of objection that your sales reps will usually face within the first minute of talking to a relatively cold buyer that’s at early stages of their buyer journey.
Buyers and humans in general are constantly bombarded with advertising, commercials, sales calls and marketing emails, which means we have built a natural instinct to say “No” or “Not interested” to things, before we even understand what we’re declining in an attempt to protect our time.
Your sales team needs to be coached on how to identify these false objections and push through them to deliver enough information to where the buyer actually knows what they’re saying “No” to.
Examples: “I’m not interested” “I’m busy right now” “Just send me some information” “How did you get me information”
The most effective way to handle false objections is by following these simple steps:
Step 1 - Acknowledge: Acknowledging what the prospect has said will let them know you’re listening and create empathy.
Step 2 - Excitement: By telling someone you’re excited to talk to them will peak their interest - “Why is this stranger excited to talk to me? Maybe I should listen”
Step 3 - Angle: Deliver the angle for why you’re calling, so you can win more time.
Step 4 - Question: Confirm you’ve peaked their interest and take control with a question to get back on pitch.
SAMPLE Objection handle background: You’re selling a software to generate more leads through social media.
Buyer SAMPLE Objection: “I’m not interested… (after they answered the phone)”
Acknowledge: “I totally understand that I probably caught you in the middle of something…”
Excitement: “ I just got really excited to speak with you when you answered…
Angle: “Because I noticed (X COMPETITOR) is driving a lot of new leads to their website using social media and I think we can help you take some of them for yourself…
Question: “I’m curious...how are you currently using social media to drive more inbound leads?”
The reason I like this objection handle is because:
If the angle resonates, it will deliver immediate credibility and win your sales rep more time to go through the remainder of their pitch.
Excitement breeds confidence and positivity from your sales rep that is attractive to listen to.
By asking a question, your sales rep can take control of the conversation again.
Worst case scenario, you’ll further qualify the prospect, push through the false objection and illicit a more genuine response.
Try using the framework above to help your reps handle false objections that occur early on phone calls more effectively.
Now we’re going to take a closer look at 5 steps to handle TRUE Objections from your clients.
True Objections
True objections require a different approach, because they usually happen later in the sales process when the prospect is now curious and open to learning more about your product at the end of a cold call, during discovery calls or on product demos.
True objections usually occur when the buyer is unclear or not convinced on the VALUE your product will provide to them and their company.
Examples: “This is too expensive...” “My budgets have already been spent this quarter…” “I like it, but I’m already working with X competitor…”
This is where I’ve found the Dale Carnegie objection handling extremely effective when handling True or more Complex objections, because it gives a sales rep a systematic way to effectively respond.
Step 1 - Listen: Most sales reps only half listen to objections. Listening forces them to slow down and put themselves in the buyer's shoes.
Step 2 - Cushion: Creates empathy by reiterating that you’ve understood their objection. This statement does not agree, disagree or answer the objection.
Step 3 - Question: Ask a question to further clarify what the buyer objection actually means.
Step 4 - Evidence: Use appropriate examples, analogies, testimonials, facts, demonstrations or statistics to provide a compelling case.
Step 5: Evaluate: Evaluate whether or not you’ve handled the objection, by confirming with the buyer through a question.
SAMPLE Objection handle background: You’re selling a software to generate more leads through social media.
Buyer SAMPLE Objection: “Your price is too high…”
Listen: … take a deep breathe so you fully understand the entire objection
Cushion: “Price is definitely important to our clients when considering a new social media software…”
Question: “Help me understand the disconnect… why do you feel the price is too expensive?”
Buyer response: “Well I don’t think enough of our clients are using social media to warrant the price.”
Evidence: “That’s totally understandable - check this out... if you take a look at this testimonial from one of our who clients who is in the same industry as you and was also hesitant about using social media to generate new leads...our software increased the number of inbound leads they received by 25% and qualified demos set by their SDR team by 20%...
Evaluate: “With those numbers in mind, can you see how our platform can help you drive more inbound traffic from a channel you’re currently overlooking?”
One crucial thing to remember when using this framework is repeat the process if you do not get confirmation from the buyer during the Evaluate stage that their objection has been resolved.
Adding Objection Handles To Your Playbook
To ensure your sales team is handling buyer objections effectively, you should work with the team to highlight all of the common objections that they’re facing throughout the buyer journey.
Then take the initiative and develop a list of objection handles, using the frameworks above to set them up for success and close more deals by building in an objection handling page to your sales playbook.
I hope you find the objection handling framework above helpful, but it can often be challenging building objection handles on your own and then teaching your team how to execute them.
We’ve developed a systematic way to put effective objection handles into practice and how to coach your sales team so please feel free to schedule a free 1 hour consulting session so we can learn more about your business and the types of sales objections your sales team is facing.
