6 Objections That Successful Salespeople Have Mastered
The world of sales training has a significant amount of information on dealing with objections. In fact, I would be shocked if anyone with more than 90 days in the business has not received training on handling them from someone. However, we too often hear salespeople say “But I’ve done that training,” as if training is something you do once and you’re set for life. That’s just silly. No one can MASTER a subject just by hearing it once or twice. As Dave Anderson says, “Until you’re perfect, it’s not redundant.” Salespeople and managers should never be complacent about their ability to successfully handle such an important part of their job.
In dealing with objections, we need to examine what they are and what they aren’t. We need to be clear on why we hear them and what they really mean, to both the customer and to us. We need to diligently try to minimize or even eliminate objections before they come up.
If we aren’t able to do that, it becomes imperative that we know the 12 psychological keys to handle almost any objection. And we need to be very comfortable with professional, non-confrontational responses to the specific objections we hear on a regular basis.
Frankly, that shouldn’t be difficult. The key is to follow the old Boy Scouts motto – Be prepared! Seems basic, but this actually holds true for about anything worth doing. In seminars, I often ask salespeople how many different objections they have heard in their careers. The answers usually range from dozens to hundreds. However, when you break it down, there are only 6 primary objections:
1) Your price is too high
2) That is not enough for my trade
3) I have a better deal elsewhere
4) I have additional shopping or research to do
5) I need to speak to my spouse
6) I want to think about it
Some variation of those 6 objections make up over 90% of the ones we hear. My point about being prepared is that if there are only 6, you know what is coming. To not be ready to give a thoughtful, non-confrontational response instead of a knee-jerk reaction is just plain silly. Pick out one objection per week that you want to tackle, choose the professional response that sounds best coming from you, learn it and rehearse it 20 or 30 times, and you’re set to go. Then the next week, choose another objection and follow the same steps. Six weeks later you’re ready to respond to over 90% of the objections you are going to hear. Give it a try!
David Martin
The Mar-Kee Group
888-300-4629
251-490-7010 (cell)
The Mar-Kee Group is proud to celebrate 20 years of outstanding Sales, Service, and Management Training.
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