The One Thing You Can Do to Eliminate Objections

There is an old adage that says, “Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Yet I continue to speak with sales reps who continue to get fooled over and over again. They are surprised when a customer says, “it’s too much money” or “I need to speak with my husband.” I often have these reps ask me, “what do I say when this happens?” What should I say when I follow-up with them? They never like my response. And you might not either.
You can do better. You must do better. And once the sale is lost, you are not likely to ever get it back. What a Debbie Downer right? And the worst part of my advice is that you can’t just passively listen to this podcast to solve your problem. You have to sit down, do some work, and think! I know, I’m the worst. Just stop listening to me. Unless of course you are sick of the awkward silence at the end, or not knowing what to do or say, or you are always wondering how you can just serve your customers a little better and be more successful at your craft. If that’s you, continue on, this is for you.
Like so many things, it all comes back to your preparation. Have a plan. There are likely 3-5 objections that your product or service gets. Make a list of them.
And here is the one thing you can do: Find a place to bring them up in your sales conversation before your customer does.
Wait, what? You mean you don’t want me to hide from them and hope they don’t come up? Or you don’t want me to get in a back and forth awkward conversation about why they should buy despite their concern? That’s right my friend! Be proactive instead of reactive and the world is your oyster.
I’ll give you an example from the Cutco Cutlery training manual, which is the most genius sales conversation outline I have ever seen.
I have knives already: Visual image of what their drawer of knives looks like, and the acknowledgement that these knives aren’t good enough. Or I used to say something like, “most people don’t like to cook because they don’t like to cut, right?”
I don’t need all of those knives: Acknowledge that ahead of time. “You won’t use this butcher knife or carving set every day, but it’s kind of like the spare tire in your car. You won’t use it every day, but you sure are glad you have it when you need it!”
That’s too much for knives: Give the customer context with a solid price comparison so they understand the value of the set. Once you give them the actual price, they see it as a major steal!
I need to talk to my husband: The most important thing here is not to freak out. Just know this will come up about half the time. You can simply respond with “Let’s find some other options that you are more comfortable with today. Once your husband sees how awesome they are, you can add more over time.” No big deal.
When I think about my friends who sell essential oils, it’s the exact same set of objections. You can apply these concepts to selling your boss on an idea, or to trying to get your kids to do their homework.
There are 4 keys to bringing up objections before they come up. These are your action items until next week.
Make a list of the 3-5 you get the most consistently. Review this list with a few colleagues.
Think about questions to ask to find out if the concern applies to them. With the Cutco example, I would ask, “Do you cook because you like to cook, or because you have to cook?” This would tell me which objections were most likely to come up so I could spend time on them. Learning about their goals or their pet peeves with their current process is also very helpful to know what to spend more time on. A very simple question to ask in the beginning is, “What do you want to make sure you learn about?”
Find a story to tell that acknowledges the concern. “Before we got a set of Cutco we used to try to cut the turkey with our best steak knife! It was terrible!”
Write them into your sales outline and practice them so it’s smooth. You should know the flow of your sales conversation just as well as you know the theme song to the The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. If writing in all of them is overwhelming, start with one and add more in as you get more comfortable. Take at least one step forward.
Do not be a fool! Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me every single time and I never learn, definitely shame on me!
Good luck preparing your outline. If you need help figuring out what this looks and sounds like, your bottom line would really benefit by investing in some 1-on-1 coaching. I currently have 2 spots open and would love to help you take your results to the next level. You can visit emergesalesetraining.com/coaching to learn more about the different coaching programs, including the pricing.
I also want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! I look forward to chatting with you next week.