Episode #276: Becoming a Master of Handling Objections

Objections are good. That sounds a bit counterintuitive I know, because what we actually want is to land a deal and an objection seems to be an obstacle preventing that from happening. There is a process for dealing with objections and we need to be disciplined to follow it every time and not be derailed by our emotions. When we get an objection, our automatic response is to argue with the buyer and tell them why they are wrong. How has arguing with the buyer been going for you? Not too good I would reckon. Even if you win the argument, the battle, you won’t get the order and therefore can’t win the war, if I can use that metaphor. We need a better process than this.

Cushion.

Instead we need to go to our cushion - a statement that is neither agreeing nor disagreeing with the buyer. Placing a cushion between what they have just said and what we are going to say is critical. We are all the creatures of our habits and if our habit has been to jump right in and correct the client about how wrong they are, the chances are high we will keep doing that until the end of time. The cushion is a circuit breaker to tell our brain “hey genius, don’t argue with the client”. The cushion buys us valuable thinking time to come up with the right response to any objection and there is only one response needed, so if we can stop ourselves defending our solution for a minute, we can start to get somewhere regarding landing this deal.

Why.

What do I mean when I say there is only one response needed? This sounds a bit bolshie doesn't it. The first words out of our mouth after hearing the objection are critical. We should always ask ever so sweetly, “may I ask you why you say that?”. Now they have to justify the objection they came up with. Sometimes I use the metaphor of being thrown a porcupine, bristling with all of those sharp quills, when we get an objection. We have to throw that porcupine right back to the buyer by asking the question “why

An objection is like the headlines in the morning newspaper. They are a very short form of conveying a much longer and complex story. We have to train ourselves not to react to the headline. Before we say anything, we want to know the full story. We want much more information, so that we know which way we should answer the objection.

Clarify.

Once we have received more information, we need to double check what we have heard is the main problem. We ask clarifying questions by saying, “Thank you. So, as I understand it, your chief concern is…?”. It is still not that easy to understand the real problem, so that is why we need to keep checking what is the core issue.

Cross-Check.

Sadly buyers don’t always share the thing that is troubling them the most. They may tell us some minor point, just to get rid of us more easily and not get into a big discussion. We want that big discussion, because we want the sale. Visualize an iceberg and the tip of the iceberg is what they tell us, but hidden under the waterline lies the real problem, which they are not sharing with us. So, we need to say, “Thank you. So in addition to “X” are there any other things which are of concern to you?”. We just keep repeating this, until they have run out of concerns. Usually we can get there in three or four attempts.

We ask them, “You have mentioned X,Y and Z as areas of concern. May I ask you which of these is the highest priority for you?” We need to know which concern is the deal breaker, because if we can fix that problem for them, there is a strong possibility all the other concerns will just fall away.

Reply.

Now that we have established the main concern, we answer it and try and satisfy their concern. If it is an incorrect statement or fake news such as “I heard your company is going bankrupt”, then we will Deny it and offer proof that what we are saying is incorrect.

If it is true, we will Agree. Don’t try and justify the unjustifiable – you are just shredding your credibility. If you have had some quality issues then admit it and tell them what you have done to fix that problem. It may be a deal breaker that we cannot overcome, so fair enough and we should zip out of there and find someone we can help, wasting no more time pushing a piece of string around.

In some cases, we may Reverse the logic and use the concern as the reason to buy. For example, if we take a little longer than others to deliver the solution, we can reverse it and say that “the extra time is due to our quality control system ensuring that there is no rework needed and that this ultimately saves more time because rework is a totally disruptive pain, best avoided”.

Trial Commitment.

We need to check whether what we have explained gets rid of that objection or not? A trial close can be as simple as, “how does that sound so far?”. If we have answered the main objection, but there are still other major objections, then we need to repeat the process until we get to a stage where they can buy.

Welcome objections because if there are no objections, questions, or hesitations it could be because they have already eliminated us as a potential solution provider and are just waiting to get to their next meeting. Better to know that early and get on our bike and go find a real buyer.