To deal with an objection……

Either:
- Pre-empt the objection – kill it off before the buyer thinks of it, or
- Answer it immediately

If you tell the buyer you will deal with the objection later, then forget about it, or worse,ignore it, you will risk the buyer thinking you are either hedging or ignorant of the answers. In either case the sale could be threatened then or later.

Unprofessional or inexperienced salespeople do not know how to recognise an objection and deal with it, and disregard what the buyer has said. They carry on regardless and hence lose the sale.

Salespeople who do a wishy-washy job when selling, by not confronting objections and dealing with them in the right manner will always come out with sob stories to defend their poor selling abilities.

Their excuse for losing the sale will be that the buyer gave them a tough time and complained about the product, service or idea. This is not so. What the buyer is telling the seller is that, based on their perceptions of the product, service or idea being offered and what the seller has told them during the sales presentation is that the buyer could not make a decision.

Objection handling to the seller therefore takes place as a prelude to closing and it is in that context that objections must be viewed rather than suspecting the buyer of throwing in a red herring in order to escape giving the seller a decision, or put him or her off course.

When multiple objections are expressed by the buyer, the seller can treat all of them as one and ask, ‘Apart from these objections is there anything else that concerns you?’ if not, the seller then says, ‘If I could provide you with a solution or a valid explanation to those objections you would be prepared to go ahead, wouldn’t you?’

The answer to this must naturally be ‘Yes’ so you deal with them by isolating each objection, writing them down on a piece of paper in the presence of the buyer, answering them to the point, getting agreement with the buyer that each one has been answered to their satisfaction and crossing them out as you proceed, until the sale is made. This technique is called the final objection closing technique.

It is very easy for a seller to confuse an Excuse with a genuine Objection. An excuse is where a buyer is deliberately trying to avoid making a decision. An objection is a concrete opportunity for you to find a way of dealing with whatever is troubling the buyer, and close the sale.

When the buyer starts to make excuses you start to manipulate them subtly, letting him or her know that you have gauged their game and are aware that they are prevaricating. Be careful, though – you risk making the buyer angry if you use intimidating behaviour and you might reach the stage where you have to withdraw from the meeting. You then allow a cooling-off period, and may then contact the buyer again, apologizing for your supposed ‘mistake’. This should pave the way for a fresh selling start.

It really is that straight forward!

You will find a number of other free articles on “Objection Handling” here

Or, you can push the boat out and invest $19.95 and enjoy “Overcoming Objections” – everything you ever wanted to know about handling objections, but were afraid to ask – here

Today’s News: Very little news today, as our friends across the “Pond” make their way back to the office after an indulgent July 4th weekend.

I do still have just a few FREE places for Harlan Goerger’s excellent Masterclass today – “Creating A Solution Mindset” (1pm Eastern – 6pm GMT) – here

Oh yes, almost made it to 170.000 views over at Ezine Articles, which is a wonderful milestone – thanks for all the traffic Chris, great job!!

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