Objections summary

The first step towards making a sale is often the most uncomfortable: knocking on a door or making a phone call completely uninvited. People’s initial responses are usually negative - many prospective customers will simply tell you they’re busy and abruptly end the conversation. So how can you turn these initial negative responses, or prospecting objections, into meaningful interactions that might eventually lead to a sale? 

Firstly, don’t let yourself get overwhelmed by all the different types of ‘nos’ you’ll receive when making cold calls or visits. Sales teams who consult the author often tell him that they hear an almost infinite number of reasons for people’s initial reluctance to engage. But this rarely turns out to be true.

When talking to a prospective customer, you have to do more than just be prepared; you also need to keep the focus of the conversation where you want it. Derek was a salesman who met with the author to give him a demonstration of his company’s software. Before the demo kicked off though, the author asked Derek a seemingly innocuous question: “how much would this software cost? It seems like it might be too expensive for me.” 

Within a few minutes, the meeting unravelled. Derek had been thrown a red herring objection and had no idea how to handle it. 

When the author talks to an under-performing salesperson and asks about their pipeline of prospective customers, he often hears things like: “this prospect sounded really interested. When she has time, she’s going to call me about next steps.” Although this might sound quite positive, comments like this make the author incredibly frustrated. Why? Because they highlight the salesperson’s failure to win micro-commitments from their prospects. A micro-commitment is a small but important next step that a salesperson and her prospect agree on before their conversation ends.

Towards the end of the first sales call, for example, you might get the prospect to agree to give you a tour of her company’s facilities. Agreeing on micro-commitments is so important because as soon as your prospect walks away from your current conversation, she’s likely to forget about it. Thus, you can’t leave it up to her to get back in touch with you in the future. Instead, you must agree on a specific action that both you and she will undertake after the conversation ends, as well as a fixed date for when you’ll talk again to review those actions. 

Once your sales process has moved forward, grounded in the micro-commitments you and your prospect have made together, the last step is the ultimate commitment: your prospect handing over his money, and buying from you. The stakes couldn’t be higher during this final stage – for you, or for your buyer. So when you bump up against last-minute buying objections, be sure you handle them in the right way. 

Fortunately, there’s a five-step process you can rely on to turn objections at this late stage around. 

The number one issue that’s stopping salespeople from reaching their true potential isn’t what you probably think it is. It’s not about lacking the slick one-liners that seal the deal or the know-how to deal with tricky objections. Quite simply, the big issue holding sales professionals back is a failure to ask for what they want. 

In essence, sales is all about asking for things, usually in the form of time, information or money from your prospective buyers. When you first cold call a prospective customer, for example, you’re asking for her time and attention. 

No matter how good a salesperson you are, dealing with objections and facing rejection will always be part of your job. But when you feel like you’re drowning under the weight of ‘no,’ it’s important to remember that you’re not alone; some of the world’s most successful people faced a lot of rejection before they finally got their ‘yes.’ 

Stephen, for instance, was an unsuccessful writer whose short stories and novels had been rejected for publication literally hundreds of times. Broke, married, and with two children to support, he wound up living in a trailer with his family, barely able to support them. One day in 1973, Stephen’s wife showed up at the school where he taught. In her hand she had a telegram from a publisher saying they wanted to publish his novel, Carrie.