Is a Sales Objection an Obstacle or an Opportunity?

s a Sales Objection an Obstacle or an Opportunity?

Things have changed in sales. It wasn’t many years ago that we talked about overcoming sales objections. A prospect would say to a salesperson, "…but you have no customers in my industry." Or perhaps, "…but the price is too high." (What they are really saying is "I’d buy your product, but…") The salesperson was taught that objections were good—that they showed interest on the part of the buyer, and that these objections had to be gracefully overcome to win the sale. When you’ve been selling for a while, you learn that these objections very often become the reason you lose. Then the word overcome takes on a new meaning. It connotes contention—the prospect has a concern or an issue and you’ve somehow got to convince them (or overpower them) to win the sale.

Understand What Objections Really Are

Sales winners have a deeper understanding of what objections really are. They most often aren’t questions or concerns—they’re obstacles. Winners know what objections their prospects are likely to have even before the prospect does. That takes experience and objectivity—the willingness to seek and handle the truth about one’s own products, services, and company, and how those are perceived by their customers. Winners are well versed at positioning what will be a concern later as a non-issue, if not an advantage. Here is an example of how not to handle an objection: With all the political machinations going on, New York City was unable to resolve the new stadium issue before the International Olympic Committee came to visit during the spring of 2005. Most New Yorkers knew that not having a solid plan for a stadium was a major objection that would likely cause the IOC to choose another venue. Even when plans for a new stadium were announced, well after the IOC’s visit, New York was in overcoming objection mode. Too late. Any excitement or momentum that had been built by enthusiastic New Yorkers from the Mayor’s office had dwindled. Now that London has been selected as the host city for the 2012 Olympics, we can look back at the stadium issue as a classic example of what happens when a shortcoming is left to fester into an insurmountable objection.

Understanding Objections Can Lead to Better Qualification

There is another valuable benefit that comes from understanding what objections your customers will raise. It’s better qualification. If there are insurmountable objections you face from certain categories of potential customers, you might be well-advised to qualify out of those opportunities. That will leave you with considerably more time to pursue opportunities you can win, and your win rate will likely increase. Small vendors selling to larger companies are often faced with objections about their size near the end of sales cycles. Although this is commonly the result of bigger competitors "playing the risk card," the smaller companies’ qualification processes should include not only early positioning of the value of doing business with a company of their size, but hard questions asked of the prospect regarding the importance of company size as a decision criterion. Hiding the fact that you represent a small company doesn’t work. What might is, "Does your company have any policies regarding doing business with smaller companies?" And, "Are there smaller companies with whom you are doing business now? If so, what expectations do you have of them." The answers to those questions will help you decide whether an opportunity is worth pursuing or just a waste of time and money.

Turning Objections Into Opportunities

Here is an exercise that will enable you to "overcome" the objection challenge. Collect all the objections you’ve been faced with during the past two years. Which ones became non-issues through you providing more a detailed explanation to the prospect? Which ones were insurmountable and caused you to lose the deal? Take the first group and make sure you re-engineer your approach so as to provide clear, concise, and compelling information about those areas during the course of your presentations, demonstrations, meetings, and sales calls. Take the second group and build questions around those deficiencies, perceptions, or issues for your salespeople to ask during the early stages of contact with the prospect. I would much rather find out early that I am likely to be eliminated because I have no references in a new industry than to try to convince a risk-averse buyer that being the first user of my product is a good idea. Waiting until objections are raised by your prospect is not effective selling. Understand objections for what they are, redesign your approach, and win.

About Dave Stein: Dave is the author of the Amazon best-selling business book "How Winners Sell."

He can be reached at:

The Stein Advantage, Inc.
69 Woodland Road
Mahopac, NY 10541
+1 (845) 621-4100
info@HowWinnersSell.com
(c) 2005 -- Dave Stein