At this point in your business journey, you have a product or service to sell and you’re doing everything you can to make sales, but it seems like you keep hitting different road blocks with potential buyers. You probably even notice that there’s a theme to these barriers. They are called “Sales Objections”. A Sales Objection is any reason a potential customer can come up with to say “No” to your product or service. In this blog we will go over the top 5 sales objections and rebuttals to those objections.
There are a few ways to inject the rebuttals into your marketing campaigns and sales tactics. One way is to address as many of the objections within your advertising or through social media posts. If you are doing sales calls, you can address the objections as they come up in your sales conversation.
1. Lack of Need
The buyer doesn’t see the need for your product or service, or they don’t even see that there is a need to be fulfilled. For this kind of objection, you want to find out what the customer needs are and bring attention to the gap. The gap is the space between where your customer is now and where they will be after they have your product/service.
Sell the result. As a business owner, you’re a creative person and the part of the product that is interesting to you is how it was created or the process you will take the customer through. The customer is only interested in the result. Take a moment to imagine you are in the shoes of the customer, do you want to hear about all the things the business went through to bring you XYZ product/service? Maybe. But more than that, you are interested in the results and the value this product/service will add to your life.
Know the industry. Keep up to date on changes and innovations in the industry. This will keep you up to date on what the latest customer needs are, what gaps there are in the industry that you can build and expand upon.
Get to the bottom. Find out the reason behind the need. This will help you to more fully understand where your client is coming from. Knowing the underlying reason is also great market research for you in terms of positioning your marketing & sales to reach your ideal clients in the future.
2. Lack of Urgency.
Your customer is content with the way things are, because they don’t truly understand the full value of the product/service that you offer. Now is the time to remind them why they were searching for you in the first place and how much relief they will get from purchasing your product/service.
Focus on the pain points. In the previous rebuttal you figured out what the client’s underlying need is and it’s connected to relieving some kind of pain in their life. Now is the time to remind them of that pain and how much relief they will get from your product/service.
Paint the future. After talking about where they are now, paint a picture of what their life could be like after they purchase your product/service. Throw in testimonials and results that other customer have received to support the picture you’re painting.
Play the numbers game. If emotional appeal isn’t enough to convince your client, explain the outcome using a cost benefit analysis. For example, if you continue your life without XYZ product it will cost you $$, but if you purchase XYZ product for $, it will save you $$$ in the long run.
If you are running an automated sales process online, you can include a count-down timer to add urgency for your customers. When launching a marketing campaign for a product/service, set a specific release date to create urgency and set up reminder notifications for when different tiers of purchase prices expire.
3. Lack of Trust/Authority
Your buyer may not know you very well or be unsure of your solutions. You need be able to create trust and establish that you’re an authority in your field. This is done through incremental steps. Take the time to build a relationship with your client.
Be real. These days, no one wants a pushy sales person telling them what to do with their money. Come from a place of teaching your prospect about your product/service. Be real about your credentials and customer reviews. Be interested in your prospect and their goals.
Balance the conversation. Teach them about what you have to offer while keeping the conversation balanced with questions about them. Focus on having a two-way conversation with your prospect to build trust. When they tell a story about themselves, relate this to another client you’ve worked with and their results.
4. Lack of Budget
This is probably the most common sales objection you will encounter and it’s also one of the easiest to overcome. Sometimes it is a mask for another objection. You may want to ask a few more questions to find out if there’s an underlying objection.
Payment plans. Offer a way to break down the larger sum into smaller payments. Sign them up for small recurring payments until the balance is paid in full. If you’re able to, ask the client what they can reasonably afford per month/week.
Value focus. The outcome and value of the product/service will always trump the dollar amount paid for something. Focus on the relief, convenience, skills, self-expansion, etc. that your product will add to the client’s life.
5. Time Objection
Clients will use a lack of time objection to mask other reasons they’re objecting. You can circumvent this objection by asking what is keeping them so busy. Draw attention to the value of your product/service and how the time investment they would make in the short-run will save them time in the long run. If the time objection is a mask for another objection, switch to one of the other tactics.
3 Simplified Steps for overcoming objections:
Build rapport with the client. Think of the sales conversation like a table tennis match. You ask a question, the client answers, and you validate understanding of where they are coming from, the client confirms what’s being said, you ask another question. This keeps the focus of the conversation on the client and has them saying yes to you. If you follow these simple steps, by the end of the conversation the client should be asking you how much the product/service costs.
Listen: Ask open-ended questions to get the back story from your client. This will help you to understand their “why” and what need they’re looking to fulfill.
Validate: Show them that you understand where they’re coming from by validating their experience and emotions. Ask any necessary clarifying questions to show that you are interested and listening.
Confirm: Ask the client to confirm that you understood correctly. Getting their affirmation puts them into a “yes” mindset.
Want to see a professional at work? Here’s a cool trick you can try.
When I first started out as a life coach, I knew the hardest part was going to be sales. I studied different sales tactics and took a couple of online courses. It was still hard for me to imagine what this would look like playing out in a sales call. As a supplemental learning experience, I decided to pretend I needed a life coach and I hopped on a couple of different sales calls as a customer. I legitimately was looking for someone to help coach me and I knew that I would be a really hard person to sell. I listened to their questions and responses and was able to identify the ways they handled my sales objections. I learned a lot from the experience in terms of what works and what doesn’t work when selling to a customer. In the end, I was sold on coaching services from a company who had an impeccable sales pitch and were in alignment with my goals. I highly recommend trying this strategy to gain real-life sales experience from the customer’s perspective.
I would love to hear your thoughts! Please leave your questions and comments below.
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