Business Consulting in ILLUMINATION
How to effectively turn sales Objections to sales Objectives
As a Business Consultant, listening to and dealing with objectives is a daily affair.
Prospects and clients object all the time.
I believe that even Elon Musk gets objections from time to time.
There are also many, many types of objections.
And the same objection would appear in different settings, which means there is a contextual difference.
Have you cracked the code to effectively handle and turn objections to objectives?
Looking back personally and professionally, there are many objections I dole out to others over the course of my Lifetime. When I try to look within me to understand why I object to offers or suggestions, I realised that the reasons behind are always different. We have to recognise why we object in the first place.
It is then we can understand why others object to us.
Thus, if the consultant or the sales professional who is trying to sell me something doesn’t ask — He / she will never know what my pain point(s) is.
They will only know what features of the products or services they are selling.
We have to avoid that at all costs in order to have a shot.
Unless we have been benefiting from Tesla’s stock split which has propelled Elon Musk to the 3rd richest person (dated September 1st, 2020), learning how to sell remains to be a highly lucrative trade at the professional level.
This article is about handling client objections and turning them into client objectives, so we can move from $0 sales revenue to $1 revenue based on my professional experience.
Just to align our expectations — This article will focus on client objections at the discussion table.
Are you ready?
Client Objection # 1 — “This is Too EXPENSIVE!”
This is the common objection that we all face.
DAILY.
It is almost like Sales Fundamentals 101.
The common pitfall we all face — myself included when I first started out in deal teams — is we automatically associate “Expensive” to “Price” and we classify this as a price objection.
Please don’t do that.
Stay calm at the discussion table, stay cool and start asking questions in a conversational fashion.
“Mr. Client, is it too expensive for this product?”
“Mr. Client, is it too expensive because it doesn’t solve the problems you have?”
“Mr. Client, is it too expensive relative to the budget you have to spend on this solution?”
If you understand where I am coming from, the objections are never immediately obvious.
And therefore, the critical point is — We have to ask.
We have to dig deeper.
Different issues, different solutions.
There is simply no one standard solution to different problems.
Client Objection # 2 — “Send me more information after this discussion.”
No, never.
We cannot agree to this request immediately, especially when we have worked so hard to get this face-to-face or zoom appointment.
My point is simple.
Imagine that: -
- We made 5 calls.
- We spoke to 5 different people in order to get a session with the decision maker.
- We have to schedule and reschedule this session multiple times just to have this session.
The last thing we want is to leave the negotiation table thinking that there is hope because the client wants “get more information”.
Do not be fooled.
Reflect on our personal experiences. How many times did we actually tell someone “to send more information” so we can get off that call?
Would we actually read that email?
Would we actually reply?
We know the answer. I know the answer.
I know I won’t.
We worked hard to secure this session. We all do. Thus, we have to recognise that this session is the prime real estate measured in terms of time and real-time interaction. So, we have to do whatever it takes to keep the conversation going.
“Mr. Client, what are the information that you are looking for? I wrote the featured case studies on my company’s website and the whitepapers are published by me. They are readily available on the company’s website and social media page. Shall I show it and walk through with you NOW?”
Stay at the table.
Be prepared and look prepared.
If we are given 60 minutes, use all 3,600 seconds.
We have earned our presence.
We deserve all the air-time.
Client Objection # 3 — “I am not interested in this.”
I am certain we are almost-immediately deflated upon hearing this.
We might have properly qualified our prospect, spent multiple long nights to prepare the Pitch deck, the Offer proposition and the Agreement paper only to have Mr. Client utter this last-minute objection at the closing stages of the deal.
I get it.
Most importantly, we have stay calm and dig deeper.
It doesn’t pay to lose our marbles at the client meeting.
We have to recognise one thing.
When Mr. Client says “I am not interested in THIS.” — We have to quickly recognise that “THIS” covers a wide scope and it can be anything in the Pitch deck, in the Offer proposition and the Agreement paper.
Stay calm and ask.
“Mr. Client, would you kindly point to me which part of the deal are you not interested in?”
“I don’t like this payment term. 30% down payment is too much for me. We don’t do such deals.”
Okay, now we know what the real objection is.
They are not objecting our offer and partnership.
They are objecting to our payment terms and down payment.
If Mr. Client sees the down payment as an upfront penalty or punishment, we have to do something immediately.
We’ve got to respond on the spot.
“Mr. Client, if you do a 30% down payment with me today, I will offer you free sales workshop for your sales team.”
“Mr. Client, no worries about the 30% payment. Shall we go ahead with 15%?”
We’ve got to keep asking. And we got to solve the right issues.
It doesn’t make sense for the client to invest their time sitting with us only to tell us that they are not doing the deal.
Think about it.
There are many objections that we face at work and in life.
It is important to find out what those objections really mean.
Only then there is a shot at turning those objections to objectives.
And when we can do that, we can convert $0 revenue to $1 revenue.
Usually the very first $1 revenue is costly to acquire based on time and experience.
The subsequent ones will be much easier.
We have to learn along the way.
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About the Author:
As a Consultant by training, I believe in making the complex simple.
Because simplicity adds value.
Simplicity helps us gain clarity, and clarity helps us to grow.
And if we are not growing, then what’s the point of anything else?
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