Each objection you hear from your customer allows you to raise your price.
I get very tired of hearing from salespeople about their beliefs that the more objections a customer raises, the bigger the discount they have to offer to close the sale. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
I strongly believe the more a customer objects, the more opportunities there are to actually raise the price. Here’s why: The more objections a customer throws out, the more it tells me the customer is involved in what we’re talking about and the more interest they have in finding a reason to buy.
Their reason to buy is only being held back by the objections they are raising and whether I’m able to address them properly. If I’m able to do that, then they will see the value in what I am offering and how it can address their needs. The more objections they throw at me can only mean one thing — they have multiple needs and, therefore, a real heavy desire to buy if I can respond to those objections.
My challenge when dealing with the person who has multiple objections is to not allow them to frustrate me. The way I handle this is by merely telling them my desire is to handle them one at a time so I don’t wind up missing something. By handling them one at a time, I can question them to make sure they understand what they’re asking and I understand what they’re looking for.
By breaking down the objections one by one, I am able to better handle their concerns. It allows them to see how detailed I am and how I truly do care about their needs. I am not focused on simply meeting my sales goals.
Another tool I try to use is the tool of prioritization. By this I mean focusing my time responding to those objections I believe are both the most critical to the customer and that I can answer effectively. Prioritizing objections in this manner allows you to focus what could be limited time on the most important factors that will allow you to close the sale.
Many times by focusing on the big items first and being able to answer them, the customer will then begin to wave off the smaller objections and not allow them to stop them from deciding to buy. Again, this can be a great tool because if I can close the sales successfully immediately after handling a major objection, I likely will do it at full price. Also, I may be able to leverage any additional objections in such a way that I begin gaining momentum for the next sale.
Never view an objection as a roadblock. Instead, view it as a way to build an even better sale.
Copyright 2011, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
