What are sales objections?

Sales objections are genuine concerns and apprehensions that buyers have which stop them from making a purchasing decision.

If buyers objections are not addressed they remain unsure of making decisions which might lead to delay in deal closure or shelving of the deal.

From buyers’ perspectives, sales objections are genuine concerns. They are prone to develop these concerns when they buy a new product or service as they need to know it better before making an investment decision.

If buyers have objections after you pitch the product this means they are willing to discuss your proposal. Sales objections show that the clients are curious to know more about what you have to offer.

B2B sales need Sales Professionals because e-commerce with all its AI-based chatbots can’t address all the objections that buyers have. Buyers need professional salespeople to handle their sales objections.

In this blog, I am going to talk about 5 easy steps for overcoming your sales objections.

So if you are ready to learn, get your pens and paper or open a note-taking app on your mobile phone and make lots of notes.

5 easy steps to deal with sales objections.

Step 1: Identify Sales objections

Step one of responding to sales objections is to Identify them. Many times salespeople have a tendency to be defensive with an objection. I have also observed salespeople taking customer objections as an offence. Especially if the objection is about their products or companies’ quality and credibility.

So first and foremost it’s essential to think objectively about customers’ sales objections. Rather than judging or taking offence to customers’ objections, think about it as a genuine concern that needs to be addressed

If not addressed, these objections in sales will stop you from closing the deal.

Once you are able to identify objections, you are well prepared to handle them. Sometimes objections are misunderstood as rejections which cause unnecessary anxiety and stress.

The best way to avoid that from happening is to create an ‘Objection handling bank’. You can use them to identify common objections raised by your clients.

This is how you can easily identify them and overcome these objections.

Step 2: Understand the real objection in sales when dealing with a client.

In step 2 you understand the real sales objection.

Many times customers’ objections don’t reveal the real issues that they are facing and sometimes customers are not able to articulate them.

Often the true issue isn’t what the buyer tells you first. In this scenario, your job is to remove all the ambiguities. You have to find the real intention behind the objection. You do that by asking intelligent questions.

In answering your question, the customer might reveal their real intentions behind the objection.

Once you have done that, rephrase the concern as you understand it.

You can do it by a statement like this. If I understand you correctly, your concern is ‘Intention behind objection’

Sometimes when you rephrase the sales objection, you and the buyer see the objection as a mutual problem that needs to be solved collaboratively.

You both get closer to the true source of the objection as a result.

Step 3: Acknowledge the sales objection.

One of our deepest longings is that other people should acknowledge our feelings. We want our challenges to be understood. We need someone to notice our anxieties and empathize with our sadness. We don’t want others to agree with all our feelings, but what we crave is that they at least confirm them. In other words, we want to feel validated.

Customers are no different.

Acknowledging customer objections by stating a simple comment like ” that’s a very good point ” or nodding and saying “I hear you ” or saying “thank you for bringing that up. That’s a relevant point” is a good way of making the customer feel heard.

It inherently means you were listening attentively. You have understood what they were saying and are willing to address it.

Responding to a sales objection put forth by the customer and acknowledging it is getting on the customer’s side. It is akin to a friend advising him on his objection.

Step 4: Handle the objection in sales.

This is the most important step of overcoming customer objections.

Handling sales objections requires creative thinking. It needs you to wear your problem-solving hat. It is where you have to put in effort and time and this is a continuous process.

 Categorizing Customer’s sales objections.

Customers objections are in 4 major areas:

Need: Customer believes he doesn’t need the product or service you have to offer

Money: Customer thinks the value you deliver is lower than the price you charge

Time: Customer thinks he doesn’t need the product or service you have to offer now

Credibility: Customer doesn’t trust your competence

In step one I mentioned creating an objection handling bank.

This bank should contain your answers to the most common customer objections in the above categories

For e.g  If you hear objections like “Your price is too high”;

Then in your sales objection handling bank, you should have a list of answers to address price concerns.

Some examples: 

Objection 1: Your product is too expensive

Approach 1: Price objection is the most common objection salespeople hear from customers

Sometimes it is genuine, sometimes it is a negotiation tactic. When you hear price objections, get curious. Ask the customer why does he feels so and then try to  logically justify your price

Objection 2: Your competition’s prices are lesser than yours.

Approach 2: Ask the customer about the price difference.

Then explain about the extra value adds you offer which makes your price higher.

Objection 3: I don’t need it now

Approach 3: In this case use references, benefits and data points.

Your pitch should justify the importance of your solution. It should talk about benefits to customers & cost of delay.

Objection 4: Your competition has a better product than you

Approach 4: Don’t get defensive or take this objection as an offence.

Treat this as an opportunity to educate your customers about your unique value over your competition.

If required, arrange a demo or Proof of concept of your product and solution to reaffirm your quality

Handling objections in sales is the most important step in the objection handling process.

It forces you to be creative and think out of the box. It Introduces you to new aspects of your product or service which you may not have thought of earlier.

It might lead you to involve other team members or use some other resources to handle customers’ sales objections.

There is no silver bullet nor will there ever be in handling Objections. This is a continuous learning process where you learn to handle a few objections by experience. Yet, for some, you have to still think on your feet.

Step 5: Validate

Last but not the least step of responding to objections in sales is validation.

In this step, you check if you managed to convince your customer with your answers. You ensure that you have addressed all the concerns or apprehensions. You tell the customer they can discuss the objection again rather than keeping it to themselves.

Validation is a demonstration that you care for the customer. It shows that you want them to be completely sure before they make any decision.

These are 5 simple steps of handling customer objections. Although there is a pro tip I would like to add along with these 5 steps:

Practice Active Listening. 

We have two ears and one mouth so we can listen twice as much as we speak.

As a professional salesperson, listening is the number one skill we need to develop to be successful. With active listening, you show your respect for the client’s opinion. You let him speak and express all possible objections in his mind.

This gives you an understanding of his apprehensions and how you can then handle them appropriately.

Responding to sales objections is a continuous process.

For sales professionals, handling objections is a never-ending process.

You need to work on it continuously because every customer is unique and every customer’s situation is unique.

Creating your own objection handling bank, makes you well prepared to handle objections. It helps you to differentiate between objections, negotiation tactics and rejections.

At times I have seen many customers using price objections as a negotiation strategy. So, I always recheck the facts to handle this.

For eg: During a sales conversation, a customer was comparing my company’s product with our competition’s. They were claiming that they offer the same product for half the cost.

Now I had done my own market intelligence and I knew that’s not possible. So, I figured out that’s a negotiation tactic. So, I was able to plan my negotiation strategy accordingly.

You can prepare for about 80% of objections. But, there will always be that 20% of objections that you are not prepared for. 

You might have to think on your feet or you might buy some time from the customer to come back to him with a concrete reply.

Wrapping it all up.

Are you getting stuck at any of the mentioned steps? Please mention it in the comments and I would love to help you.

If you have read this article till the end, do write in the comments section what is your biggest takeaway from this.

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