Handle Objections Like a Boss

admin

Posted on

In this episode of Above The Noise, Luke Acree talks about how to overcome objections as they arise by outlining three general tactics that you can apply to any pitch, any prospect.


Video Transcription

Guys today we’re talking about cold calling and I want to talk a little bit more about this topic of handling objections. Now, I mentioned in a past video that I have about 70 people on the phones full-time right now, so objections come up all day long. I want to give you guys a three-step process that we use that have really helped us over the years handle objections.

So, every sales caller knows when you give a great presentation or a pitch and you get to the end where you’re going to assume the order and ask for the close, what’s going to come next is an objection. And a tip I’ll give you, is you need to expect objections to come and you need to embrace that because that’s going to translate to the confidence of how you handle it.

So, let’s walk through a scenario, say you get to the end of your pitch and you assume the close and say “Hey Mr. Johnson let me activate your account what would you like to use for the billing information, Visa, MasterCard, we do you take American Express and Discover?” At that point Mr. Johnson looks and he says, “Luke you know I really like it, but I really want to talk to my wife first before I make a decision.” At this point walk Mr. Johnson through these three steps.

The first one is acknowledge the objection. So many salespeople will go right back at Mr. Johnson with the rebuttal, trying to overcome the objection. What you need to do is say, “Hey Mr. Johnson I completely understand, I have a wife myself I wouldn’t want you sleeping on the couch.” Make a joke, build camaraderie, this is your chance to make sure Mr. Johnson understands that you hear him. Don’t listen to respond, listen to understand. So acknowledge the objection.

Now the second step is you want to isolate this objection. So what do I mean by that? Where so many sales callers, when they hear an objection they might do a good job at agreeing or acknowledging it, but then they go right for the rebuttal, and even if they do a great job at handling and overcoming the wife objection, guess what pops up next “Oh I want to look at my marketing budget,” or “Oh I need a little bit more time to think about it,” objection after objection after objection. And what I tell salespeople all the time, is a call has a lifespan and fatigue will set in on your prospect and you’ll lose the deal just from the fatigue of the call not even the true objection. So you need to isolate that objection. So after you acknowledge and say “Mr. Johnson, I completely understand, I have a wife myself. Let me ask you this, “Is it just talking to your wife, is that the only thing holding you back from stepping forward with me right now?” What this is gonna do to Mr. Johnson is he’s going to now have to process in his mind is this truly the only objection? You’re almost in a way kind of funneling down on him, and what will happen is two things. one is he will bubble up objection after objection after objection and you can really start analyzing and saying okay what’s the core objection here? Or he’ll say, “Yeah I love it, I just want to get my wife’s okay, and then we’re good to go.” At that point he has said yes to the order. The only thing in your way from Mr. Johnson signing up today is his wife.

And that should lead you into the overcoming stage. So now after you’ve acknowledged it, you’ve isolated it, now you go to overcome. And there’s two things I would want you to recognize when it comes to overcoming. There’s so many different scripts you can use, there’s great one-liners, it depends on your industry. But a principle that I’ve really found to be true, is that the only reason someone doesn’t buy from you, is not because they need to talk to their wife. Maybe they gave you the excuse or the objection of they’re driving. It’s the fact that the value that’s been represented to them in your pitch, in your presentation, has not convinced them enough yet of the cost. That it overcomes the price and the cost that they have to pay. So there’s this principle there and it translates into this fear of losing. As human beings, we hate to make decisions. We can’t even decide where to eat on Friday night with our significant other, let alone on the fly decide that we want to do this marketing for our business. And the reason why is because as humans we’re scared that we’re going to make the wrong decision. Mr. Johnson – put yourself in his shoes. It’s not really talking to his wife, it’s the fact that if he does this today and it doesn’t work, he’s now wasted his money, his time, and if he did it without talking to his wife, now he has to fear the critique and judgment he might get from his spouse.

And so at the end of the day, what you have to do is be very direct. We call it here at ReminderMedia, share from your heart. And you want to stay in acknowledgement and say, “Hey look awesome, I love that you would want to step forward with me. What objections do you think your wife would have?” Make sure he understands you’re still listening, that you’re hearing what he’s saying, you want to address those issues. And then remind him of that value that I talked about. Remind him of the benefits of what you bring to the table, and say, you know for us it would be, “Mr. Johnson I know you need more referrals and repeat transactions for your business. Is that something your wife would want as well for your business? I’m being super sincere here, is that something that your wife would want?” He’s going to say, “Yes.” Then ask him and say, “Well let me ask you this, if your wife made a decision today to purchase product x that would help you drive referral and repeat business, would you be upset with her?” And what’s gonna happen in his mind is he’s going to face the reality that you know what, no, I would be okay with my wife making that decision and she’s gonna be okay with you making that decision, Mr. Johnson. So I really appreciate this opportunity if I can have your okay here and here, we’ll get this thing rolling.

So at the end of the day what you’re doing is you’re funneling him down to realize that what truly is at stake here is not talking to his wife, it’s the value that’s been represented and does he believe enough that this product x is going to help him get why y and z. And if he does, then he doesn’t need to talk to his wife anymore.

The takeaway.

So there you have it guys let me summarize for you. When you get an objection what process you want to walk through in this three steps, is you want to acknowledge it, stay in agreement with that person, then you want to isolate it, make sure it’s the only thing holding them back, and then after you isolated, then overcome by sharing the value that you bring to the table outweighs all that fear of loss, unknown, talking to his wife, the time it would take to pull over to the road, side of the road if they’re driving. Let them know that it’s worth every penny to do that and you’ll have  success overcoming objections. Take action on this today.

Written by admin