What is objection handling?

If every lead automatically turned into a conversion, there would be no need for sales teams. Sales departments exist because customers often need to be convinced that a product or service is worth their time and money. Prospective clients are often initially skeptical, especially if they’re not familiar with your organization.

Whether your team uses the phone, speaks to clients in person or communicates via live chat or social media, being able to deftly field objections is essential for breaking the ice, making a good impression and closing the deal. Empathy, confidence, knowledge and understanding the psychology behind handling objections can go a long way in warming up cold leads, improving the customer experience and making more sales.

Help sales teams enjoy overcoming objections

Teams should take a strategic, proactive approach when handling sales objections. As people, we’re naturally inclined to minimize conflict and avoid challenging others whenever possible. However, ignoring potential pain points that could have been addressed earlier in the sales funnel can spell disaster further down the line.

When your sales staff knows how to welcome and find the fun in fielding objections, they’re more likely to proactively address them before negative opinions get set in stone.

Lead from the top

Sales is all about people skills, and company culture can go a long way toward cultivating a sense of pride around objection handling. Ensure senior staff members are seen to take a positive, proactive approach to objection handling, regularly conduct training sessions and role plays, and include objection handling as a KPI.

Praise top performers profusely and ask them to coach other members of the team who are less confident. Practice makes perfect, and the more you encourage practice and improvement, the better everyone will get. Training teams thoroughly can also help with employee retention, as feeling inadequate or unconfident when dealing with objections is one reason for job dissatisfaction among sales staff.

Remember, being proactive is the best way to handle sales objections. If your team can preempt what a prospect will object to based on their customer profile and interactions, you’re in a great position.

The four-step process for objection handling

Before discussing the most common sales objections, let’s take a look at a four-step approach to handling objections. No matter what type of opposition a salesperson is faced with, they can approach the situation in a systematic way.

Once team members understand that there’s something of a formula to navigating objections, their confidence grows. As they practice and continue to see results, they’ll be able to move away from the formulaic approach and bounce off individual prospects.

Experienced sales employees tend to develop their own tactics over time, but providing newer and less confident employees with a guideline can make a huge difference to your business.

1. Listen

Active listening is the most vital skill for salespeople when it comes to handling objections. If a prospect feels like they’re reading from a script or giving a generic response, they’re much more likely to shut down the conversation. To provide an effective response, the team member must link it back directly to the specific customer’s issue.

They should avoid arguing or directly challenging the potential client at this stage. Defensiveness won’t help them get permission to address the concern. Keep in mind that acknowledging and listening aren’t the same as agreeing with the objections. It’s a means of validating the person’s opinion and letting them know that this is a two-way street. When people feel listened to and valued, they’re more likely to continue the conversation.

2. Ask

Once the salesperson has acknowledged the concern and displayed empathy, they should ask questions to get as much information as possible from the prospect. The better they understand the concern, the more avenues they can take to solve it. Generally, the first objection a potential customer raises hides an underlying problem that further questioning can uncover.

Another aim of asking questions is to be curious rather than confrontational. Leading with an assumption of what the customer is objecting to could result in further misunderstandings, whereas curiosity demonstrates a genuine interest in the potential buyer.

3. Solve

Now the issue has been clarified, and the customer feels listened to, the salesperson is in a position to address the objection. Often, objections arise because the customer is still in the early stages of the buying process and needs more information before making a purchase. At this point, sales employees can determine the best course of action.

They might give an example of a current client who had the same objection and is now a happy customer or offer to send marketing material, such as brochures or an e-book.

4. Confirm

Verbal confirmation is vital at every step of the sales process because it ensures that the salesperson and customer are on the same page. Being able to communicate an elegant response to an objection is one thing, but actually making it resonate with a prospect is something else entirely. At the end of the objection handling process, it’s vital that the salesperson directly asks if they’ve helped solve the issue.

Empathy and confidence are essential for building trust, and this four-step process can help customers feel listened to, understood and valued.

Top four sales objections

When it comes to handling objections, there are certain issues that arise frequently regardless of industry, vertical or location. Below is a breakdown of the most common objections sales teams face every day.

• Price objection:This is probably the most common objection and the most challenging to handle. If the prospect has the means to make a purchase, the salesperson need to determine how to sell the value of it. If affordability is the issue, they need to find a way to make it more affordable. When a potential customer says “it’s too expensive,” train team members to respond by asking a question along the lines of, “Is it more than you planned on spending, or do you not see why it costs that much?”
• Time objection: With the digital landscape facilitating instant purchases, time is becoming an increasingly common issue. Salespeople should ask questions to explore what the prospect’s time constraints are and if there’s any flexibility. If a prospect requires something immediately but it’s not in stock, they need to quickly come up with a relevant alternative.
• Effort objection:These objections occur if the client thinks switching from their current solution isn’t worth the effort. The best way to handle this pain point is by demonstrating how easy it is, and reaffirming the long-term value of doing so. Social proof is a great tactic to implement because it provides a real-life example of how the purchase adds value.
• Effectiveness objection:When prospects are unsure of a product or service, they might question if it does what they need or remark that they’ve had a bad experience with a similar purchase. This objection is challenging, and requires that the sales employee asks lots of questions. By finding out about the potential client’s infrastructure, systems and process, they can get the necessary data to propose a viable solution.

Knowing when sales objections mean no

Anyone who’s been in sales knows that many prospects won’t give you the time to provide an explanation about value. People are very busy and often face daily interactions with salespeople, so they have a set of stock objections they’ll throw out instantly to ward off time-wasters. Keeping them engaged in the conversation is a matter of confidence, persistence and empathy.

Nonetheless, there’s a line between being assertive and aggressive, and sales should never tip over into the latter. The above advice about handling objections helps sales teams get past gatekeepers or cold leads, not uninterested parties. If the potential client continues to object despite an employee’s best efforts, it’s time to move on to the next prospect. Coach your sales employees to read a prospect’s tone of voice and facial expressions and never push past anyone’s comfort zone.

Key skills for overcoming sales objections

There are some soft skills that can significantly improve sales teams’ objection handling abilities and help them make a great impression on prospects. Let’s take a look at the most important ones:

• Confidence:This is the most important skill to cultivate in sales teams. Sounding self-assured doesn’t come naturally to many people, and it requires practice and time to learn. Team-building exercises, role plays and a healthy company culture all help boost confidence.
• Empathy:This skill is about being able to read people and act accordingly. No two prospects are the same, and taking a cookie-cutter approach is a surefire way to irritate potential clients. Empathy allows team members to make individuals feel heard, valued and understood, so they’re more likely to provide needed information.
• Rapport:The best salespeople are experts at building trust within a matter of minutes. Confidence and empathy go a long way toward making people feel secure, but tactics such as using the client’s name, asking about their day and giving genuine compliments are also effective.
• Curiosity:A common misconception with inexperienced salespeople is that they need to do all the talking. In fact, asking questions and getting the prospect to open up is the key to getting the data necessary to make a sale. The better team members are at listening, empathizing and understanding the needs of the potential client, the more they’ll sell.