Napkin Logic: 48 Great Business Ideas, Lessons, and Rules - Insights to make you a better business person and entrepreneur by Edholm Philip

Author:Edholm, Philip [Edholm, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PKE Consulting LLC
Published: 2014-02-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23 Objections

This and the next chapter were highly influenced by training I received in a program called Sandler selling. While it may not be the right selling approach for a every situation, I found it to be very good for sales professionals. In this course, objections were seen as two things: 1. a red flag that needed to be removed or 2. a real indicator that the sale was not going to happen. The key learning is that an objection that is not addressed or eliminated can and probably will derail a deal, so all selling time from when the objection is known forward is probably wasted. As each salesperson has a limited amount of time (see Chapter 18: The Three Rules of Sales", getting past an objection or recognizing it as a no-go is critical.

In many ways, objections are one of the most difficult parts of managing the relationship with your customer or prospect. The reason is very simple: an objection can either be real or be raised for an entirely different purpose. In other words, an objection can be very truthful, or a lie. For example, saying that I cannot buy a 2 seat sports car because I have two children may be a valid objection, but if I have another car and this car is only for special occasions it may not matter. I may not want the car for other reasons, but that is a convenient objection. Similarly, features, price, size, anything that is an objection can be both valid or be put forward for other reasons.

The key is to have a clear view of how to validate an objection before deciding to try to meet it. When presented with an objection, you have to think through the validity of the objection in the greater construct of the sales relationship. Is the objection one that you can meet, or is it one that you cannot? IF you cannot meet it, do you know if your competition can? For example, a request to sell a product at a price where it is not profitable is a deal killer. But how do you know if it is a deal killer?

The only way to do this is to acknowledge the objection and test how fixed the customer is to the point. For example, if your customer wants to buy 10K widgets and says they cannot pay more than $10 each, if your pricing for 10K widgets is $12, then you have an issue. Remembering that a discount of $2 may eliminate all of our profit, you know that you cannot meet this abjection to your price. The first step is to acknowledge that the objection is an issue, as in the following dialog:.

Salesperson: "As you know, our widgets are top quality, and for a volume of 10K, our lowest price is $12 each."

Customer: "Well, I can't pay over $10"

Salesperson: "Are you willing to accept less features or quality?"

Customer: "No"

Salesperson: " We have a problem then as I cannot meet your price.

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