Article

Don’t Answer Objections, Isolate Them!

Topic: Sales TrainingBy Mike Brooks, Mr. Inside SalesPublished Recently added

Legacy signals

Legacy popularity: 1,082 legacy views

Most sales reps hate getting objections. Their hearts sink into their stomachs, their palms start to sweat, and they start wondering how they're going to pay the rent. Sound familiar?

When sales reps ask me how they should handle objections, they are often surprised by my answer. I tell them they should never answer objections. When they look at me like I'm crazy, I explain:

“Objections are often stalls or smokescreens hiding other objections that your prospect doesn't want to disclose. As soon as you begin answering objections, have you ever found that they have another and yet another?"

“Oh, yeah,” they say. So here’s what you should do:

Instead of answering an objection you must first isolate and question it. Let's take two of the most common ones – “Your price is too high," and “I need to speak with, talk to…"

If your client says, “Your prices too high," you should respond with:

“I can understand that, and let me ask you a question -- if this price was exactly what you were willing to pay, is this (your product/service, etc.) the solution you would go with today?"

Now that you've isolated the objection you will see if price really is the only objection. Any answer other than ‘yes’ and price isn't what is stopping your prospect form moving forward (which means you have more work to do to find out what is!)

Same thing with the “I've got to speak to, talk this over with….” objection. You should say:

“I can totally understand that, prospect’s name, and let me ask you -- if you did speak with _______ and they said whatever you thought was fine with them, would you go with this today?"

Again, any answer other than ‘yes’ and that objection is just a stall. Answering it will get you nowhere.

Do you see how this works? The whole point of questioning and isolating the objection first is to uncover what is really holding your prospect back.

And until you find that out, there will be no deal.

So stop answering objections and start isolating them. You will become a much stronger closer, and you'll begin making more sales. Kind of like the Top 20% do!

If you found this article helpful, then you can get 10 more GREAT TECHNIQUES for FREE by downloading my Special Report, “10 Techniques to Instantly Make You a Better Closer.” You can read about this by clicking here: http://www.mrinsidesales.com/report.htm and you can get it for FREE by signing up for my FREE weekly Ezine, “The Secrets of the Top 20%” by clicking here: http://www.mrinsidesales.com/ezine.htmnn

Article author

About the Author

Mike Brooks, Mr. Inside Sales, offers FREE Closing Scripts, and a FREE audio program designed to help you double your income selling over the phone. He works with business owners and inside sales reps nationwide teaching them the skills, strategies and techniques of Top 20% performance. If you want to Close Business like a Top Closer, then learn how at: www.MrInsideSales.com

Further reading

Further Reading

4 total

Article

Back in the late 1980’s, the Honda Motor Company ran a memorable series of commercials, the basic premise of which was that the company’s cars were so amazing, they sold themselves. This commercial’s “hook” was that it featured a salesman who was bored out of his mind and had nothing to do because the cars were so in demand they were practically walking off the lot. The brand’s slogan at the time was “Honda, the car that sells itself.” Ha!

Related piece

Website

From motivation and leadership skills to peak performance and sales training, chasethechampionship.com is dedicated to presenting you with strategies, advice and information vital to gaining the upper hand, acquiring power and finishing first.

Related piece

Article

What is ‘Joy’? Is ‘Joy’ attainable? Webster’s defines ‘joy’ as “the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires.” Based on that, joy is definitely attainable. You see, each of us has our own definition of ‘well-being’, ‘success’, ...

Related piece

Article

Excerpt from the book "Chase the Championship - Kicking Ass, Taking Names and Becoming a Dealmaker!" Stay far away from the boss’s underlings when you are in search of a decision. The heads of Marketing, IT, Human Resources, or whoever else is part of the “decision-making chain” for the product or service that you are selling should never be the people that you go after for a commitment.

Related piece