Overcoming Sales Objections: Three Essential Steps

Handling objections effectively is crucial for moving deals forward. In this post, I'll share three easy steps to help you address objections and keep the sales process moving forward.

Step 1: Validate Their Objection

The first step is to validate the prospect's objection. Acknowledge their concern to show that you're listening and respecting their point of view. The last thing you want is to get defensive. For instance, you might say, "I understand why that might concern you." The reason why you don't want to get defensive is that you don't want to turn the buyer off. This is how they feel, whether you agree or not.

By validating their concern, you let them know you understand before moving on to the next step.

Step 2: Understand Why It's Important

The next step is to find out why the objection is important to them. You can do this by simply asking, "Can you tell me a bit about why the implementation time is a concern for you?" This question helps you understand the underlying concerns, the importance of the objection, and provides context for addressing it.

Step 3: Determine Its Impact

Finally, after understanding why, determine whether the objection is pivotal to the key value proposition that they initially found valuable. If it's not, remind them of their original key priority and check if that's still their main focus. For example, you might say, "Our solution offers significant cost savings in the long run. Is that still the main priority? Those cost savings will not be impacted by this implementation process. With that being the case, would this be a deal breaker for you?"

If the objection is pivotal, you'll need to address it if possible. This may involve finding a workaround or an alternative. If it's not possible, they might not be a qualified prospect until the objection is no longer valid. To qualify a prospect, they must have a need and the means to buy from you.

In such scenarios, they might either lack the need because it doesn't address one of their key pain points or have a spend barrier to entry that cannot be resolved. These situations can vary, but if they have the money to pay for your solution and it's a price issue, it's usually more likely to be overcome if your pricing is flexible and customizable.

You could say, "Our pricing is customizable for every single client. We do not want that to be the reason we don't work together. Why don't you tell me a bit about what pricing you need and give me some context as to why that pricing is important for you?"

If the solution is no longer addressing something that they were initially coming to you for, overcoming this may only be possible if their needs change or your solution evolves.

Practical Examples

Consider a prospect looking to automate their backend reporting as their main value driver. If your offering lacks a key integration necessary for automating their backend reporting, you'll face a major objection. Unless you can integrate with their required platform or find an alternative solution, this objection might prevent you from partnering long-term.

It's always better to be honest and walk away in the short-term than create a scenario that could damage the long-term potential of your partnership and your company's reputation. Sales is about helping people, and if you can't help someone, it's better to find another prospect you can assist. You can always revisit this prospect in the future if something changes.

Conclusion

By implementing these tips, you'll be able to effectively address objections, overcome those that aren’t deal breakers, and avoid wasting time on those that are. Thank you so much for reading. If you found this post helpful, check out my Youtube channel where I give out more B2B sales tips.

Remember, if you're not helping, you're not selling.