The Secret to Preventing Objections

Peady’s Selling Engagement sponsored by IRD Prospector

 


Welcome to this week’s post on sales and selling success.

Back in the day when I first started in media sales we didn’t have a formal sales process or sales training however we did work on objection handling – when the prospect says this, you respond with that. It worked up to a point, but as customers became more sophisticated it  ceased to work altogether! 

As a sales manager I often wondered what would happen if rather than overcoming or handling objections could we develop a system and learn how to avoid them? Is that even possible? 
Fast forward to 2018. Of course, it’s possible to prevent objections. 

The set up to avoid objections 

Outstanding sales professionals know the secrets to preventing objections in the first place. They know that instead of learning to handle stalls and objections, they avoid them altogether by using and implementing a proven selling system. A system that leads to more business and long-term relationships!

So, what do I mean by a proven selling system? Whether it’s a methodology or process it’s the “how to” of selling and can apply to different stages or the entire sales cycle. Systems such as SPIN Selling,NEAT Selling,SNAP Selling,The Sandler System or The Challenger Sale are all very effective but depend on the market, the product and the team.

Preventing objections

There are two key ways:

  1. Deepen your sales conversation and tweak your questions to ensure you uncover the real position of the customer. What are their real problems, challenges, opportunities? I said real NOT perceived! How do they measure ROI or perceive value? Does the customer have an entrenched position? How about their tolerance for spending or investing money? Miss any of these and you’ll run into objections.
  2. Next, identify all of the potential objections for that customer. Not general objections, but the ones you truly believe are specific to this situation. Write them down and then develop a script that deals with the objection. Include that script as part of your normal presentation so that the potential objections are covered in advance of the customer raising them! Tools to support these arguments can include testimonials, case studies, examples of strong ROI, value propositions and results.  

I believe that the most important attitude all salespeople need to prevent objections boils down to the right approach using the right methodology. With practice and application, you can prevent the stalls and objections from ever coming up in the first place.

Until next week good selling!
 

About the author 

Stephen Pead is a media industry veteran of 30 years with significant experience in direct sales, sales management and general management. He is based in Sydney and specialises in helping SME’s market their businesses more effectively and providing training for salespeople and sales managers.

He can be contacted at [email protected]

 

 

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