I’m excited to bring you Part 3 of the five-part mini-series on “How To Sell.” In this mini-series I am presenting a completely different perspective from my previous articles, videos, and podcasts. This is a peek into the method of real, top sales professionals and organizations. Thus far, we’ve discussed positioning yourself as the expert in Part 2 – The “Expert” Opening Pitch and believing in your product or service in Part 1 – It’s not what you SELL. It’s what you TEACH. Your goal is to transfer your information to the prospect, so you go in as the expert.
Read the previous blog post. The “Expert” Opening Pitch – How to Sell – Part 2: http://bit.ly/2ztoybU
At some point in this process, the conversation will turn to your self-interest since you ARE eventually selling something. This mini-series is not indicating you should be content to educate everybody in hopes someone will magically say “yes.” I am all about sales and making money. When the conversation makes that turn, you can expect to get the thorn of sales – objections. Every sales person hates to hear those objections! You’ll hear statements such as, “Well, I’m not interested because of ______.” Or “Thanks for stopping by, but we’re good.”
PART 3 – How to deal with objections in the context of this unique sales process.
To deal with objections you very simply ignore them! You are probably asking, “James, what do you mean? How can I ignore them? The prospect just said something to me, and I must respond!” Although you must respond, you don’t necessarily need to respond to the objection. Rather, you should turn objections into something which sales people like called “questions.”
Here is a great line which will usually prevent your losing a prospect early in the process: “That’s a great question.” The following is an example of using this great line.
Prospect’s Objection: “I don’t know. We are not interested. We’ve used something like that before. It didn’t work for us because the cost was still just as high.”
Your response: “That’s a great question, Susan. Let me explain something to you.”
Remember, the whole sales process is predicated on you being the expert, so stay in the teach mode. Relay to prospects that you have their best interest at heart. And understand objections are indications that prospects don’t have enough information yet to make the right decision. Therefore, you ignore objections by programming your mind to hear them as questions. You can be authentically genuine in rephrasing objections to questions since you believe you’re helping prospects make a good decision. If you don’t passionately believe that, then go sell something else. Make sure you deeply understand why buying IS a good decision for prospects. Only on very rare occasions do I accept an objection. If someone tells me they have a son or daughter who services them, then I would say, “Great! Have a good day.” I’m definitely not going to sell in that situation, right? But for other “legitimate” objections, imagine the prospect is saying, “Please tell me more because I don’t have enough information to make the right decision.”
So, the next time you hear an objection – AS LONG AS you are an expert and know what you’re talking about – try saying, “That’s a great question. Let me explain something to you.” That is the only line you need to overcome objections by ignoring them.
Don’t miss PART 4 of this mini-series! We are going to start moving a little further into the sales process towards the close. You’ll definitely want to listen to and/or read that one.
My name is James Shepherd. Thanks for reading!
The “Expert” Opening Pitch – How to Sell – Part 2: http://bit.ly/2ztoybU
The Game Of Yes And How To Win – How To Sell – Part 4: http://bit.ly/2zGfymU