There are plenty of techniques to deal with difficult customers on the phone, but the most successful ones are objection handling techniques. These methods can help you efficiently respond to buyers’ concerns, leading to sales.
Though you can’t read the buyer’s mind, your objection handling efforts will improve your chance of selling a product or service.
So, if you want to succeed, you need to polish your skills and learn the best ways to handle objection from a buyer. Therefore, we’ve mentioned some of the most effective and successful techniques you can practise. Read on to learn about objection handling, what is pricing objection, product objection, and other objections.
What is Objection Handling in Sales?
Objection handling plays an important role in building a good relationship with prospects. In fact, it helps you to establish yourself as a field expert who can solve the problem.
To be precise, objection handling is when a potential customer voices their pain points about the service or product to a sales representative, and the salesperson responds and solves the problem. As a result, the deal moves forward. Objection handling techniques not only help customers but also help the sales team determine whether they’re working with the right people or they can make a sale in the end.
6 Best Sales Objection Handling Techniques
Learning objection handling skills is important for every salesperson, especially those who are working in a B2B telemarketing company. Here are some of the most important techniques that will help you become a successful salesperson.
Be an Active Listener
The primary objective of objection handling is to build trust. This can only happen when prospects feel you are hearing from them. Avoid interjection, give them space, and develop skills of active listening to understand their fears and concerns. Understanding their wants, motivations, goals, and fears will help you effectively practise objection handling. Building a strong connection with prospects will help you achieve optimal outcomes for your company later.
Always Thank Your Customer
Customers with concerns are usually angsty and furious. The easiest way to calm them down is to say “Thank You!” when they bring your attention to something. In fact, you can ask them all their objections and concerns, this will help you turn the table to your advantage.
Note that a customer objecting about something is better than a customer not saying anything. This is because it allows you to build a conversation. Also, it will help the customer get answers, encouraging them to buy your products or services.
Ask Open-Ended Questions
This is the most important thing that you need to learn. If your customers respond in yes or no, it will be challenging for you to build a conversation and take them to a point where they start to develop trust in you.
So, start asking open-ended questions. If you’re getting answers in yes or no, rephrase your questions. We know it’s a difficult task, but once you get a grip on your questions, you will excel in the field. Additionally, you can test your questions at home and see the kind of responses family members give.
Clarify with Questions
Many salespeople underestimate the power of asking questions in response to customers’ concerns and objections, but it can help you a lot. When a customer shows their concerns, a salesperson spends the next two to three minutes steamrolling. This often results in addressing the wrong issue. So, clarify questions. But how? Here are some techniques you can use.
Use Mirroring Technique
Repeat the last few words of the customer’s sentence in a question form that encourages the buyer to elaborate. For instance, ” The price is too high?” or “Our timing is not right?”.
Ask Question “Why” without using the word “Why”
Asking questions about why can trigger a heated argument with the customer. “Can you help me understand the reason for the problem?”- this type of question allows the customers to explain their problem in detail and gives you a chance to understand the cause. This puts you in a better position to solve their problem.
Validate Customer’s Objection
So, you need to have a calm demeanour during the call and ask a couple of questions. The next thing you need to do is to validate your objection. Keep in mind that most of the time, people feel misunderstood. If you understand them, you’ll have an influence over them.
By validating the buyer’s concerns, you can make it feel like you understand them. You can do this by summarising confirmation questions. You can say “That’s a valid concern. It seems like you are __________ .” Listen to the customer and pinpoint the emotion they’re feeling to fill the blank. In most cases, you’ll be right, because prospects believe that you understand them.
Support Your Statement with Proof
While talking about your product or service, you need to support your statement with proof. So when you say that your product is the best, talk about the features that make it the best.
Also, if you say that you’re better than your competitors, give customers reasons why you are better. You can also discuss the mechanism of your product to help them understand the premium quality and amazing features of the product that they can’t find in any other company.
Types of Sales Objections
Although there are several objections that you might have to face, some of the most common sales objections are mentioned below. Typical sales conversation
Need Objection
In many instances, you contact a buyer and they refuse to purchase your services or products. They either don’t want to solve the problem or don’t perceive the problem actually exists. In this case, you can opt for the following approach.
- Sell the product or services results
- Use the root cause of the need to sale
- Diversify your research about the product and your client’s company to effectively give answers to your customers
Trust Objection
This is common, and more happens with the sales reps who don’t practise objection handling techniques. You make a call or prospects contact you and you bombarded them with the information without hearing them out will prevent them to trust you. Just try to use the above-mentioned techniques to deal with these types of concerns.
Price Objection
Price objections are the most common issues, and sometimes impossible to solve. But you can opt for a different approach to help customers pay with ease. You can divide the cost into several monthly payments. Make sure to justify the value and tell prospects what features they will enjoy, effectively compelling them to make a budget to purchase your services or products.
Product Objection
It’s common for customers to raise concerns about a product. For instance, “Your products seem low quality, while your competitors are offering much better options” or “Your product is difficult to use, I have found a simpler option.” Typically, this happens when prospects don’t understand the features and functionality of your products. When you hear these types of concerns, explain the features of your product in detail.
Aggressive Objections
Unfortunately, as a sales executive, it’s likely that you will come across the occasional aggressive customer who raises their voice at you. You might even have to deal with a customer who turns down your deal in the most hurtful and unpleasant way.
First, try to stay calm. Mostly aggressive individuals tell you about their bad experiences. So, while using the above-mentioned techniques, give them solid proof to justify your services or products. If you can’t handle them, pass them to your colleague.
How does an Object Handler Work?
As the name suggests, object handlers are sales professionals who use solution selling methods to eliminate the prospect’s concerns. The expert handling sales objections will contact a prospect, or, in other cases, a customer will contact a company. The sales rep will market their product or service.
During a sales call, the buyer, most probably, will tell them about their common objections. In this case, instead of following the same sales pitch, the salesperson needs to use objection handling techniques:
- Show their gratitude
- Talk patiently
- Ask customers about more concerns
As the conversation builds, the sales professional will convince the customers to purchase their services or products.
Bottom Line
Effective objection handling skills are key to excelling in sales and handle objections carefully, wisely, and skilfully, use the above-mentioned techniques to satisfy your prospects and turn them into customers.
