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6 Techniques for Effective Objection Handling - Salesforce Blog

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6 Techniques for Effective Objection Handling

Mar 25 2013 By Daryl Spreiter / in Featured , Sales Mar 25 2013 By Daryl Spreiter in Featured , Sales Comments: 4
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A couple of years ago, I was asked by a senior leader to design a program that would help the sales team qualify more deals. The biggest obstacle to closing new business was how the team was managing customer objections. As the customer mentioned an objection, some reps on the phone would become defensive and start to justify the merits of our company or product. Others just took the objection at face value, hung up and moved on to the next customer on their list. However you look at it, these are missed opportunities. Objections are inevitable but should never be seen as a door slamming closed in your face. The key is to understand why the customer is objecting you must take the time to uncover this if you hope to move forward in a mutually beneficial way. While customers may object for many reasons, lets take a look at few common causes: May simply be lack of knowledge: We dont need a mobile solution. May be a specific, warranted concern: Your price is higher than everyone else. May represent a hidden agenda: The customer has a preference or incentive to use a different
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product but doesnt say that outright. May be a perception issue: The Cloud isnt secure. We may not be clear about their interests: Thats not a priority for me this year. Take action: Think about the objections you receive in your line of business. Write down an example for each of the above types of objections. The techniques in this article will assist you with these and many more that youre likely to face. You may not overcome them every time, but at least you didnt give up before even trying. Now that you have written down the most common objections, here are some of the top tactics for handling them: Tactic #1: Gratitude Say Thank You! Always thank your customer when they put an objection in front of you because this is an opportunity to address it and move on with your deal. In fact, ask them about all of their concerns and objections right up front and youll receive even more opportunities to turn the table to your advantage. Dont forget, an objection is better than a no because it gives you some place to begin the conversation. I cant tell you the number of times a simple thank you has helped to diffuse a situation with an angry or upset customer and get me on my way to solving their problem or getting them back on the happy train. Tactic #2: Empathize Empathy is a way to connect with your customer on a personal level, show you care and that youre listening. All of us have had to say no at one time or another, and in business, youre not always speaking to the decision maker. Often times, theyre just the messenger so dont shoot yourself in the foot by getting defensive. After thanking the customer for bringing the objection to your attention, empathize in a way that will help further diffuse the situation. For example: I hear this a lot, Im sorry you feel that way, it sounds like this has been very frustrating, I hear what youre saying and I think I can help. By empathizing with the customer, theyre more likely to open up and share more. Tactic #3: Let the Discovery Begin Now that youve begun to diffuse the situation, take your time to uncover whats really going on. Good customer discovery always focuses on asking open-ended questions. If the customer can respond with a yes or no, then youve got to rephrase your question. This is a lot harder than it sounds and it takes practice to develop this ability. You can test yourself at home or with a friend have a conversation with someone and only ask them open-ended questions. If you get stuck, just do what every 4 year old does and ask why? -- youll be amazed at how powerful that little question can be! Building rapport is equally important during the discovery phase. Check out the recent blog article titled Your Best Sales Prospecting Asset is You for some great tips on building rapport and trust. Tactic #4: Ask, Probe, Confirm Now that youve got the questions flowing, its important to keep the conversation moving further and deeper. As the customer responds to your open-ended questions, you should probe further by asking more questions about what theyve just said. If at any time you dont understand something, ask them to clarify. A great example of this tactic is when the customer mentions an acronym or other words specific to their company or business process. Experts say that it takes at least 4-5 layers of questions to really uncover the pain or nature of the objection. Take your time and keep asking questions until you truly understand the reason for the objection and theyve satisfied youre curiosity. Finally, restate what you heard in your own words and ask them to confirm that youve understood them correctly. Barry Rhein published a great whitepaper about the power of open-ended discovery questions titled 15 Sure Fire Ways to Qualify any Prospect. Tactic #5: Show Them The Value
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To keep your customer around for the long haul, they must see value in your product or service. The purpose of good discovery is to understand whats important to them, why it matters, and what their Like business would be like without your product or service. When you uncover a pain, your next step should be to quantify what that pain is costing the business. If the customer continues to object or restate the same objection then youre not asking the right questions to align your value to their pain. Pain can cost a company in a different ways; lost revenue, wasted time, customer satisfaction, employee turnover and more. GuruGanesha Khalsa of Sandler Training fame provides a great example of aligning pain to value using this example: By taking the pain point and expanding on it, the rep can then encourage the customer or prospect to quantify the problem in business and personal terms thereby convincing them that purchasing a product/service to resolve the issue is worth the investment. Tactic #6: Back It Up With Proof & Customer References Now that youve gone through steps 1-5, its time to back up your statements with industry research, customer references or customer success stories to prove the value of your product or solution. For research, find out what analyst firms say about your industry or product and incorporate this data into your conversations. Ive had great success getting new customers interested by mentioning what leading industry analysts say about our products. Customer references are another great tool because those stories often represent a pain or objection that was overcome with success. I challenge everyone I mentor to learn at least 3 new and relevant customer stories a month. Overtime, your stories will set you apart from others and give your customers another reason to trust you with their business. Ive never seen another company sell it better through customer stories than salesforce.com. Take a look at the customer stories on our website and see firsthand how you could leverage the value of references for your business. Managing objections requires practice. Take these 6 rules and apply them to your business. Youll see very quickly that they do work. We saw immediate increases in qualified leads and higher close rates in a very short time by employing these techniques because we were able to demonstrate how our product can be used to overcome real pain in their business. Peter Drucker once said that The quality in a product or service is not what you put into it, its what the customer gets out of it. Think about whats in it for the customer, take what youve learned from your discovery and wrap your solution in terms of values and benefits that will uniquely help them this is how you delight your customers. Please share your own tips and techniques for managing objections in the comments section below. By Daryl Spreiter, Senior Manager Onboarding, Curriculum & Coaching at salesforce.com

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Comments

craig spreiter said... I've been teaching Sales for nearly 20 years and the best approach I've discovered to handling stalls and objections is to ask more, and better, questions early on in the sales process. Understanding your customers motivations, concerns, hot buttons, etc. early in the call help you better position yourself, your company, your product, and your price...it helps you establish more value throughout your presentation rather than just when attempting to close. If done well you head-off most concerns before they become objections. Good luck! Reply 03/25/2013 at 05:51 PM

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Daryl Spreiter said... Thanks Craig. I'm seeing more and more parallels between what you're teaching business students in high school and what we train sales people on in the corporate world. Very cool! Reply 03/25/2013 at 07:28 PM

Tom Payne said... When I was in sales I would occasionally find myself being blocked by the receptionist at the door. She explained the office was closed to sales reps and that I would have to get managements permission to enter. My solution was to hire an espresso truck and have them pull to the front door. It generally took about 10 minutes before everyone in the office was out front. From that point forward I was always welcome in the office. Reply 03/26/2013 at 12:40 PM

Leo Hollants said... It is always good to read an article about objection handling. In fact, these objection handling techniques are nothing new and should be known by everyone in sales or business development and it is good to be reminded of these techniques. Reply 04/01/2013 at 05:43 AM Comment below or sign in with Typepad Facebook Twitter and more...

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