Imagine that you are on a sales call that's been going on for a bit too long. You, as a sales rep, are so close to the client accepting your proposal. You feel that you'll close the deal soon, and you can almost taste it. And then, BOOM! The client drops the most dreaded bomb. When you are making a sales pitch and you hear something like "I love what you're selling, but," or "I appreciate that you have discovered my pain points and, well," or even the dreaded "um" sound, then you know that the decision-maker you called is not that keen on making the decision you were hoping for.
Objections in sales are the most common roadblock to closing a deal. However, usually, the reason why deals fall through is not due to the type of objection itself. They fail because it seems that you cannot handle objections properly.
Here at Cirrus Insight, we've covered multiple topics to help you on your sales journey. We have topics that tackle prospect research, running effective outbound sales campaigns, and the list goes on. We have given you sales email templates for outreach, but what about emails that will help you overcome objections? What about some ideas where you can ask open-ended questions to keep the conversation going and build trust?
The good news is that plenty of other salespeople have encountered the same problems in their sales cycles. Instead of trying to devise a way to overcome them on your own, you can uncover and use one of the templates we have provided in this article. They are based on approaches that have worked for different types of sales objections. We want you to stop giving off an unsure vibe with words like "maybe," "but," and "only if." We want you to become one of the top sales leaders in your team.
But first, let's review the steps you can take during the initial sales process to minimize customer objections later on, because the easiest objections to overcome are the ones your prospects don't raise in the first place!
Certain sales teams tend to cut corners to improve their bottom line, thinking that they can skip a few steps to maximize their output, but this simply doesn't work, regardless of whether you are into B2C or B2B sales. As your sales training suggested, you need to qualify your leads properly.
Don't get this the wrong way. The issue isn't that salespeople don't qualify their prospects at all. The real issue is in the little details. Some sales professionals tend to skip one or two qualifying criteria. They proceed with the sale and end up finding out midway that the prospect isn't a good match. Remember, qualifying prospects is not just about saving your time. It's also about protecting you from avoidable rejections. If you do this part right, you will have far less to worry about when it comes to objection handling techniques through sales conversations.
Here's what we think is the top qualifying criteria to consider for each potential customer:
According to several case studies on the subject, these are the top questions to consider. But, as we said, the best way to handle objections successfully is to avoid them as much as possible.
PRO TIP: To avoid objections later in the sales process, first amply demonstrate your product's value proposition.
During the initial part of the sales process, you should also ask your prospects questions and conduct your own research to really understand their goals, needs, and how they make money. This lets you frame every single one of your product features in terms of how they benefit that specific business. If you can prove that your product will double your client's ROI within a certain period of using it as a natural part of the sales process, then you are on the right path. The more your prospect understands and values your product, the less likely they are to object to its price later.
PRO TIP: Price objections are one of the most common types of objections, and if you don't encounter them now, you will encounter them during your next sales call.
Now that we have covered the basic theory of avoiding the first objection, let's examine a specific example to illustrate our points.
Let's assume that you are selling an email tracking tool.
If your prospect says that their goal is tracking their sales performance, you might say something like this:
We provide detailed reports and charts on open rates, click rates, attachment open rates, and close rates for all emails and email chains so you can see exactly:
a) Which salespeople are sending the highest-performing emails?
b) How many emails does it take from initial contact to a deal closed?
c) What is the average open and click rate per type of sales email, sent at which time of day?
On the other hand, if their goal is optimizing their sales performance, you might highlight:
We will provide you with detailed analytics on open rates, click rates, attachment open rates, and close rates so you can closely follow:
a) The best-performing subject lines and email CTAs for different stages of the sales process;
b) Save your best-performing emails as templates the whole team can use;
c) Test different email versions (subject line and body), and see which one gets a better response.
If you are a veteran sales expert and you're reading this, you have probably noticed that we were using some of the most common tactics sales reps use in various business verticals. Notice how we're talking about the exact same tool but highlighting different features or different use cases depending on the prospect's goals? That's how you fit your solution to your prospect's problem.
Now that we've done our best to avoid as many sales objections as possible, let's move on to the templates. They are designed to promote effective objection handling across the board.
If the prospect raises an objection, the first step is to make sure that they are actually raising a real objection. Ask them whether they really like your product. Otherwise, you may just be running in circles trying to address their objections when they are just smokescreens for "I don't like this product" or "I don't understand the value of your product".
The best course of action that would lead to successful objection handling would be to ask your prospect the following question.
No matter what types of sales tools you use, you cannot skip these two very important points.
Okay! We covered the first short and sweet template question that will lead you to successful objection handling in sales. Let's move on to the second template.
Handling objections in sales means discussing the price in most scenarios. Listen to the objection, but do not offer discounts right away. Don't bend over backwards to accommodate your prospects.
This only creates the impression that you're easy to manipulate. They will try to ask for further discounts, saying that your product isn't worth the initial quoted price.
Instead, to overcome price objections, offer to remove specific product or service features your prospect doesn't need to lower the price.
Here is a neat little template that should help you handle any objection related to the price of your product or service.
(1) We sympathized with the client's budget concerns.
(2) We offered to remove an aspect of our product or service to bring down the price.
(3) We restated the main idea of our sales pitch: our product helps the prospect achieve an important goal.
We are hopeful that you already feel you can handle more potential objections, that you will work on your methods, and that you will ensure that no objections go unaddressed.
We have two more templates to cover, so strap in!
When negotiating a large contract, it's more effective to outline several possibilities for bringing the price closer to your prospect's numbers. Get creative about what product or service features you can remove from the package to handle the objection and resolve the issue.
(1) Show them you're willing to work with them, but do not offer any dollar-value discounts.
(2) Brainstorm 3 options where you decrease the features or services you provide, or ask the prospect to do something to lower the cost.
(3) If you run a service, you can make a certain % of your final price contingent upon performance targets.
(4) 'Let me know' is a low-pressure way to ask your prospect for their thoughts on your options.
Three down and one to go.
Sometimes, when you email a company, they'll get back to you with some variation of "Thanks for the info. I'll keep your info on file." As you've probably noticed throughout your sales career, very few prospects take the initiative to actually get back to you. Well, we have an easy solution.
Instead of letting this type of prospect go, you can reply with something like this.
If you are in the loop, you'll easily identify the right window to send another message to that prospect.
Unless your prospect really doesn't like, cannot afford, or doesn't need your product or service, an objection is really just a test. The prospect is probably testing a lot of things this way.
With the right approach and carefully chosen words, you can overcome sales objections and show prospects that your product is worth their money and that the team behind it is a partner they can really work with to get the maximum bang for their buck.
Sapph Li runs Art of Emails, where she shares free, proven sales email templates. Don't guess what to say. Instead, reference emails from other salespeople. If they successfully move the sale forward with their choice of words, you will, too.