Objections - Part 1
If you have been in the sales game longer than five minutes, then you have encountered your fair share of objections. We have all heard the common ones such as; “I’ll think it over,” “I need to shop around,” or “I need to talk to my spouse.” There are countless more and surly you can come up with a list of your own. What is a customer saying with an objection? They are not saying that they don’t want to buy; they are saying they are just not convinced to buy yet.
If truth were told, the real objections are much easier to deal with than the false objections. We have all heard the customer say, “I’ll be back” and we never see hide nor hair of them again. This is commonly referred to as the Be Back Bus. This bus leaves often but almost never returns to the station. This particular objection is so frustrating because the salesperson never has a chance to deal with the customers’ true objections. However, it is up to the salesperson, not the customer to recognize the Be Back Bus objection and find a way to overcome it.
Your ability to handle every type of objection is going to go a long way in determining your level of success in the sales field. One of the first things you must realize is that all objections are important and any one of them could be the reason that the customer walks out of the store empty handed. The concept that the first two or three objections should be ignored because they don’t count is a long outdated idea. How do you really know what the real objection is? The answer is you don’t.
We have talked many times about fostering relationships with your customers that will lead to future sales. It sure would be a lousy way to start a relationship by ignoring the feelings of your customers. As mentioned before, you do not know what the actual objection is. Maybe there is only one objection and if you choose to ignore it because that’s what you have been told to do, then you have lost a sale that you could have made by handling only one objection. Every objection from your customers deserves your utmost attention and your ability to deal with all of them is vital to your success as a salesperson.
FINAO - Brad Huisken - President, IAS Training
