Several salespeople are simply unable to handle customer objections. They immediately recoil once a customer puts up a roadblock. They back away, give ground, and become reactive, instead of proactive.
Eventually, the customer assumes control and the result is a lost sale. However, this can change when you stop and understand why customers use stall tactics.
Now, the intention here isn’t to imply that salespeople need to be aggressive with customers. Instead, it’s about confronting the objection and stall tactic, offering up a solution, and moving forward.
However, why do customers use objections, stall tactics, and roadblocks anyways? Surprisingly, it’s not to get you to abandon pursuit or give up. They do it to allow you to win them over.
Show Me!
Ultimately, customers use these approaches because they’ve yet to be convinced by your argument. In essence, they’re giving you the chance to show them what your product or service can do. After all, if they weren’t at all interested, then wouldn’t they just hang up and tell you to never call back?
When a customer isn’t remotely interested in your message, they simply tune out. They ignore what you have to say and cut the conversation short. They aim to get off the phone or out of the meeting as soon as possible.
However, when a customer uses an objection, they are trying to validate their own decision not to move forward with you. They are looking to justify why your offer isn’t good enough. It’s their way of saying “I knew it was too good to be true!” When something sounds too good to be true, it usually is in the customer's eyes.
Understand Why Customers Stall
Your customer’s objection is an opportunity. You need to understand that the fact that they’re willing to speak with you is a good thing. It’s your chance to show them that whatever fear they have is unfounded.
Again, the idea isn’t to aggressively go after the customer by simply saying their fears and concerns aren’t valid. It’s about understanding what those fears are when they’re present and giving your customer a reason to move past them.
The best salespeople know that a customer who objections might be interested in purchasing. The customer may simply be trying to validate a decision not to purchase, but in reality, they’re asking you to prove it to them. They’re asking you to take that first step towards addressing their concerns and finding a viable solution.
Empower Your Sales Team
You need to give your salespeople the tools to succeed.
First, outline your market and customers’ most obvious fears and concerns. These are issues that are inherent to your industry.
Second, come up with ways that your salespeople can address these concerns. Teach them to listen to the types of objections they’re most likely to encounter and help them develop answers.
Third, use role-playing exercises where these objections are present. Review how each salesperson handled the situation. Debrief the role play and outline whether the salesperson was successful in identifying the cues provided by the customer, and how well they did addressing the concerns.
Fourth, get your salespeople comfortable with asking customers for their business. Several salespeople are excellent at uncovering issues, confronting objections, and offering solutions, only to fail when it comes time to win the order. There’s nothing wrong with asking a customer for an order.
Finally, make sure your salespeople do a debrief themselves with the customer if they lose an order. This simply involves asking the customer why the sale was lost. A simple approach is to say, “I understand that your decision is final. However, can you give me an idea of why we didn’t win this particular bid?”
If the customer has truly decided not to order from your company, they may be willing to shed light on why. This does work and it can provide some invaluable insight into what went wrong and why.
There are still those companies that think a sale begins at “no”. The reality is that the most intuitive salesperson focuses on not letting the customer get to “no”.
If the salesperson has properly addressed the customer’s issues, and their answer is still no, then the focus has to be on understanding why the business wasn’t won so that the salesperson can alter the course the next time around.