Overcoming objections can be hazardous to your sales efforts. Stay with me for a minute…
How do you usually react when you state an opinion about something and someone immediately tries to rebut your opinion?
You probably get just a bit aggravated inside, don’t you? How dare you disagree or try to correct my opinion before you understand what I’m really thinking?
Is this how you make your prospects and clients feel when you attempt to change their perspective about something?
What’s the alternative to overcoming objections?
Explore the objection. Seek first to understand the objection before sharing your perspective. Once you demonstrate a sincere effort to understand the other person’s thinking, you have then have earned the right to share your perspective.
5 Strategies to Deal More Effectively with Objections
- Change Your Belief – Objections and concerns are not rejection. If you equate objections with rejection and you hate rejection (who doesn’t), then you’ll never be very effective in helping someone make a decision that’s in their best interest.
- Be Proactive, Not Reactive – Do you get reoccurring objections? Bring them up yourself. “If I were in your shoes, I might be thinking…” Now you dictate the discussion on your terms.
- Understand the Objection – First and foremost, before you share your perspective make sure you fully understand their perspective. Otherwise, they won’t hear a word you say and dig their heels in even deeper.
- Have a Process, Don’t Wing It – Do you have a process for how to deal effectively with concerns and objections? Do you know what to do first and where you want to end up? Winging it is rarely as effective as a solid formula. Freedom comes from structure!
- Set Objections Aside or Back Off with Grace – Sometimes you can set an objection aside and revisit it later – after other ideas are discussed. This will often render that objection meaningless. Sometimes you have to back off and live to discuss at a later time.
Don’t Be a Feel-Felt-Found Phony
Have you heard of the Feel-Felt-Found technique? It can be your friend or foe depending on how you use it. If someone says, “I don’t like to give referrals” and you immediately launch into FFF, you will likely be damaging rapport and trust.
Why? Because you don’t know how they feel. You don’t really understand their perspective. You have not earned the right to reframe their thinking.