Dealing with Objections in Sales Part 1

SOMETIMES WE CAN’T OVERCOME ‘EM BUT WE CAN ALWAYS DEAL WITH ‘EM

I hate it when Buyers object. Why can’t they just be reasonable and do what I want them to do? Lawyers should object, not our Buyers. It just makes sales so difficult.

In getting started, a couple of things need to be cleared up. It’s really not “overcoming objections” because sometimes we just can’t overcome the objection. Sometimes we can do it right and not get the results we want and other times we muck our way through it and still get the business.

So, where does that leave us? We have to deal with the objection.

To begin with, we have to recognize the objection as quickly as possible – Price, Past Performance, Present Vendor, Resistance to Change. There are four (4) ways to react to – deal with – the objection. It doesn’t matter which you use first or last. Just know these methods are at our disposal.

Things to remember:

1. The Buyer is right.

2. We were the cause of it.

3. We don’t always have to overcome the objection to get the sale.

Here is the first (1 st ) of four (4) ways to deal with objections. Remember, none of these techniques resolve the problem. These help in understanding the situation and deciding what to do next.

IGNORE IT!

This is the simplest course of action. Imagine a Buyer going off because something was delivered late or the paperwork was wrong or for any legitimate reason at all. I am not minimizing a Buyer’s complaint. They could be absolutely right – we did screw it up. It’s just that we have the right to ignore it – at least temporarily.

I knew somebody who worked for the Oakland A’s back in the 1980s they were absolutely mediocre. From 1982 through 1986, the club was sub-500. 1987 was a 81-81 Team. The real problem was that they just didn’t suck enough! If you lose for a long, long time, you become lovable – see the Chicago Cubs. If you’re amazingly bad, you’re the New York Mets. More A’s losses would have elicited sympathy for the Sales guy. But, no.

So, he learned to “ignore it.” he chose not be dragged into a discussion about how boring they were. He changed the subject. He talked about their fabulous promotions, the weather, anything else. He grew to love the off-season because they were “undefeated!” He talked about the new uniforms, the new players – anything but reality.

One of the benefits of the “Ignore” is that we “don’t go down the toilet bowl” as the Buyer continues to berate us, our company, our family and friends. We are silently screaming “enough already!”

Of course, ignoring it solves nothing – yet. Stay tuned.