Most people are too busy getting defensive when someone has an objection that they start “pitching” all over again or lose confidence entirely and stumble through the rest of the call.
The instinct is to “overcome” the objection – which feels like a dismissing/discrediting to the prospect.
Oftentimes, your prospect can even overcome their own objection – and it’s always more powerful when they do.
Without a doubt, the least effective thing you can do is start overcoming it without knowing what’s ACTUALLY going on.
Think of anytime you’ve brought up an objection, did you listen closely and believe everything the other person said after that?
Probably not. You probably took it all with a grain of salt and expected a fair bit of embellishment on their part.
Because this is what’s expected from a salesperson – to try and “overcome” your objection.
The thing is, from a sales perspective, when a prospect has an objection we often either:
Take it personally – something is wrong with us – become defensive
We didn’t explain it well – so let me over-explain some more (and now they’re so confused)
Something is wrong with them – they’re lazy, skeptical, not serious, etc. (which no prospect responds well to!)
Regardless, the problem with any of those is they’re all based on assumptions.
What you do instead of quickly jumping to conclusions and overcoming an objection based on your assumption, is UNDERSTAND the objection.
And treat it like it might actually be valid instead of dismissing it as invalid.
The first thing you do when you get an objection is – ask a question.
It can often bring them clarity at the same time you’re getting clarity.
Ex: they say: “it’s expensive” You say: “expensive compared to what?”
Because truly, how can you have a real conversation if you don’t know what their frame of reference is?
But most sales experts would suggest something like “Okay, so let me see if I’ve got this right – What you are saying is that you are going to continue to do what you have told me is building your business slowly, and isn’t even paying your bills. And you are going to continue to do what’s not working long enough to someday build up a SURPLUS of cash to invest in what will work? Is that an accurate statement?”
….I’m not convinced – are you?
It’s because you’re TRYING to manipulate me in order to convince me.
Let me convince myself by talking through the facts together instead of you guessing at what I want to hear.
Another example could be: They say: “It seems very time consuming”
Maybe you’ve been taught that if a prospect says the program seems time consuming, you should assume something is wrong with them – they’re lazy, don’t want to do the work, don’t want to invest in themselves.
No prospect responds well to that.
Plus, if you were to actually ask ‘what does your schedule look like?’ you might realize that the two of you miscommunicated about how much time was really require or they hadn’t thought through what they really have going on in their schedule.
Discussing it in this open, helpful way really makes a difference for everyone involved.
Because if they really don’t have the time, then YOU know it’s not a fit either.
That’s why understanding the objection is really important for you BOTH.
So, in my experience, the best way to deal with an objection is asking questions for clarity until you understand.
- When you have a full picture, then you discuss it in a way that’s not “pitching” but more like a real conversation exchange about the facts.
- This works so much better because you’re helpful and genuinely curious instead of defensive – which raises everyone’s BS detector.
- A lot of times as you continue gaining clarity through objections, the person often ends up selling themselves.
It also has an added benefit of really taking the pressure off you 🙂
Hidden objections are something I cover in detail in my new 6 month Matchamker Sales™ Mentorship where I help solopreneurs selling something that is $1,500k+ to 2x-10x the number of people saying “yes” to their offers (the bigger your lead source – the bigger your ROI).
In the program, we’ll also uncover:
- How to have a sales conversation without pain or pitching. This includes a custom strategy for responding to the objections you get the most (as I discussed in this post).
- In addition to objection-handling, we also re-position the questions you ask so that they’re more about whether your prospects are a good fit and less about trying to uncover their pain (which is much less painful and effective for you both!)
- I also show you how to weave your pitch throughout the sales call in a way that the prospect never feels ‘sold.’ I even help you with tweaking your pre-qualif ication process so that you’re bringing in better prospects and getting them excited to work with you before they even get on a call.
- You’ll walk away with a custom plan for your sales calls that fits your personality, audience and product like a glove and consistently gets 5+ people out of 10 saying “yes” to working with you.
If interested in my mentorship, please book a call and we can discuss the details to make sure it’s a fit for you 🙂