Tag Archives: responding to sales objections

Buying signals in the face-to-face meeting

Uncategorized No Comments

In a previous post, we addressed buying signals in general.  Now we look more specifically at the kind of buying signals you might encounter once you’re actually face-to-face with the Prospect.

There will be times when the Prospect’s cues are so strong and positive that there is no break between your presentation and the Prospect’s agreement: it’s as if there is one continuous flow to the communication. In those happy cases, you don’t really need to ask for the order, as the Prospect’s words or actions make it clear that all that remains is to work out the details.

The actual cues that signal interest will depend to a large extent on the individual’s unique mannerisms, so you’ll need to be alert and flexible. To get started, attune to basic areas such as those following.

■ Non-Verbal Signals. If the Prospect is sitting forward on his chair, nodding his head, muttering words like, “Great! Exactly what we need! Yes, I see how it fits in,” then you have strongly positive buying signals. That is probably the point at which you should stop trying to persuade the Prospect, and instead move on to wrap it up by closing for some kind of buying action.

■ Questions and comments. It’s usually a positive signal when the Prospect begins asking about practical matters, such as, “How soon can you deliver? or “Is it available in (a certain color or size or other similar detail)?” Questions of this sort imply that the Prospect has basically made the decision to buy, and now has moved on to settle the details.

■ Certain kinds of objections can be buying signals. If a Prospect asks detailed questions about your product, or about how it differs from your competition, you probably have a signal of interest. After all, busy people don’t get into the details unless they see a good reason for them to do so. The fact that the Prospect is interested enough to explore this kind of practical issue signals that the Prospect is at least testing the What-if of buying. The trend is positive, so be ready to move with that trend.

■ Interest in haggling over details. The sale is probably yours if the Prospect initiates tentative negotiating probes over matters that would be relevant only if the sale is going through. (The sale is yours, that is, provided you can negotiate mutually-agreeable terms.)

For instance, a Prospect might say, “You’re talking about too long a lead time before you can install. The delay is costing me money.” But analyze what she is saying beneath the words, which probably is, “I’m ready to buy, provided you can speed up delivery.”

Incidentally, these buying signals by the Prospect may not be consciously sent, so it’s important to look through the actual words and gestures to find what is really meant or implied.

The Prospect may not have actually decided to buy — at least not on a conscious level — but the interest in delivery times betrays what’s really going on in his mind. If you’re attuned to that, you can adapt appropriately.

Continue reading → Buying signals in the face-to-face meeting

How to spot and cut through Phantom Objections

Uncategorized 1 Comment
Phantom objections: Sometimes an objection seems to  relate to one issue, but in fact that issue is cover for a deeper, “phantom” objection.
For example, an objection might seem to focus on price, but  in reality is a phantom objection, disguising the fact that the Prospect does not feel any strong need for what you offer.  Or it could be a cover story because the person with whom you have been meeting is embarrassed to admit that he or she really doesn’t have the level of buying authority they led you to believe.
How to deal with this?  Sometimes, the simplest approach is to get the prospect talking about what is preventing the sale from taking place. Some methods:
— “Tell me, what would it take to make this sale happen?”
— Or, “What could be change to make it more helpful to you?”
— Or, “I’d appreciate your input: If you were in my position, what modifications would you make to the product (pricing, etc.) to make it more useful to an organization like yours?”
Key point: When you encounter what seem to be phantom objections, listen not just to the response, but through it as well to what the prospect is telling you about the selling points you have failed to make, clearly enough. Maybe your product already provides something equivalent to the “modifications” he suggests, which points you to an area to develop in more detail–either with this or future prospects.Adapted from SELLING 101, Chapter 20.

5 steps in responding to sales objections and questions

Uncategorized 3 Comments

Here’s a five-step model approach in responding to objections and questions: Explore, Listen Well, Restate (if appropriate), Respond, then Move on.

1.    Explore. Ask questions to get the person talking about what they really mean by the objection, and why it’s important to them.  (Why do you feel that way? will do if nothing better comes to mind.)

2.    Listen well to their response.  You may have heard this objection a dozen times already this week, but this person may put a different twist on it.  Don’t be too quick in cutting off the Prospect’s response in order to interject your response.  The more you know about the Prospect’s needs and mindset the better you can target your response.  Sometimes, the Prospect will actually respond to her own concern, and say something like, Never mind, I think I’ve answered myself. That’s really not so important, after all.

Continue reading → 5 steps in responding to sales objections and questions

Cold call prospecting: What if the prospect pushes you for more detail, too soon?

Uncategorized 1 Comment

Cold call prospecting: your basic strategy on this first introductory phone call, when you are phoning to get an appointment with the prospect or decision maker, is simple: Avoid getting drawn into too much detail, since you can not make the sale over the phone, but can lose it.

But what if, on this introductory phone call the prospect pushes you for more detail on just what it is you do, or how your approach differs from that of your competition? You can’t very well refuse to answer the question, as this prospect would likely then refuse to see you.

 

Keep in mind that at this point your objective is cold calling prospecting, not to try to make the sale over the phone.

 

In cold call prospecting, and in every aspect of the initial pre-meeting phone contacts with the prospect, the key is to speak in terms of overall concepts — especially end-results — without getting into the technical details.

Continue reading → Cold call prospecting: What if the prospect pushes you for more detail, too soon?

Sales objections: How to handle it if you hear an endless string of sales objections.

Uncategorized 1 Comment

Indicators: It seems that as soon as you demolish one sales objection the prospect raises another, and then another.

What this indicates: A string of relatively insignificant objections, thrown out one after the other, usually signals that there is a deeper underlying problem that you have not dealt with.  That underlying problem may rest with the person (the prospect with whom you are dealing), or with the organization itself

Before you can make any progress you MUST break out of the pattern of reacting to these sales objections one-by-one, and PROBE to the core of the root difficulty.  Perhaps the real core of their objections is not really the product, or the price, or delivery . . . or any of the usual things like that, despite what they may say.

In other words, the series of seemingly-focused sales objection may be cover for a deeper concern, OR even for a lack of authority to buy, or lack of budget. That string of objections, or other kinds of “phantom” objections, could even be thrown out to cover the fact that this organization has run into some serious financial difficulties.

Sometimes, the customer may throw up this string of objections because she’s embarrassed to admit that she doesn’t have as much buying authority as she had claimed. Or that the rules of the game in the organization have changed since you first talked, so her authority has been diminished.

Or it may be that although she does have Authority, Need, and Dollars, she is worried about the economic climate over the next few months.

In some cases, the prospect herself may not consciously aware of just what that ultimate difficulty is, and has only a vague feeling of unease about proceeding to place the order with you.

Remedy: How to deal with the string of objections?  First, rely on the five-step for handling any kind of sales objection, hesitation, or question:

(1)    PROBE. Explore. Ask questions. Be attuned to subtle signals.

(2)    LISTEN THROUGH to what is really at issue.

(3)    RESTATE.  That is, paraphrase, if appropriate.

(4)    RESPOND in a positive, can-do manner.

(5)    Move on. Don’t get bogged down.

But in this case of the string of sales objections, you’ll need to be flexible and creative in how you probe. For example, you could begin by confronting the hesitation head-on, in hopes of unblocking the prospect’s root concerns:

“You’re raising a variety of issues, but I sense there’s a deeper concern that’s troubling you. Can we talk about that?”

Alternately:    “We’ve discussed a number of your concerns, and I think I’ve dealt satisfactorily with each of them. But when I encounter this many sales objections, that’s usually a signal that there’s a deeper concern operating. Can you help me with what that might be?”

If that doesn’t break through, draw on a combination of intuition and experience, and say something more directive, on the order of, “I sense that behind your hesitation may be some concerns about which way the economy is heading. Could that be at the core of it?”

If the customer concedes that Yes, what you suggest is indeed the root cause, then RESPOND POSITIVELY to it. DO NOT slip into a defensive mode.

Thus, if the concern is the economic climate, you could respond by showing how the savings resulting from installing your product will more than pay for the out-of-pocket expense. Thus the purchase would make sense regardless of the direction the economy takes.

Another possible reason the prospect may be hiding behind a string of phony objections

Sometimes the string of objections is used a cover story to disguise something that the prospect is perhaps embarrassed to talk about . . . perhaps that he or she doesn’t really have the level of buying authority he led you to believe, and is now reluctant to admit it.  (Yes, you should have explored early-on whether this person had buying authority and budget, but perhaps they fibbed, or whatever.)

If that is the case, you may need to try to raise your level of contact in the organization, while taking this person “upstairs” with you.

In other words, you may need to get to a higher level  of decision or spending authority within the organization.

But, caution:  you don’t want to cut out your present contact, or otherwise antagonize them, as, once you have obtained the purchasing OK,  you may be forwarded back from above to this same person.  You don’t want to have alienated them.

How to raise your level of contact within the prospect organization without antagonizing your existing contact.

 

Continue reading → Sales objections: How to handle it if you hear an endless string of sales objections.