Most salespeople including myself think of objections as a bad thing… but we’re missing the big picture. If our customer raises an objection, that’s actually a good sign. Read on to find out why!

The fact that they’re talking out their concerns means that they’re giving us a chance to answer it. If someone is completely uninterested in buying our products, they won’t bother to object – generally they’ll just sit through our presentation in silence (with arms folded) and then send us away.

Here’s a simple process to help resolve our customer’s objections. My team is now practicing them now step by step….and I am sure this can help you too!

1. Listen to the Objection. Don’t jump all over the customer as soon as he says “But what about-.” Give him a chance to explain exactly what’s bothering him. Don’t just tune him out, either – listen.

Listen to the objections first!

2. Say it Back to the Customer. When you’re absolutely sure the customer is done talking, look thoughtful for a moment and then repeat back the gist of what he’s said. Something like “I see, you’re concerned about maintenance costs” is fine. This both shows that we were listening and gives him a chance to clarify. “Well, it’s not so much the cost I’m worried about as the downtime.”

3. Explore the Reasoning. Sometimes the first objections aren’t the customer’s real concern. For example, many of our system integrator customers don’t want to admit that they don’t have enough money to buy our products, so they’ll raise a host of other objections instead.

Before we launch into answering an objection, ask a few exploratory questions, like “Is product downtime a particular issue? Have you had trouble with it before?” Lead them to tell more…..

4. Answer the Objection. Once we understand the objection completely, we can answer it. When a customer raises an objection, they’re actually expressing fear. Our task at this point is to relieve their fears.

If we have specific examples, such as a story from an existing customer or a few statistics, by all means present them – hard facts make our response stronger.

For e.g. ‘my customer in this automation field also faced the same problem but with our surge Plugtrab, it eliminates the issue and reduce any downtime costs and maintenance works especially in your company….’

5. Re-confirm with the Customer. Take a moment to confirm that we’ve answered the customer’s objection fully. Usually this is as simple as saying, “Does that make sense?” or “Have I answered your concern?”

Don’t forget to answer the question!

6. Redirect the Conversation. Bring the customer back into the flow of the appointment. If we’re in the middle of our presentation when the customer raises his objection, then once we’ve answered it quickly summarize what we’ve been talking about before we move on.

If we’ve finished our pitch, check if the customer has any other objections, and then start closing the sale. This is called the ‘Boomerang’ method.

I hope these tips help you in learning how to handle objections from your customers more effectively. Did these tips help you? Let me know in the comments section below!