You have three main ways for how to respond to sales objections: 1) comply, 2) overcome, or 3) deflect.
OPTION 1: COMPLY WITH THE OBJECTION
To comply with an objection is to accept it, and here is an example:
Prospect: I am not interested.
Salesperson: OK, I understand. Have a nice day.
There are moments when you will need to comply and accept the prospect’s objection. But the key is knowing when to comply and when not to. You have probably heard the saying, “Don’t take no for an answer.” I would like to change that to “Know when to take no for an answer,” and here are two simple rules for that:
- Don’t comply and accept the objection until you have tried to get around the objection at least three times.
- Comply and accept the objection if it is a true showstopper in terms of the prospect completely not fitting with what you sell. For example, if you sell lawn care services and the prospect does not own a home or have a lawn, you can comply with this objection.
OPTION 2: OVERCOME THE OBJECTION
To overcome the objection would be to try to resolve the objection or change the prospect’s mind. And here is an example:
Prospect: I am not interested.
Salesperson: OK, but we usually increase sales between 25 to 30 per-
cent. You are not interested in that type of growth?
To try to overcome an objection is fairly difficult because you are basically trying to change the prospect’s mind. While this is doable and something you have to do when selling, it is fairly difficult to change the prospect’s mind regarding an objection during the Initial Contact sales process step for these three reasons:
- The Initial Contact sales process step will usually be a very brief call or conversation, and you will not have the time and attention needed to explain your case for why the prospect should change his or her mind.
- When the prospect is giving an objection because he or she does not want to buy your product, you do not need to change the prospect’s mind and overcome this objection because your goal is not to sell the product at the Initial Contact sales step.
- When you try to overcome an objection, this can put more attention on it, giving the objection more life and energy in the prospect’s mind.
But it is important to keep in mind that all of those points apply to the Initial Contact sales process step. Once you are beyond that and in the Meeting or the Presentation, trying to overcome objections is certainly more of an option for you because you will have more time, attention, and rapport with the prospect. This will put you in a better position to try to present your case as to why the prospect should change his or her mind.
OPTION 3: DEFLECT THE OBJECTION
The third option is to deflect the objection, and this is to try to let the objection bounce off of you in order to keep the conversation going. Here is an example:
Prospect: I am not interested.
Salesperson: I understand. Do you mind if I ask how long it takes you
for reconciliation?
The way the deflect response works is that you might acknowledge the objection by saying something like “I understand” or “Oh, OK.” You can then deflect by following that with a question. In many cases, your prospect will respond to the question you ask, and you then have three different directions to go:
- You can ask a follow-up question to inquire more about the prospect’s answer to your first question.
- You can ask a different question to keep the conversation going and learn more.
- You can try to close the prospect on the next sales process step based on the prospect’s answer.
Your pain and current environment questions will usually be great questions to ask when trying to deflect objections. You can also deflect to your pain points and to your sales process, and we will show you what all of these deflections look like in The SMART Sales System.