I have to ask you this when a potential customer brings up an objection such as:
- Your price is too high.
- We don't have the budget for this.
- Is this a scam?
- Let me think it over.
What starts going through your mind?
The Old selling mindset comes back of course right?
You go into “Objection Handling Mode” because that’s what most of you have been taught, right?
I know I was when I first got into sales 15 years ago.
We get impatient.
And when we’ve heard this objection before we sometimes cut them off before they finish their sentence and try to overcome it with facts and logic to prove and support out “OUR” solution!
We say, you know Mrs. Prospect, I know how you feel, others have felt the same way and this is what they found.
You know the old feel, felt, found technique that's been around since 1950! 🙂
What is the potential problem though when we use these “Old sales techniques” from the “Old Sales Gurus?”
Well first off…..
Have you considered that most of your potential customers have heard your traditional sales techniques before from many other salespeople?
Ask yourself how do you feel when salespeople who are trying to sell you something use them on you?
Can I suggest something to all of you?
Concerns are not Objections.
I would suggest not handling them as if they were; otherwise you are likely to lose the relationship you have already built.
Now is not the time to try to sell them or persuade them on why you are “right”.
It’s time to listen and validate what they are saying and feeling and even ask to expand on why they feel that way.
You will notice once you do, they will completely open up to you and look at you like you are their friend and advisor not someone trying to sell them something.
If you have done your work properly, most if not all their objections will be eliminated during what I call the “Engagement Process”.
How powerful could you be in selling if you knew very skilled Questions, and when you asked them, you would immediately get your potential customer to overcome their own concerns and “persuade them self” that they wanted to do business WITH YOU, rather than you trying to persuade them that they should do business with you?
I’m going to give you some very powerful trust based questions that you can ask them at end of your conversations or even during them that will automatically put you in the front of the pack of salespeople trying to win over an account, or compete for this potential customers business.
Make sure we all understand that more than likely that a few “concerns” may arise during the sales process. Discuss these with your potential customers.
If you try to hide it or just sweep them under the rug, it will still be there in their mind.
Because of what I’m teaching you, you will have already have established something that 99% of salespeople never do with their prospects, you have established TRUST.
So, you will already have a good relationship, so be open and ask if there are any concerns and bring them to the table. If there are, talk about them as two people working together to resolve them.
Continually check by asking:
“Are you comfortable with this?”
“How does this look so far to you?”
“Do you have anything you would like to address to me at this point?” (This one question is the most powerful; I used it all the time when I was in my sales career.)
Here is the 3 Step Formula to helping them overcome their own Concerns
1. Clarify
2. Discuss
3. Diffuse
Let’s go over Clarifying:
First, we have to understand exactly what their concern is, and why they have that concern.
99% of salespeople just assume they know and they go into objection handling mode, and never ask and then what happens? They lose the sale.
And how does it make you feel when you lose that sale?
Frustrated, lowered self-esteem, angry, rejected?
Never assume you know what’s behind their concerns, or tell them, “I know how you feel, because I use to feel the same way, and you found it to be something different”.
That is “OLD school” objection handling techniques from the Stone Ages of selling 🙂
It’s pretty much you saying a, “Yes, BUT!” answer.
I guarantee that you don't know how they feel, unless they have previously told you.
It’s easy, just ask them.
Here are some 7 Figure Clarifying Questions you can ask:
“When you say…. (Repeat back what they said) what do you mean by that, or how do you mean by that?”
“Why do you ask that?”
“I’m curious why do you feel this way?”
“Can I ask where you got that information from?”
“How did you arrive at thinking that way?”
The next step once you know what their concern is and why they feel that way you will then discuss it like a friend talking to another friend. Conversationally.
You’re going to ask them how they see themselves resolving their concern.
After you have discussed the concern, you can then start “Diffusing their concerns” and helping them overcome their concerns in their own mind.
“Suppose it wasn't what you thought it was?”
“Suppose you could…..?”
“What if we could……?”
“What if you could…….?”
You then will offer an alternative view to theirs, such as:
“If there was a way you could __________, would that help you?”
For example, let’s say you sell Coaching services:
“If there was a way that you could get the training that you needed would that help you succeed?”
You can see how by NEVER making a statement, or trying to give them facts to prove your point, and using what you know to ask questions, how people can persuade themselves to look at things differently and question their beliefs on why they think that way.
They will then start to persuade themselves to look at their concern differently, and even come up with ways they can overcome it. You can use this process with any concern that you ever encounter!
Once I broke the “Old Model” of selling (Traditional selling techniques) my income went from about 300k a year to over 2.4 Million a year selling the exact same thing, which is almost a 1000 % increase.
If you are tired of LOSING so many sales and want to discover how to sell in the “New Economy” we live in today, you can download my FREE resource below.
Be the Best,
Jeremy Miner
CLOSE MORE SALES!
7 FIGURE CLOSING QUESTIONS CHEAT SHEET
Discover how to quickly increase your sales conversions using these TWO Powerful questions, WITHOUT being awkward or pushy.