OK, I’m not afraid to admit this.

When I’m on a cold call or making a sales presentation to a potential new customer and hear an objection, I can’t help but get excited.

Why?

Because that tells me they’re interested in what I’m selling!

But aren’t sales objections bad?

Not at all. Think about it…

Imagine if somebody was trying to sell you something you had absolutely ZERO interest in buying.

Would you ask questions or try to clarify anything?

Would you say things like, “That’s too expensive” or “How are you better than your competition?”

Of course not.

You’d sit there glassy-eyed until the seller was done talking.

Then you’d politely excuse yourself and hightail it the heck outta there.

That’s because you didn’t have any interest in the product to begin with. You didn’t have a need for it to solve a problem you were facing.

And that’s why not hearing any objections at all from a potential customer is a very BAD thing.

Why every salesperson should learn to LOVE sales objections

Objections should instantly get the adrenalin pumping for every professional seller. When you hear the first objection, that’s your signal it’s all about to kick off.

Here are 2 very simple reasons why you should love hearing objections from your prospects:

1. Objections mean you have a prospect who has interest, but needs new information to make a new decision. Your job is to provide that new information.
2. Objections mean your sales progress is moving forward, not backward.

Why this article will help you sell more

In this article, I will share with you the actual proven scripts I use to answer the most common sales objections I hear working in inside sales for Seamless Contacts, an online tool that helps B2B companies increase new clients by 300% by automating the two biggest time-consumers in sales: prospecting and pre-call research.

But scripts are utterly useless until you apply action to them.

And that’s why I am providing an action plan for you to go with these proven scripts for handling sales objections.

It is imperative that you follow these directions if you want to handle sales objections and advance your sales process. Do this and you will have the exact blueprint for overcoming more objections and ultimately closing more deals.

The keys to turning objections into more sales

After you read my answers to the most common sales objections, your next step is to adapt the language to fit your own product.

To do this effectively, you must have a firm grasp of your product’s end-user benefits.

Benefits vs Features: What’s the difference?

When responding to sales objections, it’s absolutely critical to understand the difference between the end-user benefits of owning (or using) your product vs your product’s features.

For example, a product feature of Seamless Contacts is it’s ability to get the contact information for any B2B professional on LinkedIn, the most popular business social networking site.

But an end-user benefit of using Seamless Contacts is the significant time savings of having the direct dial and correct email address for the correct decision maker you are trying to get in front of.

No more Googling contact info and trying out different email permutations in Rapportive. One click and you have the right contact info instantly.

See the difference?

Practice makes perfect. And perfect closes sales.

After you’ve established a firm understanding of your product’s end-user benefits, it’s time to practice and perfect your delivery of answers to sales objections.

In sports, teams warm up before the game to get prepared to perform their best when the opening whistle blows.

The same holds true for sales as well. You need to get warmed up before the big game of calling live sales prospects. You don’t want to stumble right out of the gate, fumble a surefire objection, and lose a potentially lucrative opportunity.

Practice by role playing objections and your rebuttals with colleagues before you start your calls every morning. Memorize your responses until you feel 100% comfortable using them anytime.

How to improve handling sales objections

When you accidentally put your hand on a burning hot surface, you immediately pull your hand away as a response.

This is the same type of instinct you must develop answering sales objections.

Remember, objections are a prospect’s way of saying, “I’m interested, but I need more information to help me understand why this is right for me.”

When you provide new information to prospects who are showing interest, you are helping them better understand the value of your solution for solving their problems.

The more you study, refine, and practice your answers to sales objections, the more likely they’ll become a natural, instinctive reaction that will instantly put your prospects at ease.

And when your prospect is comfortable dealing with you, then you are in the perfect position to quickly advance the sales process to the logical conclusion: a closed deal!

How to Answer the

5 Most Common Sales Objections

 

5. “I’m not interested.”

This is probably the most popular objection you will hear in sales.

That’s because it’s very effective in getting rid of salespeople who are poorly prepared at handling objections. (This is not you, of course, since you’ve found your way here and you’re reading this.)

Granted, not every prospect you cold call will be a good fit for your product.

However, you can turn more of the prospects you contact into satisfied customers if you learn how to effectively answer this common sales objection.

Here’s how I would respond to the “Not interested” sales objection.

It’s my take on the tried-and-true “Feel, Felt, Found” technique that I’ve written previously about here.

How to answer the “not interested” sales objection:

Mr. Prospect, I understand how you feel.

You see, most of our customers including Fathom and Lead Minders felt the same way when I first spoke to them.

But what they found is that Seamless Contacts can actually help your salespeople save time by automating the two biggest time-drains on a salesperson’s day: prospecting and pre-call research. As a result, salespeople at the organizations found they spent a majority of their time selling and less time prospecting, leading to huge gains in revenue from new sales.

Mr. Prospect, why don’t I just show you what I showed them, and then you can decide for yourself if this is something worth looking into. How does your calendar look for next Tuesday at 3pm?”

Why this works:

First, you diffuse the tension by stating your empathy with your prospect’s current state of mind (the “feel”), you are reassuring them you’re on their side and only have their best interests in mind.

Then, when their heightened state has been calmed, you share additional new information that will arouse their curiosity. In this case, I stated what other similar companies have “found” when they bought started using Seamless Contacts in their sales process.

When prospects hear this type of validation for your offering, then they’ll be more willing to listen to how you might also be useful for them.

4. “We already use (your competitor).”

Chances are you have several competitors for the products you’re selling, so it makes sense that you’ll be calling on current customers of theirs.

However, that doesn’t mean your prospects wouldn’t consider switching to your product if they’re unhappy with their current situation and looking to make a change.

Or if it makes sense, then perhaps they’d be open to using your product in addition to what they’re currently using.

How to answer the “we already have a vendor for that” sales objection:

Mr. Prospect, that’s great to hear!

So that tells me you already arm your sales team with the tools they need to generate consistent revenues from new business, quarter after quarter.

Most of the companies are using Seamless Contacts to complement what they’re already doing to give them the best possible chance of hitting and usually exceeding their sales revenue goals each quarter.”

Why this works:

Just because a prospect is already using your competitor does not mean they wouldn’t consider using you to complement their process or even switching to you entirely. Lots of things may be happening behind the scenes that you don’t know about, such as quality control issues, poor customer service, delivery delays, etc.

Now is your opportunity to learn more about your prospect and see if your product can be the answer they’ve been waiting for. By first stating how others are using your product to complement what they’re already doing, then your prospect may want to consider hearing more.

Will this work every time? No.

But it might get you those 1 or 2 new customers you need to make quota who otherwise would’ve never considered you in the first place. The only way to know for sure is by trying.

3. “Just send me some information and if I’m interested, I’ll call you.”

In this day and age of scams and dishonest business practices from shady fly-by-night “companies”, it’s reasonable to expect a prospective customer to want to check up on you, especially if they’ve never heard of your organization.

However, sometimes prospects might also use this common sales objection as a polite way of getting rid of you.

Your job is to discern which camp your prospect falls into.

Failing to do so may result in firing off an email with an attachment containing your slickest sales collateral.

Then you may be wasting valuable selling time following up, getting radio silence from your messages, and feeling your frustrations grow by chasing a prospect who never had any intention of buying.

So how do you discern who is truly a legit prospect who is really looking to read more about your company and your product?

Here’s a simple way you can find out if the prospect is truly interested or just being nice with no real buying intention.

How to answer the “send me more info” sales objection:

That’s not a problem, Mr. Prospect. I’d be happy to email you some information.

However, I have a variety of brochures that I can email you. Do you mind if I ask you just a couple of quick questions so I don’t waste your time and only send you the part that you’d be most interested in?”

Why this works:

Some prospects may feel more comfortable reading things over on their own time before making a decision. Remember, your role as a salesperson is to provide the information they need to make the best purchasing decision.

On the other hand, you’re also qualifying the prospect and seeing if they’re a serious potential buyer worth spending your valuable time pursuing.

Plus, by saying you don’t want to waste their time (or yours) and want to ask a few question to better understand their situation, you will be able to discern whether this prospect is for real or just trying to give you the blow off.

Afterall, the most valuable asset every salesperson has is time.

Would you rather spend your time selling to qualified prospects, or waste it chasing unqualified leads?

2. “We’re not in the market for that right now. Give us a call back in 6 months.”

This is another classic sales objection meant to let you off easy and give you the false sense that things might be different when you call back another time.

However, all top-performing salespeople know they shouldn’t be deceived by this and here’s why:

Chances are things will still be the same in 6 months as they are now. And of course, your prospect is still no closer to buying than when you called them the first time.

So what do you do?

Here’s a rebuttal I use that gets the prospect thinking about addressing their revenue-generating challenges right now instead of putting it off for some unknown time in the future.

How to answer the “call us back later” sales objection:

That’s good to hear, Mr. Prospect. Because now is actually the best time to meet BEFORE you’re in the market.

Now you can take your time to learn about the best ideas for keeping your salespeople’s pipeline filled with 10X more qualified prospects than your nearest competitor.

And I can help you find the best solution, based on your company’s current situation.”

Why this works:

If you had the choice for when to solve a costly problem, would you choose to solve it before it spiraled out of control or would you wait until you were forced to make a decision?

It’s a no-brainer. When given the choice, most reasonable folks would likely opt to squash it before it’s too late.

By planting this idea into your prospect’s mind that now is the best time to begin thinking about your solution (as opposed to later, when it becomes a code red situation), you are helping them solve a future problem now before it becomes a costly headache.

1. “Your price is too high.”

If your product is perceived as a high-ticket investment compared to competitors, then you’ll be able to answer this objection by justifying your price vs the cost of not purchasing your product.

The key to answering the price objection is to emphasize the incredible value your offering provides.

Buyers are willing to invest in something they know will reward them with benefits in the long run, such as cost savings, improved safety, higher revenues, and faster production time.

Explain your product value effectively and how it will address your their most pressing needs, and your prospect will see how it would be more costly to NOT be doing business with you.

How to answer the “price is too high” sales objection:

I understand why you might feel the price is too high, Mr. Prospect. Some of my best clients felt the same way at first.

However, when they saw how Seamless Contacts helped their salespeople automate the two huge time-drains of prospecting and pre-call research, allowing them to spend 90% of their day selling to 10X more qualified decision makers, they saw how valuable using Seamless Contacts in their sales process can be in the long term.”

Why this works:

In his masterful sales book “Advanced Selling Strategies” (an absolute must-read for every salesperson), renowned sales expert Brian Tracy says that the willingness to pay and the ability to pay are two separate issues.

He adds that people may not initially be willing to pay a certain amount, however this does not mean they are incapable of paying it if you convince them of one simple thing:

The value of what you are selling must exceed the price you’re charging.

You must help your prospects realize the value of your offering by focusing on how your solution addresses the “hot button” issues faced by your prospect (e.g. high employee turnover, costly hiring mistakes, difficulty in finding more qualified candidates).

Only then can you quickly eliminate the price objection completely from the conversation. And once you’re past the price issue, you’ll be even closer to signing another satisfied customer.

Conclusion

Many low-performing sales professionals hate answering sales objections.

They think that objections mean the prospect will not buy. But nothing could be further from the truth.

When a prospect says “No”, that simply means they want to “Know” more about your product you’re selling.

And it’s your job as a high-performing salesperson to provide this new information. You must help your prospects decide if your product will be useful in helping them solve a problem.

Have your answers to the most common sales objections ready to be delivered expertly at anytime. Do this, and you’ll be miles ahead of all the other sales professionals who give up and quit at even the slightest hint of an objection.

Remember, all top salespeople have made it second nature to masterfully answer all sales objections. That’s because these top performers are willing to do all the things necessary to become truly successful in sales.

And if you aspire to become an elite salesperson, then you will do the same things that the top 20% of sales producers are doing, day in and day out.

By mastering the scripts I’ve shared with you on how to you respond to your most common sales objections, you are taking control of your own sales destiny. Where you go and how far you advance is totally up to you.

Ask yourself this simple question:

Are you ready to be the best salesperson you can be, starting right now?

Then follow this guideline by preparing and practicing your answers to the most common sales objections.

Read this article again (right now, while you’re thinking about it). I guarantee you’ll learn something new that you missed before.

Then get started on expertly turning every sales objection you hear into another opportunity for achieving maximum success in your life and career.

Are you fully prepared to answer the most common sales objections you hear every day from your prospects? 

What are your surefire answers to sales objections that help advance your sales process?

Share them below in the comments and help other sales reps sharpen their rebuttal game!