Overcoming Objections

DISCLAIMER: I wrote this at 4 this morning, probably not my best work but thought I would leave as is, it could be humorous.

As I prepare for our sales meeting today I was thinking about the one piece of the agenda that seems to be on every sales meeting agenda I have ever attended and it will be part of ours as well. That section is overcoming objections, or Challenge/Response.

No matter where I have been one of the ways I can tell the people who are going to have the fastest path to success are the ones that do not start every conversation with their sales management team with "But the customer asked INSERT OBJECTION HERE.." The people that never have to ask how to get around those questions have the easiest path in the sales world. They just naturally have a knack to know what to say ahead of time.

For the past 10 years I have noticed this same thing, it just is.

For those that do start with that question and focus on the challenges they will always have a harder time, typically this means they need more training on the sales process from those that have been through it successfully. It means they need to make sure they answer the questions before they get asked and need to be told what to expect.

Now, I will say, if you are at a company that just has poor products or solutions then overcoming objections may be tough. But if you are at a company where you believe in the solution then usually it is just a matter of training to get the person to never have to hear the objection again.

The way I have always approached sales, and I try to help anyone that is on my team approach sales, is to think ahead of time to what the potential objections may be. Depending on the type of company you are at it could be any one of a million things, but the trick is to recognize and morph your presentation to answer the questions before they even get asked.

This is very important, if there is a valid objection then maybe you cannot hit that one, but the way most successful sales people never get asked the tough questions is because they answer them before they even come up. If you can establish your product and your company and focus on talking about the key points that many customers have asked that you know you have a positive answer too then there is never a negative perception.

That is one thing that many people miss, once the customer asks a question there is always a chance that there will be a slight negative perception even if the answer is solid. But if you lead with the answers and establish yourself then that negative vibe never comes into play.

Many people just naturally approach sales this way, they focus on the positive and come in with a passion for their company or product that tells the customer that there is something good here, I should be interested. And that right there is what it is all about, passion. Whether it be a domain name, a dog house, a cellphone. It does not matter, if you can be passionate about it and they recognize that it is real, then most objections have been overcome automatically.