How to turn objections into sales

Objections in sales aren't rejections but opportunities for clarification, with prospects simply signaling they want to move forward but need reassurance on specific concerns. Successful handling of objections transforms sales outcomes and reduces anxiety around closing deals.

• Objections typically mean "I want to buy but I'm unsure because..." not an outright rejection
• Proper qualification in early stages significantly reduces the number and severity of objections
• Welcome objections as valuable feedback that helps improve communication and sales approach
• Most objections result from miscommunication that can be easily clarified through conversation
• A relaxed, service-oriented mindset creates trust and makes handling objections much easier
• 70-80% of salespeople never ask for the order while 60-70% of customers are waiting to be asked

Please remember to like, subscribe, follow, join the mailing list, and take a look at the free webinar that takes you through various steps to improve your sales. If you like the webinar content, please consider taking the online course which goes into everything in much more detail.

Chapters

• 0:24 Conquering Fear of Objections
• 1:37 Understanding What Objections Really Mean
• 4:26 Welcome Objections as Valuable Feedback
• 8:47 Turning Objections Into Sales
• 12:39 The Power of Conversation
• 17:40 Majority Don't Ask for Orders

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

Hello again. One of the things that worries a lot of salespeople particularly people who aren't so used to sales, but also some quite experienced salespeople struggle with this a little bit, and that's how to deal with objections, and probably the worst aspect of that is that it prevents some salespeople from even asking for the order because they're just afraid of getting a no and then they don't know what to do to save the sale. So the purpose of this podcast and this is something that I've spoken about before, but in this episode of the podcast, I want to just go over this aspect again because I think it is very important and before I do that, please remember to like, subscribe, follow. Please remember to like, subscribe, follow, join the mailing list. And also, if you do like the content in these podcasts, please take a look at the free webinar. It's just about an hour, takes you through various steps you can do to improve your sales and, if you like that, please take the online course, because that goes into everything in a lot more detail. Take the online course, because that goes into everything in a lot more detail. So that's the add over.

Speaker 1: 1:25

So what is an objection? First of all and I think this is an important place to start, because you may well be thinking, if you're listening to this, that an objection is basically a no to the sale and the fear of getting a no obviously getting a no is a no is what you do when you get that. So the first thing I'm going to just, I suppose, clarify with you is to say that an objection doesn't necessarily mean a no and in fact, the chances are that it doesn't mean no at all. It's simply that the person, for whatever reason your prospect, for whatever reason is hesitant about committing. They have a fear. So this is the fear on their part, and obviously this episode is all about fear, because we're also talking about fear on the part of the salesperson. So the prospect has a fear about committing to you. There's some reservation there, and what that objection is about is wanting. They want you to deal with that fear. They want you to reassure them that going with you is the right thing for them to do. And an important aspect of this is that the objection obviously comes towards the end of the sales process. It's when you're trying to close the whole deal down and how many objections that you receive and how important those injections, objections are and they all are all important, but a lot of that comes back to what you do in the early stages.

Speaker 1: 3:03

So I'm not really going to go through um, excuse me qualification and meetings and all that kind of thing, because I've covered that to some extent in other podcasts and it's fully covered in the training course. In fact, in the free webinar it goes into a fair bit of depth, so so I'm not going to repeat that. But the thing is, if you are, first of all, very clear about who your ideal customer is and that you've targeted those people, if you are clear about your offer which is what I spoke about in the last podcast if you have your questions ready, if you're asking the right questions and I've spoken about those in previous podcasts so if you have the right conversation with your client, you have several opportunities, as do they, to make sure that you are both a good fit. And, as I've emphasized quite a lot in other podcasts, when it comes to qualification, it is, if anything, it's more important that you qualify out the people that are not a good fit. For one thing, you'll spend a lot of time on them. Secondly, it'll be a hard sell. Thirdly, you may not sell to them. And fourthly, if you do sell to them, they're likely to be that kind of problem client where everything keeps going wrong. And fourthly, if you do sell to them, they're likely to be that kind of problem client where everything keeps going wrong. And if that's the case, the chances are that you sold them the wrong thing in the first place. So I'm a big believer in a win-win. I'm a big believer in only selling to people who are a good fit and I'm a big believer in telling people that they're not a good fit and that you think it's best that you don't go any further together.

Speaker 1: 4:44

If you do all of that, if you do those early stages correctly, the chances of getting an objection are quite significantly reduced. On those rare occasions, it's highly likely sort of 90% plus likely that this person is very interested in buying from you, but they are just unsure about some aspect. So what do you do? Well, the first thing is to welcome the objection, because this person is basically saying to you I want to buy from you, I think you're a good fit, I think it will go well, but I have just one thing that's bothering me, or it may be two or three little things, but at this stage, if you've done the early stages correctly, they will only be small things and the chances are there's a miscommunication in there somewhere that you haven't been clear in your communication about a certain aspect of your solution and how it works with their problems. So remember, we're problem solvers and, that being the case, you can generally resolve most of those objections by simply understanding what the miscommunication is and then correcting it. It could be that something's been left out. It could be that they've maybe forgotten to raise something that's important to them. That can happen.

Speaker 1: 6:11

But embrace the objection because, remember, this is the client basically saying I want to go ahead, but I'm just not sure because. Client basically saying I want to go ahead, but I'm just not sure because and you need to understand what that is. So if you regard an objection in that way and if this is something that you haven't thought of before, hopefully a penny has dropped for you and hopefully you're feeling, in your gut, a lot less worried about objections. Now, if you even just change how you view objections, they're not a no, they are a yes, but I'm not sure because. So if you think of them that way, hopefully the whole thing about objections they become a lot less fearful, they have a lot less energy in terms of stopping you moving ahead. So that's the first step to take with them just regard them that way.

Speaker 1: 6:58

The second thing is to own it, welcome it and then get clarification. Okay, what is it we have to? What is it that concerns you? What is your concern? Let me, I just want to understand what the concern is. It might be a valid concern, it probably is. Well, chances are it will be from their perspective, but also the chances are it's something that you can quite easily sort out. And if it is something that you've missed and again I'm talking about something that you've missed, your miscommunication or that, and the reason I'm saying that is not to put you down and say you've done something wrong, but it's so that you can own it.

Speaker 1: 7:31

Because if you do own the communication, then it means you control it, you can do something about it and you can also learn from the interaction you're having with that particular client. And it might highlight just small issues in your own presentation, in how you're working with clients. And this is absolute gold, because sales is really it's like many, many things. If you're trying to be good at them, the chances are you're learning most of the time. You'll never be 100% perfect, but if you can get up in the high 80s maybe 90% is perfect. That's really good, and the only way you get there is by dealing with mistakes that you've made. And the only way you know you've made a mistake is that you don't get the outcome you're looking for. And if you get feedback and that's what an objection is you really need to welcome that. So it's not only in the context of that specific sale, but it's also in the context of your ability to sell, your ability to communicate, to understand, to sell to your clients. This is absolute gold. So I would say, rather than fearing objections, you should be welcoming them. These are absolute gold for you.

Speaker 1: 8:49

So how do you turn them into sales? On most occasions, most of the time, just by going through the steps, understanding what the objection is and then providing that clarification for the client. You can then just slide into just one of the closing techniques that, again, I talk about in other podcasts, and they're soft closes, so you just assume the order and you move ahead. Closes so you just assume the order and you move ahead. You can also just go for it, just say do you have any other concerns, before we move ahead. Something like that, why not? Because it's upfront, it's very open, it shows that you're confident about your solution and how well you're going to meet that client's needs, and it invites the client to just empty out any other concerns they have.

Speaker 1: 9:48

And when I was learning sales, we would talk about emptying objections. So it was one of the questions I would ask. Because there you are, you're giving them that space to raise anything now that is still in the way. So if there's nothing left, so moving forward from that, if there are no further objections, then you just go straight into the close, because there's nothing to prevent that close going ahead. There's nothing to prevent that close going ahead. So that is, I think, really the most important thing I can tell you about objections and how to use them.

Speaker 1: 10:24

I suppose one other thing to talk about is if you do go into a close and you get a no, which is, as I said at the start, one of the things that a lot of salespeople are really frightened about, because they don't know how to deal with a no. If someone says no to you, what do you do? Well, again, a lot of this ties in with your qualification process. So if you find you're getting a lot of no's, lots of objections, and people aren't buying, I would suggest that the problem lies more with your qualification early on. The chances are you're selling to the wrong people. So you haven't nailed down how to identify your ideal client. You haven't identified the questions you need to ask to qualify out the people who are no good as in, they will never buy from you. So you really need to work on that part. So if you're getting a lot of basically getting to the close and you're not closing sales, I would suggest the problem is more likely to lie early on in the process than later on, because you're probably setting yourself up for failure.

Speaker 1: 11:29

So if you do get a no and you have got your qualification process correct, then the thing to do is simply to ask if, if they just say no, I don't want to go ahead, then just ask okay, could you, um, just tell me what, what the issue is, what is, what is your concern, what's your reservation? But just have the conversation. You're two people having a conversation, or it might be you and other people, but it's people having a conversation. Your reason for being there is to help them to be successful. So that's what we do as salespeople.

Speaker 1: 12:05

If that's your mindset, if that's your approach, when you go into a client, you're going to find it much easier, much more enjoyable to deal with these people. You're there to help them. You're there to have conversation with them so that you can understand what it is they're trying to achieve. You are then matching that against what you know your solution can deliver to them. Either you'll be a really good match and you'll be able to deliver everything, or you might be a partial match. There are some things you can't do, in which case you make that able to deliver everything, or you might be a partial match. There are some things you can't do, in which case you make that very clear to them and then you work from there. But it is all about conversation. It's about helping them to succeed, and if you approach sales that way, you are going to be a lot less stressed. That will come across to them because if you think about it, if your motivation is just to make the sale, if you're somehow trying to manipulate them into buying something, that's a really stressful place to be and you will give off.

Speaker 1: 13:10

So we all have I talk about personal energy, how we are, and I'm assuming you're in the room with them, but this also works on the phone because you can hear it in people's voices. If someone is stressed, you can see it, you can feel it. You might not consciously know what's going on, but you definitely feel that something's not right, there's some issue with this person. So we've all had that experience. Or walked into a room just after a couple of people had a blazing round. Now they might not be rolling on the floor punching one another, it might look quite civilized, but there's that expression. You could what is it? Cut the air with a knife. That tension. So that's there and that's what I mean by listening with your body. It's sort of picking up that energy.

Speaker 1: 13:54

So if you are tense, if you're stressed, if you're really under a lot of pressure to get that order, that client will pick that up. They will know something is wrong. They won't know what's wrong, but put yourself in their shoes. If something is wrong, if you do meet somebody like that, are you really likely to trust them with your success, in whatever area it might be? So do make sure that when you are with clients you are in that mindset where you're there to serve. So your energy is a helpful energy. You're not stressed, you're not tense. In fact, if you're very relaxed, think about that if you were buying from someone and You're having a conversation with them and they're really relaxed about everything, how does that make you feel? Chances are that will relax you as well and You're much more likely to buy in that kind of circumstance. So Remember so objections are there, to be welcomed because they give you valuable feedback.

Speaker 1: 15:03

If you are getting a lot of objections or you're getting no's when you're selling so people are saying no to you a lot the first place to look is actually much earlier in the process. Now, if everything else stacks up, if your qualification process is very good and you are in front of people who are highly likely to buy it, then, yeah, you may well have an issue with how you're selling and obviously, in the context of this podcast, I can't really help you with that. However, I, if you do find that's the case, then I absolutely recommend that you invest in some training. So, as I say, I've got my course, but you don't have to invest in that. But the chances are it points to a bigger issue somewhere along the way You're doing something that is really turning off your clients, and there are a number of areas where that could be happening. So I recommend doing a course.

Speaker 1: 16:02

The course I've designed is to allow you to go through the whole thing step by step and eliminate common problems that happen, maybe give you some insights, but hopefully you will get some insights into how we interact with people. It's not obvious. I did a podcast a little while ago about how to have a conversation with people. It always surprises me how bad many people are at conversation. So maybe there may be something in those podcasts to help you. But I do recommend you invest in a bit of quality training that takes you through all of the steps how to interact with other people, all of that stuff and then you can. I think you'll then change your results.

Speaker 1: 16:48

Okay, so that is it for this podcast. I wanted to keep this quite targeted, but because this is an important aspect of sales and if you get this wrong, if you continue to be afraid of objections, you're likely to join that quite large. In fact it's the majority of salespeople don't ask for the order. I was looking at a survey. It's from a few years ago now, but it was something like 70 to 80% of salespeople are afraid to ask for the order, and it was like 60 to 70% of customers are sitting there waiting, waiting for them to ask for the order. And it was like 60 to 70% of customers are sitting there waiting, waiting for them to ask for the order because they're ready to go. So, you know, get in that smaller, get into the minority who are asking for the order and don't be afraid of it. Okay, thanks for your time. Hope you found that useful. I'll speak to you in the next podcast. Bye for now.