Don't agree with me, buy from me!

Overcoming Objections


Although it might seems counter-intuitive, one of the first lessons effective sales people learn, is how to overcome customer objections.  

Why?  Well, because they know that customers will hardly ever buy a product or service without first going through an important psychological routine of justifying it in their mind first and buying time through objecting.   Any of the following sound familiar?

"I don't think I need it, right now..."
"Yes, we tried it before, but we didn't like it"...
"It sounds great but its too expensive for me"....

If, like me, you've had customers say "yes, we'd love to use you" almost immediately but then all goes quiet, it might be that you have failed to help them understand why they truely need your help.

Now this isn't new, businessmen and women have known this for years, but the tried and tested tricks to overcome these objections are easily forgotten with either difficult discussions ensuing or, even worse, the potential customer being let off without even a murmur......

So how do you do it?

Rudyard Kipling isn't the obvious choice when considering how to overcome objections but in his poem The Elephant's Child he recounted the lines:

“I keep six honest serving-men,
(they taught me all I knew):
Their names are what and why and when
And how and where and who.”

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Now Kipling understood what most young children know intuitively, that to get the response you want, open questions will pave the way to success.

For instance:

"I can't afford it right now..." (The classic PRICE objection)

"What could you afford...?"

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"We haven't the time to introduce that now..." (The TIME objection)

"How much time do you think this will need..."

"We tried it before and it didn't work..." (The SHOW- OFF objection) 

"What happened last time"

There are many potential objections that a client might use and often they will use multiple versions in the same conversation...cost, time, resources, experience, priority, image...but each of them can be clarified further by open questions.  Using many open questions (7 can be the average) will usually unlock the objection, so that you can then present the client with a proposal....

"So if we did this......, that might resolve your issue?"

If the client agrees, then that is the time to confirm details and agree the sale (the closing phase).

Try it....

So practice and try it, it really works.  If you really care about the client, you owe it to them to help them overcome their objections.


For information on this and other Winning Business tips, contact Chris Lorimer chris@lorimerconsulting.co.uk or 07774 827305