“Some will, some won’t, so what? Next!”
– Brian Tracy
A sales professional who dislikes sales objection needs to be taught Sales 101. Yes, I know that sales objection is the number one reason people run away from sales, but the good news is that sales objection isn’t the end of the road. When you know the art of selling, you overcome sales objection. For me, sales objection is fun! It’s part of the game. Nothing good comes easy.
Sales objection can be negative news for the salesman who doesn’t know the art of selling. It occurs when there is a pause in the salesperson’s progression. The sales professional may have finished his or her beautiful presentation and suddenly a voice comes up with expressions like: “Your price is high.” “Your terms aren’t good enough.” “I have another supplier.” “It’s not in our budget.” “Come back in two months.” “My boss is not around”, and so on.
What do you do when you hear these objections? Do you give up and go home, without doing anything to turn the table? This is when you bring out the salesmanship in you.
The three factors
During my media tour in the south east in September, 2021, I was a radio guest on Business Matters hosted by Ifeoma Melody Ajumobi (“The Sparkling Woman on Radio”) of Solid FM, Enugu. We talked about attributes of good sales professionals. I took time to enumerate three factors that lead to success in sales profession. They are:
The team (people)
The products or services
The strategy (tactics)
If you get these three elements right, you will succeed in your selling. Handling sales objections is a function of the third factor, strategy.
Note that tactics is a subset of strategy. You need to deploy the right tactics to handle sales objections.
We have a broad training module on how to handle sales objection but I will explore some thoughts here to give value.
Objection or rejection isn’t bad news
Sometimes, the salesman may even encounter the “elder brother” of sales objection, which is sales rejection! Sales rejection is a more serious case. Here, the prospect says, “Sorry, I don’t want to deal!” The sales rejection scenario doesn’t give the salesman an opportunity to explore tactics. It’s case closed!
But in all these, the salesman must keep moving forward because there is sales target to meet. Some will, some won’t, so what? Next! No matter the situation, you must move on with the right mindset, reaching out to the right prospects and presenting your offerings, convincingly.
Let’s look at these famous people and the objections or rejections they encountered:
Oprah Winfrey – Fired as an evening news reporter of Baltimore’s WJZ–TV because she couldn’t separate her emotion from her stories.
Walt Disney – Fired from the Kansas City Star in 1919 because he ‘‘lacked imagination and had no good ideas.’’
JK Rowling – Rejected by dozens, including HarperCollins, until a small publisher in London took a chance on Harry Porter.
Steve Jobs – Fired from the company he started, Apple, but was desperately brought back in 1997 to save it. Apple is now the most valuable company in the world.
Abraham Lincoln – Demoted from Captain to Private during war, failed as a businessman and lost several times as a political candidate before becoming president.
The list is limitless.
Steps in handling objections
Hear the prospect out
Gently explore the objections
Answer the objections
See if the objection is dealt with
Lead him or her to a close
I believe that sales objection is not a bad case. It helps you to tell more about the value you are bringing to the table. It helps you to prove your case. Conquer objections now! Go and win in the marketplace.
On behalf The Selling Champion Consulting Limited and Nigeria Sales Conference, we congratulate Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria as they hold 94th Annual National Conference in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
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