How to overcome objections to make a sale

Abe Dearmer

May 28, 2019

∙

5 min read

Sales

Once you've identified your target prospects, it is sometimes difficult to get through to them regarding your product or service due to objections. Sales objections often come from busy prospects who don't understand the full value your product or service can provide to their company.

When an unknown sales person calls you to have a buying conversation about a product you just heard about, the knee jerk reaction is to brush them off or postpone the conversation. And this is true for most cases when sales people try to get in touch with new prospects.

Keeping this in mind, sales reps need to be prepared to tackle these sales objections that can take place early on in the sales cycle. There's only a couple of minutes for you to jump this hurdle before seeming too pushy with your prospect. This is why you should also be precise and first let the prospect know you respect their time. Be forthright about what you are offering in every communication, be it email, message or telephone.

Instead of trying to sell them your product or service on the first go, try and extend your communication with them and ask for a meeting to show them your product/service presentation. Then you can ease into the buying conversation, once they've understood your value.

There are some very common sales objections that all reps face from time to time. Here's some tips on how you can overcome them and cross this step in the sales cycle!

Brushing you off

When you connect with a prospect and they tell you something like, "Why don't you please email me some information, and I'll check it out," it can mean a couple of things.

If they say this before you've even had a chance to explain your product to them, they are definitely brushing you off and aren't interested at all. If they say this after you've given them a brief explanation of your product/service, then they aren't yet ready for a buying conversation and will maybe look into it later.

Either way, this isn't a positive response, and the best way for the rep to counter this is by simply asking to show them a short presentation or ask qualifying questions which will show the value of the product/service to the prospect's business.

Already use a similar product/service

When you contact a prospect, they might already be using a similar product/service by a competitor. This is why it is necessary to understand and be clear on what makes your offering so different from your competitor's.

In this case, never try and insult your competitor or say bad things about their features. Instead, simply say that you're not trying to change their processes but would just like an opportunity to show them how your product/service is different and can bring additional value to their company.

If you have clients who have switched from that competitor to your product/service, you can even offer to show case studies of how your company has helped them.

You always get their voicemail

Most business owners are busy and don't have time to take every call they receive, much less from numbers they don't recognise. If your calls aren't getting picked up, you can leave them a quick voicemail to let them know what the call is about. Need some help on how to leave the perfect voicemail? Read our blog here!

They're always busy and want to reschedule

When your prospect is constantly procrastinating and pushing back calls or meetings with you, it could be because they're not able to say a solid 'no' to you. Many people hesitate to say 'no' outright and thus it is important to call them out on it so as to stop wasting time on the wrong prospects.

The most straightforward way to do this is to point out their lack of interest and nudge them to agree they aren't interested. You can just say that usually when someone cancels multiple times, it means they aren't interested in having this conversation with you, and if that was the case here as well.

More likely than not, the prospect will agree and you will get the nod to move on to the next prospect.

Budget issues

Many times prospects respond by saying they don't have the budget for such a product/service that you are offering. This could actually be true or maybe they just aren't ready to invest in anything new.

The first goal for the rep should be to explain the value of their product/service to the prospect and make them understand how it will help their business. This comes before trying to make a sale.

So to tackle this objection, instead of focusing on why they don't have enough funds, reps should instead say that if they aren't looking to buy right now, they could at least have a look at the presentation and understand the offering. This way if they have the funding in the future, they will keep you in consideration.

Many prospects have a knee jerk reaction of objection as a go-to response as a way to stop people unnecessarily wasting their time. If you can truly explain the value of your product/service precisely and they still say no, then it's time to move on. If a prospect objects twice, it definitely is a no and you shouldn't push them further.

To find out more about FIVE CRM and telesales click here.

Michael King says...

"I can’t think of a time where a client has requested something that we weren’t able to do with FiveCRM. Unlike most systems, it has a lot of flexibility."

Managing Director, Senior Response

JANE HUSBANDS SAYS...

“Each client, and each of their campaigns, has its own unique specifications. We essentially needed to set up mini CRMs on one platform to meet those requirements.”