Objections aren’t questions – STOP answering them

“Objections Aren’t Questions – Don’t Answer Them!”
~ Pete Morrissey

I have to start with; I’m not 100% sure that Pete Morrissey is the originator of this saying. He is the person who stressed the idea enough that it has sunk into the very being of who I am as a salesperson.

Here are three reasons for the quote:

1. The prospect is stating their opinion. For them, at that moment, it is true. Disagreement will only turn them off even more!
2. People hate salespeople who don’t listen. Talking like you didn’t hear them will reinforce their belief that you’re not listening.
3. No one likes questions that make them sound stupid. Need an example? “don’t you want to save your company money?” – yeah like that has ever worked to do anything except annoy someone.

Instead of creating confrontation, use your conversation skills to move forward in the sales process.

Remember that unless there are two people engaged in idea sharing; there is no conversation.

The solution is to work through the common objections you hear on the phone & have a strategy to use every time you hear them.

Here is the UpYourTeleSales patent pending (not really – but copyrighted it is) way to handle objections:

Acknowledge – the prospect has a valid point.

One of the top complaints about salespeople is that we don’t listen! Change this perspective immediately by acknowledging you’ve heard the objection.

Important safety tip: acknowledge & agree, are NOT the same thing. For more on acknowledgement check out last week’s It’s not an objection – it’s conversational resistance.

Tell A Story – get the prospect reengaged in the conversation.

We’re not talking about War & Peace here; a few sentence story will do the trick. You are elaborating on your acknowledgement and allowing the prospect to see themselves inside the story… and therefore inside working with you.

Ask A Question – to turn the prospect’s brain back on.

The question you ask is NOT to sell the prospect on anything EXCEPT on continuing the conversation.

Even though they didn’t hang up the phone when they gave you an objection, they did hit the release button in their brain. You’ve reengaged them with your story – now it is time for them to turn their brain back on and the only way to get that to happen is by asking a question without an auto-magic response!

If there is no conversation – there can be no sale. It really is that simple.

Conversationally yours,
Lynn

ps: Combining your efforts to change how your team deals with conversational resistance AND objections might seem like a time saver – instead it tends to confuse the issue. Click reply to engage me in a series that will include training, calling, debriefs, along with skill gap coaching.