Focusing on overcoming sales objections is likely holding you back and poisoning your customer relationships.

This may seem backward. Afterall, objection handling is often considered one of the foundational pillars of sales — one of the critical elements necessary to win more deals.

But there’s an important problem lurking beneath the surface — and if you want to be a better salesperson, you’ll need to work actively to address it.

The Overcoming Objections Mentality

The premise behind “overcoming objections” is simple. When you’re trying to sell something to someone, they’ll naturally come up with objections to what you’re saying, right?

For example, they may feel like your product isn’t worth the cost you’re charging for it. So, in order to close the sale, you need to find a way to overcome these objections. You could use statistics or examples to prove that this product will pay for itself in the long run, justifying the price.

This approach is baked into most sales strategies.

As a strategy, most sales teams attempt to come up with a list of potential sales objections based on statistics and past experience. From there, the team comes up with potential rebuttals and solutions that can eliminate those objections.

They might also prepare new scripts and new angles of conversation that allow salespeople to completely avoid these objections in the first place.

To most salespeople, this sounds completely natural. So, what’s the issue?

The 5 Problems With Overcoming Objections — and How to Overcome Them

Objections are typically seen as an obstacle to be navigated — a threat to be eliminated. And while this can have a positive impact on your bottom-line sales, there are some major problems with this philosophy that can get in the way of your long-term success.

Let’s take a look at six of these issues.

#1 Objections aren’t always a bad thing

The first problem with the overcoming objections mentality is that objections are looked at as a foe that must be defeated in order to move the sale forward.

This is an inherently flawed view. In fact, sometimes objections are a good thing, and you should be glad you’re hearing them.

View objections as an opportunity

Consider these three positive benefits of objections:

Objections are a sign of engagement

On average, only 3% of your market is actively buying at any given time. Most people you contact aren’t going to respond to you at all. They’ll be so uninterested, they won’t engage with you for even a moment. But if someone is giving you an objection, that means they’re engaged.

On some level, they’re paying attention to what you’re saying. They’re learning about your brand and your product. They’re critically thinking about the purchase. And those are incredibly rewarding signs.

Objections tell you more about the buyer’s disposition

Objections are a great opportunity to learn more about your buyer’s disposition. You’ll instantly learn about things that are holding them back from purchasing — which is much better than having someone go silent and simply refuse to continue the conversation.

Importantly, clear objections also tell you what the buyer is okay with. For example, if they never bring up an objection about price or budget, they likely have money to spend.

Objections offer an opportunity to respond

Like I mentioned before, people who are truly uninterested in your product will drop the conversation and stop responding to you. Providing an objection is a way of giving you an opportunity to respond.

In this context, you should see objections as an invitation to continue the conversation — which is obviously a good thing.

If you understand objections as a natural part of the sales process and as a sign that you’re on the right path, you’ll be able to respond to them effectively and open new paths to the sale.

#2 Sales isn’t a debate, it’s a conversation

I’ve seen some salespeople prepare for a sales meeting as if they’re heading into a political debate. They have notecards with statistics. They practice with a partner or in front of the mirror. They anticipate what the other side might say (more on that idea in the next section) and have a canned response ready to squash it.

There’s a big problem with this.

Sales interactions should be treated as conversations, not debates.

Approaching the conversation as a debate is going to put you in a negative light. If you’re constantly presenting counter-arguments to the points brought up by the opposition, you aren’t really listening. You aren’t really engaging. You’ll be seen as a combatant, and your prospects aren’t going to be heard.

View sales as a conversation

If you take the time to really listen to what your prospects are saying, and if you work with them to explore their ideas and issues, you’ll be seen in a much more positive light.

Instead of arguing with your prospect, and telling them their viewpoint is wrong, acknowledge their objection. By doing so you validate their feelings, show that you are listening, and keep the conversation open.

You’ll also be more likely to uncover the root causes of their objections and be able to work with them to find a way past.

#3 You and your prospect should be on the same side

Did you know that 79% of customers prefer salespeople who act as advisors?

This shouldn’t be surprising. People are naturally more receptive to people they see as allies.

In my previous point, I described overcoming objections as a premeditated strategy where you anticipate what the other side might say. But the moment you define your prospects as an other your mentality changes.

You’re now going into battle, heading off the threats posed by a foe. Instead, you should be seeing this as a collaborative session, with both you and your prospect on the same side.

You can resolve problems faster by shifting your mentality.

Get on your prospect’s side

In couples counseling, you’ll often hear about how you need to avoid viewing conflicts as me vs. you. Instead, you need to learn to see them as me and you together vs. the problem.

In sales, this means you and your prospect work together to find the best solution for them — even (and this is important) if their best solution turns out not to be yours.

This builds trust and relationships with your prospect. And you’ll get far better results if you approach objections as a point to be mutually discussed and considered, rather than a challenge from an enemy.

#4 Some objections can’t be eliminated

Here’s an important truth — some objections can’t be overcome.

Some objections stem from a law of nature, or an immutable truth, and there’s nothing you can do to get around it.

If you build your strategy around overcoming objections, you’re going to be stuck here, with no way out. You’ll see your prospect as a challenger who can’t be defeated, and you’ll either keep banging your head against that brick wall, or you’ll give up the sale and move on.

If you avoid the overcoming objections mentality, you give yourself a third option — understanding the objection and accepting it.

Accept their objections

There’s no such thing as a perfect product. Every purchase begins with a buyer weighing the pros and cons of their decision.

If you can persuade them that their objection is legitimate, but not a deal-breaker, you may push them to move forward without necessarily overcoming that objection.

Let me give you an example.

Say a buyer is fixated on the idea that this product won’t be ideal long-term. Instead of trying to convince them it is ideal long-term, accept that this is not an optimal long-term strategy for them, and shift your focus to the short-term benefits.

#5 Objections are often a byproduct of poor audience targeting

There’s a reason why 40% of people cite prospecting as the most challenging part of the sales process. Finding the right people is incredibly difficult, but your success as a salesperson depends on it.

If you’re getting lots of objections from someone, it’s likely because they fall outside your true target demographics in some way.

For example, they may not be a decision maker, they may not have the right budget, or they may not be far enough along in the buying cycle.

If something like this is the case, no amount of overcoming objections is going to help you. The sales problem is happening much earlier, and you’ll need the help of a robust marketing and pre-sales process to help you resolve it. In other words, overcoming objections is often a bandaid fix used to solve problems that need to be fixed in other ways.

Find the right audience

If you’re not in front of the right audience, your chances of success are dramatically lower. If this is the case, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and re-target.

In most cases, this starts with finding your ICP, or in some cases re-defining it.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to look at who your current customers are. What niches are they in? How big are they? What do they have in common with each other?

In some cases, though, your ICP may be right on target, and the issue may be that your qualification process isn’t strict enough. Sit down with your team and talk over what should and shouldn’t qualify as a sales qualified lead.

You’ll find that when you’re targeting the right audience and approaching them as a partner (not someone coming to smash down their objections), you actually run into far fewer objections in the first place.

Focus on Collaborative Selling, Not Combative

Overcoming objections certainly has its place in your sales strategy. You’ll need to speculate about and research potential objections if you want to win more deals.

However, the industry-wide obsession with overcoming objections as a form of battle is downright counterproductive.

Focus instead on being a collaborative seller. Work with your prospects to overcome the obstacles that are keeping them from buying.

If you do that you’ll build relationships with your prospects and see far better long-term results.

The post Stop Fighting Your Prospects: Overcoming the ‘Objection Handling’ Mindset appeared first on Sales Hacker.

There is both an art and a science to the language you use in sales.

The art of it requires diligent practice, creativity, and the ability to paint a clear picture of the benefits of buying your solution.

The science of it relies on the psychological triggers you can leverage to land more contracts.

The trick to closing more deals — and stacking the deck in your favor — is finding the balance between art and science of language in sales.

Leverage Specificity

Specificity is your best friend when you’re selling something. Be as specific as possible with the tangible benefits your prospect will receive.

Let’s look at some examples of pitches I’ve used to promote my business. Ask yourself, which is a stronger sales pitch?

“I will get you a ton of new leads for your business…”

Or…

“I will get you 1,457 new leads for your business within 30 days…”

The first promise feels empty. It sounds like it’s all hype, and it isn’t captivating. The latter is more concrete, grabs people’s attention, and makes them feel like the advice or pitch is proven to produce a real benefit.

In fact, in a case study performed by Disruptive Advertising, they saw nearly double the conversion rates just by changing their headline from:

“Find The Right Accountant For Your Business Needs”

To…

“Find a Qualified Accountant in 15 Seconds — Completely For Free”

Specifics sell.

Your buyer will be more inclined to purchase your product or service when they can sense that your product is the answer to the specific problem they are trying to solve.

So, if you want to sell your product or services more effectively, don’t be lazy and use something generic.

Use The Prospect’s Language

Every industry and company has language and lingo that they use. Learning their language and using it when dealing with them is a great way to quickly build trust and cut down on miscommunication.

A great way to discover your prospects’ language is to look at any media they’ve produced — blog posts, podcasts, and social media posts.

Product reviews that they, or another company in their industry has left on a product similar to yours are another powerful tool that is often overlooked.

This has the added benefit of helping you identify objections they may have about your product.

For example, let’s say you are a B2B email software, and you look at product reviews for other software similar to yours.

After reading the reviews, you can see that customers care about the ease of setup and user experience. Not only that, but now you know the kind of language your prospect is likely to use when discussing email software like yours.

You can use this information to proactively overcome objections on future calls. And by using the right language, you subconsciously communicate to the prospect that you understand them and their industry — building trust.

Create Urgency

Legendary direct response copywriter, Gary Halbert, always said, “delay is the death of a sale.”

You need to give a prospect a reason to act on the deal quickly. If you don’t create a sense of urgency around the deal, they will put it off and could forget about your offer.

Your product may be a great fit for your prospect, but you have to remember that they have busy lives and won’t prioritize purchasing your product or service if they don’t feel they have to.

In a 2018 study, five experiments were run that showed when unimportant tasks are characterized by an illusion of urgency (expiration or scarcity), people are more likely to perform them over more important tasks.

This psychological principle is deemed the “mere urgency effect”.

Marketers leverage this psychology principle all of the time to get visitors to click a button, make a purchase, enter an email or card details, etc.

Urgency is just as important in sales, and luckily there are an almost endless amount of ways to create it. Show them how much money or productivity they’re losing each day they don’t use your product or solution. If they’re behind on quota, you can use that to create urgency. Give your prospects a reason to move forward at this instant and overcome their hesitancies.

It’s important to remember, though, that when creating urgency, you need to be careful not to be pushy or aggressive. Approach this from the perspective of trying to help the prospect and wanting the best for them. Don’t walk in the room and give them an ultimatum or tell them their business is going to implode if they don’t buy your product today.

Guarantee Results

Your sales pitch is a lot stronger if you can guarantee results. It shows that you wholeheartedly believe in your company to deliver on the results they’re searching for.

It also helps reduce any worry, fear, or suspicions the prospect may have about your business.

Think of ways to frame your offer in a way where the risk is completely on your shoulders as the seller, and the company purchasing the product can be confident they’ll get the expected result or lose absolutely nothing.

There are many ways you can structure a guarantee like this. One common way is to work out a deal where your company won’t receive full financial compensation until certain results are met. A partial or full refund, if they’re not happy with the results, is another common option.

In short, you have to demonstrate to your buyers you are not blowing hot air.

Remember, a purchase is not often a small decision for your prospect. That purchase could determine the success or failure of their company or their job. So, make it easy for them. Remove as much fear and risk as possible from the deal.

Hyundai is a great example of a company that used a guarantee to overcome their negative stigma of poor quality cars.

They reduced the effects of this stigma by giving a 10-year warranty on their cars. Since they rolled out their 10-year warranty, their sales recorded nine consecutive year-over sales increases.

A guarantee assures a quantitative or measurable improvement for a client. It’s a commitment. That commitment builds trust, and trust closes deals.

Here’s To Closing More Deals

All of these sales tips I’ve shared with you are backed by the science of sales. They’re proven to work. But how exactly you implement these tips to fit your own industry and sales cycle is where the art comes in.

In other words, you still need to take these tips, tweak them, and add your own unique flavor and approach to them.

And, most importantly (like any art), it requires practice.

You’re not going to close every deal, but the better you get at using these language hacks, the more deals you’ll close.

Good luck, and happy selling!

The post 4 Language Hacks You Can Use in Sales to Stack the Deck & Close More Deals appeared first on Sales Hacker.