| Top Story |
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| This is a weekly column transcribed from my Radio Show. The "Top Story" is the major discussion each week in which I address in great depth and detail, aspects of selling that are pertinent to your job everyday. |
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Warren: Today's top story is working with objections. Notice how I didn't say overcoming objections. If you look at a lot of sales books and if you attend seminars - I've taught seminars all over the country for years, and I used to talk about overcoming objections. You know, listeners and Bruce here in the studio, when you hear "overcoming objections" that always makes you put up your fists like you're going to fight somebody.
Bruce: Right, it's a resistance-type thing automatically. And then there's all the pressure that you feel from that alone.
Warren: Absolutely. So what I decided is that the skill that we need as salespeople is not how to overcome objections but work with them, work through them. I guess if we're looking at it from a judo perspective, let that objection come our way and accept it and work with it; don't feel like you have to fight back.
Bruce: Great analogy.
Warren: Yes, I like that. So what we're talking about this is week is not how to overcome objections, but how to work with objections. Before I talk about how to work with objections, I think I should define the terms. In other words, what is an objection? We hear them all the time. Some people call them resistance; some people call them stalls. But the overall word that we use is objection. And what the heck is it? Well, an objection is any type of resistance or concern on the part of your customer or your prospect that slows down or stops the sales process. Also objections are encountered in many aspects or our sales process, and all kinds of places during the relationship in the salesperson-customer scenario are opportunities for objections to rear their heads, so to speak. For example, you might receive an objection from someone where you don't have access to the decision-maker, where you're trying to get to a high-level decision-maker to offer your product or service, or to arrange an appointment, and you're getting blocked by a low-level decision-maker or decision-influencer or secretary or receptionist. That's an example of resistance or an objection in action.
How about not being able to set an appointment? You call somebody up and they say the usual, "Not interested. No need. No hurry. No money. I don't need that. I buy that from so-and-so. I already work with a different supplier." These are all examples of what I call reflex resistance, which happens early on in the sales process. This by the way is why so many salespeople are not successful. It's because they can't overcome that resistance and get those face-to-face appointments booked, and go out there and establish need and find out ways to present solutions. So another example of an objection is not being able to get an appointment.
The most famous of the price objections is just that. Oftentimes we face what's called price resistance. A lot of people will put all the objections into one category called "my price is too high," but it's just one of a various number of objections that we get when we're working with our customers and our prospects.
Finally, there are objections or resistances or concerns or slowing down of the sales process when it's time for people to make decisions. As you're getting to the end of that transactional part of the sales process where someone is not yet a buyer or they haven't made a decision to buy, oftentimes you get resistance or concern because people don't want to make bad decisions. So what they do is they start to slow the process down to make sure that they're going to make a good decision and not a bad decision. Those are examples of objections.
There's another type of resistance we face that's similar to objections but different, and I think I should talk about that as well. That's called a condition. A condition is something that cannot be worked through or worked with. A condition is what I call a valid reason for not moving forward. For example, let's say Bruce and I are going out on a sales call offering radio advertising to a merchant in Ottumwa. When we get there we find out that the company just declared Chapter 7. They're closing their doors in two weeks, and the fall promotion that we went out there to talk to them about is really not going to be an option because come fall, it's going to be a boarded up building with no business. Now, let me ask you, listeners. Is that an objection, something we can work with, or is that a condition, what I call a valid reason for not moving forward? Obviously that's a condition. So we have to understand that sometimes the customer or the prospect has a legitimate reason not to move forward, and that's OK. Those are the times when either we stop the sales process or we back up and wait awhile, a week or a month or a day. Those are valid reasons for not moving forward.
Bruce: In that case, Warren, would you not change the proposal to maybe, "Let's do something about the announcing of the closeout"? There would still be something available, an opportunity.
Warren: Absolutely. Yes, the creative person would say, "It might not be something for the fall promotion, but if you've got merchandise you're going to be closing out, maybe we can announce a liquidation sale." By all means, it doesn't mean the door is closing. It just means that there are some cases where people have a valid reason for not moving forward.
I'll give you another example of something that just happened to me this week. I got a call from a company in the Southeast part of the U.S. that came to my website, liked what they saw, and they had no idea who I was. They say my picture on the website and all the information I posted. Now, I could be a nobody who just created a website. They don't know. We talked on the phone. They had a lot of good feelings and thoughts about what I might be able to do for them. But before they were going to move forward, they wanted to talk to people who weren't me. So I gave them a list of my clients to call, and then today we agreed that we would talk again. So on Monday if I were to say, "Well, come on. Do you want to move forward? Let's book the date. Let's get things going," it wouldn't be appropriate because they had a condition which was they want to check me out. They don't want to just make a decision to work with me without knowing anything about me other than my own words, take my word for it. So that was a valid reason for not moving forward. As it turns out, today we hooked up. He had talked to one of my three references and really got a favorable response and said, "Let's move forward." So that's the way it works. It was a condition. We waited, and then we moved forward when it was appropriate for the condition not to be there anymore.
So what do you do when you're faced with resistance? How do you work with objections? That's what I want to talk about now. That's really the essence of this week's top story. I have identified why we face objections and what they are. If I just did that and then sent you on your way, I would not be the sales expert that I am, you see. People listen to this show so they can learn ideas on how they can be better and how they can develop skills. And basically that's what I do. I have developed a whole set of skills for salespeople so that they can understand how to be better in their profession.
Now let's look at it. What do you do when you're faced with resistance or an objection? The first thing - and this is the most important thing that we need to do - is anticipate that we are going to face these different types of resistances and prepare for what is likely to come up. Bruce happens to be in the studio today, and I know that in addition to all the various things he does, he's also involved in sales. Bruce might say, "Warren, I always run into people that want to use print only." So I'd say, "Great, Bruce. Why do they do that? Let's anticipate what the reasons are that people use pint. Where is it effective? Why is that an objection for us? How would we prepare for that? What's different about radio? What are the benefits we could bring to the table?" So we would then as professionals anticipate and then write down and prepare our responses for the resistance that we know we're going to face out in the real world. So that's the first step: anticipate and then prepare the answers in advance. It's what I call not leaving the answer in the car. So many times in sales we go out there, we're faced with resistance, and we don't know what to say. We get frustrated, flustered, negative. We challenge our emotions; we challenge the buyer's emotions; we get all fumed up; we don't get any progress. We get back to the car, and as soon as we get back to the car, we say, "Why didn't I say this? Why didn't I ask that? Why didn't I handle it this way?" And then one day, somebody raises the objection, and we say, "Hold on. I've got to run to my car." They look at us like we're from another planet. And we say, "You know, every time I hear that I never know what to say. As soon as I get to my car, the answer comes to me. Today I'm going to run to my car, get the answer and come back." So we don't want to leave the answer in the car. We want to prepare and know what the resistance is.
OK, so now we do that. The second step is when the resistance comes your way, listen to what the other person is saying because it might not be the resistance you think. You have to really carefully listen to what they're saying, how they're using the words, what emotions are they using when they're making this statement. What's their body language like? How are they presenting it? Are they firm? Are they fishy? Are they wishy-washy? Are they angry? Are they strong? Listen to the words, and listen to the way the objection comes at you.
Bruce: That's excellent, Warren, because very often what they're saying is not what they're really feeling. You talk about body language, and things like that might tell you a lot more. That's an excellent point.
Warren: Absolutely. So what you do is listen, and just to make sure that you're on the right track, you empathize - this is the third step - you empathize and restate the objection. So you say, "Look, I can understand how you've gotten a lot of mileage out of using print advertising for your business." They're nodding their head that that's what they're talking about. And then you say, "So what I hear you saying is that you've allocated 100% of your budget over the years to print. Is that correct?" And they say, "Yes, that's it. Absolutely." So now you know that that's basically what the objection is. It's not that they don't like you, that they don't trust you, that they're actually thinking about what they're going to have for dinner, or whether they remembered to register their child for middle school today. They are actually concerned that they've always used print; they're happy with print; all their money goes to print. And that's what their resistance is.
And then you say, " OK, if I understand you correctly, print is the way you've gone." And now you move onto the fourth step which is you present all that evidence that you brought with you because you've anticipated and prepared for that type of resistance. You don't just slam people over the head and push them around and tell them how great you are. You use evidence. You say, "Look, we work with people who are just like you. In fact, here's an example of somebody who was 100% print when we first started getting to talk to them. They still do print. Now they use radio to support that. They use radio for the institutional, getting their name in the community. And when they have a sale on cheese, they put an ad in the paper with a coupon. They support each other." So you use evidence. You tell stories. You use anecdotes. You use similar situations. You give them examples. So you tie your evidence together in a very conversational way. If you can use statistics, that works. If you can use proof sources, here's research that's been done in the grocery market comparing print and comparing radio. You show them the differences. "If you're looking to reach this type of people, you might want to consider using some portion of your budget for radio. I'm not trying to take all the print budget away. Let's look at maybe how we can do both, a little bit of this, a little bit of that." So what you do is answer the resistance with solid, emotional, and logical evidence that can include things like stories and anecdotes and examples.
And then the final thing, the fifth part of this is you confirm that you've answered the objection, that you've worked through the resistance, and then you move forward in the sales process. In this case, what Bruce and I are talking about - actually I'm doing all the talking - in this case you'd say, "Can I put together some numbers? Do you see the benefit? Would you consider doing both?" And then you recognize at that point if you've overcome that resistance, if you've worked through that or not.
Bruce: OK, question then, as a student. As I'm listening to you, Warren, one of my questions is how can you anticipate what the objection might be unless you've gone through it with them before?
Warren: You can anticipate it in general. You've been selling radio advertising for quite a number of years. There might be five or six key objections that you hear. "I only work through word of mouth. I don't believe in spending any money on advertising. I use all my money on print. I've exhausted my budget this year. I tried radio once and it didn't work." You know there are probably five to seven key objections.
Bruce: And that's true, you're saying, for any field you usually might be in.
Warren: I would say that nine times out of ten, every objection you're likely to encounter you've probably heard before and left the answer in the car. Now if you hear something you've never heard before, then you basically have to think on your feet and use the same steps. Right? Anticipate. You couldn't prepare, but at least you know you've got resistance. Listen to what it is. Restate it. Come up with ideas on how you can answer it, and then confirm that you're moving forward. Now, like you said, approximately ten percent of the time they raise something you've never heard of before. They say, "Your station begins with a K, and I've always had bad experiences with the letter K. Therefore I'd never do anything with K. Can you change your call-letter to W?" You say, "Well, I've never heard that before. What is it about K?" "My ex-wife's name was Kay." So you come up with these outrageous emotional things that people will get involved in, but your point is well taken. What you do is use your experience you've gotten before to help you the next time, help you in the future. That's a great point, Bruce.
So what we're talking about today, today's top story is not how to work in overcoming objections, but how to work with, how to understand what resistance is, and how to work with your customer to help them get through it so you can help them become buyers of your products and services. That's today's top story.
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– Warren
Wechsler |
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