Last Updated on April 24, 2023 by Dave Schoenbeck
One of the biggest challenges for business owners is learning how to overcome sales objections. Not every business owner is a skilled salesperson, and not everyone can think of good responses on the fly. It’s easy to freeze up when met with a customer objection, but proper preparation can help you push past the discomfort and close the deal.
Common Types of Customer Objections
While seasoned salespeople undoubtedly have ways to overcome sales objections, you will likely need to help less experienced team members get to that point. Of course, it’s also helpful for business owners to grow these skills.
Learning to overcome objections in sales can do more than boost your bottom line. Using familiar scripts to deal with doubts, you can learn valuable communication tactics to help you sell new ideas to your team, investors, or board of directors.
To overcome sales objections, you should first understand what they are. A complaint is a stopping point that threatens to end the sale. The truth is that while the wording may differ, most objections can be boiled down to the same few concerns at their very essence. Here are a few of the most common sales objections and answers you can use to refute them.
- Objection: “We don’t have the budget.”
- Say, “Our product is an investment, but it can increase your profits by X% based on what we’ve done for similar clients.”
- People with this objection might be interested in your product or service but hope to find it cheaper elsewhere. It would help if you clarified your value to overcome sales objections based on price. What makes you better than your cheaper competitors?
- Pricing objections can be mitigated by making the price easier to swallow. For example, can you offer a payment plan or different pricing options? Is there a cheaper package available?
- Objection: “I need to check with my manager.”
- Say this: “If you’d like, I’d be happy to talk to your manager and explain how our product can help your business. Are you both available later this week?”
- If your prospect isn’t making the final decision, you’ll need to help them sell your product or service to the person who is. You can do this by offering to contact them or providing valuable materials that break down your sales pitch into manageable, understandable steps.
- Note that the person you’re talking to is likely not as passionate about your product or service as you are. To overcome sales objections, you’ll need to genuinely convince them of the value of your product or service, then make it simple for them to sell it to their higher-ups.
- Objection: “We’re not ready to decide. Check back later.”
- Say this: “I’d be happy to follow up later. Let’s get a meeting on the calendar for X days from now. Are you available at the same time?”
- Sometimes the timing is an issue, but you can still win over these clients by being persistent yet not pushy. They’ll likely forget about you if you wait to schedule another meeting. So don’t get off the phone until you have a follow-up scheduled.
- Objection: “We already have another vendor.”
- Say this: “How is that working out? Are there any pain points that you’ve noticed?”
- Just because they have another vendor doesn’t mean the door is closed. How can your product or service exceed what they already have? What do you have to offer that others don’t?
- Objection: “I don’t think we need this.”
- Say: “We’ve helped similar clients achieve X results in Y amount of time. I know we can do the same for you.”
- Here’s where it helps to do a little research. Are their competitors using your product or service or something similar? How can you help them surpass the competition? What can you do for this customer specifically?
- You’re trying to sell to them because they can use your product or service. However, you can overcome sales objections by showing them what you see.
Overcoming sales objections is just one way to grow your sales skills. As a business coach, I’ve shared countless sales and marketing tips through my blog. Click here and sign up to have my blog posts delivered to your email every week.
Coach Dave
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