Don’t Answer Objections, Isolate Them!

Don’t Answer Objections, Isolate Them!
By Mike Brooks, Mr. Inside Sales

Most sales reps hate getting objections. Their hearts sink into their stomachs, their palms start to sweat, and they start wondering how they're going to pay the rent. Sound familiar?

When sales reps ask me how they should handle objections, they are often surprised by my answer. I tell them they should never answer objections. When they look at me like I'm crazy, I explain:

“Objections are often stalls or smokescreens hiding other objections that your prospect doesn't want to disclose. As soon as you begin answering objections, have you ever found that they have another and yet another?"

“Oh, yeah,” they say. So here’s what you should do:

Instead of answering an objection you must first isolate and question it. Let's take two of the most common ones – “Your price is too high," and “I need to speak with, talk to…"

If your client says, “Your prices too high," you should respond with:

“I can understand that, and let me ask you a question -- if this price was exactly what you were willing to pay, is this (your product/service, etc.) the solution you would go with today?"

Now that you've isolated the objection you will see if price really is the only objection. Any answer other than ‘yes’ and price isn't what is stopping your prospect form moving forward (which means you have more work to do to find out what is!)

Same thing with the “I've got to speak to, talk this over with….” objection. You should say:

“I can totally understand that, prospect’s name, and let me ask you -- if you did speak with _______ and they said whatever you thought was fine with them, would you go with this today?"

Again, any answer other than ‘yes’ and that objection is just a stall. Answering it will get you nowhere.

Do you see how this works? The whole point of questioning and isolating the objection first is to uncover what is really holding your prospect back.

And until you find that out, there will be no deal.

So stop answering objections and start isolating them. You will become a much stronger closer, and you'll begin making more sales. Kind of like the Top 20% so.