Your Complete Guide to Handling Buyer Objections – CrossWork Consulting, Inc.
Handling Buyer Objections

Your Complete Guide to Handling Buyer Objections

The process of handling buyer objections is Step 7 of your Ultimate 10-Step Sales Presentation.

In our last article, Step 6: Your Complete Guide to Flushing Out Buyer Objections, we learned a lot about objections. We learned why we should welcome buyer objections, when and why buyers object, several types of objections, and a roadmap to handle objections.

Now, finally, it’s time to deal with the buyer’s objection. Always remember while you are deciding how to deal with an objection that most buyer’s objections are a request for information. Your role is to answer their questions, so it enables you to close the sale.

Content

In this article on handling buyer objections, we’ll examine:

  • When should we answer buyer objections?
  • 6-steps to handling buyer objections
  • 10 techniques for handling buyer objections
  • What comes after the buyer objection?

 

10 Step Ultimate Sales Presentation

 

When Should We Answer Buyer Objections?

In the last article, Your Complete Guide to Flushing Out Buyer Objections, I said that most of the time, you should handle an objection immediately. However, to determine when to answer an objection, you must consider the type of objection. That includes understanding why it was raised, the mood of the buyer, and the stage of your presentation. Considering these factors, you will answer the objection immediately, anticipate and forestall it, postpone it, or choose not to answer it at all.

Immediately

My view is that almost all objections should be answered immediately when raised. A sincere response to an objection conveys your professionalism and your respect for the buyer’s viewpoint. Besides that, it shows you care, and you’re listening!

Anticipate and Forestall

One key to handling objections is to anticipate them and build answers into your presentation. That way, if a buyer brings up an objection you anticipated, you can use one of the ten techniques for handling objections that we’ll cover later in this article.

Postpone

Objection handling technique #4 is to postpone the objection. There are times when postponing an objection makes sense. Just be sure that if you postpone handling an objection, you don’t forget it. Make sure you handle it later in your presentation.

Nothing grates on a buyer’s nerves more than a salesperson who says, “I’ll cover that in a minute,” and then forgets to answer the buyer’s question or handle the objection.

Don’t Answer an Excuse

Sometimes a buyer’s objection is really an excuse. Most of the time, the excuse objection is unimportant and is just meant to derail you and your presentation. With experience, you’ll sense when buyers may be using excuse objections. You’ll know if the objection is an excuse if you answer it, and the buyer throws out another excuse. Don’t answer an excuse.

That being said, be careful! If the buyer raises the same excuse objection a second time, its best to treat it like a real objection.

6-Steps to Handling Buyer Objections

So, now we know when we need to answer a buyer’s objection let’s examine a 6-step approach to handling the buyer’s objection.

1. Hear the Buyer Out

First, bite your lip and keep your eager mouth shut! The most important thing you can do to resolve a buyer’s objection successfully is to hear the buyer out. Listen to what they say and how they say it.

Remember, an objection is most often a request for more information, so listen carefully to what the buyer tells you. Then you’ll know how to respond.

2. Confirm Your Understanding

Next, ensure you understand the buyer’s objection by confirming what you heard is actually what he or she meant to say! A good way to do that is to employ objection handling technique #3 Rephrase the Objection.

If you rephrase and don’t have it right, or if you didn’t understand the objection in the first place, you should ask the buyer to explain. Say something like, “I’m sorry I do not know what you mean. Can you describe your concern again for me?

Additionally, you should be sure that you have isolated the real issue with a question like, “Other than that, are there any other reasons that you would keep you from buying today?”

3. Acknowledge the Buyer’s Point of View

Most of the time, the buyer’s objections are sincere, and they deserve to be treated with respect. Acknowledge the buyer’s objection, listen carefully, and take responsibility for any misunderstanding or lack of clarity on your part. Say something like, “I understand how you feel,” or I appreciate your concern…”

When you acknowledge the buyer’s objection this way, you demonstrate your professionalism and your desire to solve the buyer’s problem.

4. Decide How to Handle the Objection

Next, you must decide how you will handle the buyer’s objection. In the next section, we’ll cover ten common techniques for handling objections. Before you choose which method to use, think about:

  • Whether the objection has been raised by this buyer before.
  • What stage of the presentation are you in (just starting, middle, or almost ready to close)?
  • The buyer’s behavioral style. Is the buyer an amiable, analyst, driver, or expressive (see here for more on the buyer’s behavioral; style)?
  • What kind of a mood is the buyer in (argumentative or receptive)?
  • What type of objection did the buyer bring up (see Your Complete Guide to Flushing Out Buyer Objections for more)?

5. Answer the Objection

Finally, answer the buyer’s objection. Be sincere, respectful, and concise. Answer the question as succinctly as possible by considering the buyer’s behavioral style. Then, the next step is moving on to the trial close.

6. Use a Trial Close

The last step in handling the objection is to confirm that your answer met the buyer’s needs with a trial close. (See How to Leverage the Trial Close in Your Ultimate Sales Presentation for more on the trial close.)

10 Techniques for Handling Buyer Objections

Now that you have the buyer’s objection out in the open, you must deal with it. Here are ten common techniques to handle a buyer’s objection. Some of these you will use by themselves, others may be used in combination.

1. Sidestep the Objection

The sidestep is a valuable technique to use when you need to reinforce a key benefit. With the sidestep, the salesperson neither denies, answers, or ignores the objection, but sidesteps it for just a moment.

For example, if the buyer raises a common objection like “Your price is too high” or “We can’t afford that” the salesperson might respond, “Before you make the decision to buy, let me explain the value of everything you get with this product.”

Note the salesperson uses an affirmative response, “before you decide to buy,” then reinforces a key benefit directly related to the specific objection.

The sidestep is an ideal technique to use combined with another objection handling technique like the rephrase, postpone, or the boomerang.

2. Pass Up the Objection

The pass up technique is useful when you believe the buyer’s objection is an unimportant objection or an excuse.

For example, if the buyer says, “I don’t have a need for your product,” you could answer using the customer benefit approach. For exampe say, “If I can show you how this product will save you 20% on your finished product inventory costs would you be interested?”

The key to using the pass up technique is not to put the buyer on the defensive. Do not ignore the objection or challenge the buyer by simply saying, “Why not?”

3. Rephrase the Objection

Rephrasing is one of my favorite techniques. In my opinion, it is one of the most versatile and powerful objections handling techniques.

The rephrase technique, as the name suggests, simply rephrases the buyer’s objection as a question. Rephrasing the objection has two important benefits; you acknowledge the buyer’s objection, and you confirm your understanding of the objection.

For example, the buyer says, “I can’t place an order now. We have inventory at the end of the month.” The salesperson responds by rephrasing the objection as a question. “I understand. Your main concern with placing an order today is that you can’t have it delivered until after your inventory. Is that right?”

The beauty of the rephrase is it naturally allows the salesperson to add a trial close to the end of the rephrased objection. In this example, the trial close is, “Is that right?”.

4. Postpone the Objection

It is not unusual for a buyer to skip ahead of you in the presentation and ask a question or offer an objection you will discuss later in the presentation. If this happens, the postpone is an excellent technique to postpone handling the objection until you are ready.

For example, if the buyer asks, “What is your price?” the salesperson responds, “I’m glad you asked that, and I know pricing is important to you. Bear with me. I will cover pricing in just a moment.”

When you get to the part of the presentation that covers the postponed objection, make a point of referring to the buyer’s question.

For example, “A moment ago, you asked about pricing. Let’s dig into the pricing question now.”

The primary benefit of using the postpone technique is you don’t allow the buyer to derail or interrupt the flow of your presentation. You simply postpone answering their questions to a point in your presentation when it makes sense to provide the answer.

5. Boomerang the Objection

The boomerang technique accepts the premise of the objection but sends it back to the buyer as a benefit. There will be cases when a buyer objects to something about your product or service that is actually a benefit. In this situation, you accept the premise of the objection and send it back to the buyer as a benefit.

For example, I can imagine when Tylenol first introduced the safety cap on their bottles, a buyer somewhere objected, saying, “I don’t like these new bottles! The caps are too hard to remove!” The Tylenol salesperson would smile broadly and say, “I’m glad you noticed the caps. We specifically designed them to be difficult for children to be able to open and take the medicine accidentally.”

Like the rephrase, the boomerang technique provides a perfect opportunity to follow with a trial close. In our Tylenol example, the salesperson might continue saying, “Isn’t that a great way to protect children?”

6. Question the Objection

One of the most important things you can do as a salesperson handling an objection is to be sure you fully understand the objection. The best way to do that is to ask the buyer a series of open-ended questions.

For example, the buyer says, “I don’t like this car as much as the one I saw yesterday.” The salesperson responds, “I see. Can you tell me what was it that you especially liked about the car you saw yesterday?”

Then, depending on the answer, the salesperson continues to ask open-ended questions until the real objection is clear. Once you clearly understand the objection, you handle it using another of the objection handling techniques.

7. Directly Deny the Objection

Occasionally a buyer will give you an objection based on incomplete or incorrect information. In this case, a direct denial of the objection is perhaps your best course of action. However, a direct denial needs to be handled politely and tactfully with facts and logic.

A direct denial should begin by acknowledging the buyer’s objection, then answer with complete or correct information.

For example, a buyer says, “I don’t want your copy machine; my paper supplier says your machines break down all the time.” The salesperson responds, saying, “I certainly understand how important it is for you to have a reliable copy machine in your office. I’m afraid your paper supplier doesn’t have all the facts about our copiers’ reliability.”

Once the objection is tactfully denied, the salesperson will go one to offer the correct information to the buyer.

8. Indirectly Deny the Objection

The indirect denial is a softer, even more, tactful version of the direct denial. The indirect denial begins by accepting the buyer’s objection but then denies the objection.

An indirect denial often takes the form of “yes, but” or “I agree.” Yes, I agree with what you said, but here’s the correct information.

For example, a buyer objects saying your price is higher than a competitor. You respond, saying, “I agree our price is higher than our competitors, but our product is made to exacting specifications that will deliver years of trouble-free operation. Is trouble-free operation important to you?”

The indirect denial works well when the buyer’s objection is factually correct, but their objection is based on incomplete or incorrect information. In this case, you agree with the objection, provide the correct information, and then move on with a trial close.

9. Counterbalance the Objection

There will be times when a buyer’s objection is factually correct and must be counterbalanced by an offsetting benefit. The counterbalance technique is one of my favorites when selling premium-priced products, and the buyer offers a price objection.

For example, the buyer objects, saying, “Your frying oil price is 20% higher than the private label product I buy.” The salesperson says, “You’re right, our price is higher than your private label. The reason is our frying oil lasts longer in the fryer without breaking down, so it saves you money. It doesn’t give food an oily taste, so it looks and tastes better. Are you interested in saving money and having better quality food?”

The salesperson accepts the factually correct element of the objection but counterbalances it with benefits that offset the objection. As with other techniques, the counterbalance technique lends itself to using a trial close.

10. Third-Party Proof

Sometimes your answer to an objection will not convince the buyer. When this is the case, the third-party proof technique can save the day.

If you have read sales advertisements, you have probably seen third-party proof statements in action. In the middle of the sales page, there are pictures of satisfied customers along with their glowing testimonials. Then you see a chart of data that unveils a study supporting the claims made in the ad. Finally, at the bottom of the sales page is a big satisfaction guaranteed, money back, if you don’t like it send it back promise.

Testimonials, study data, and guarantees are all common third-party proof techniques.

You can use them in your presentation in the very same way to prove the point you made in answer to a buyer’s objection.

For example, a potential customer tells a solar salesperson they don’t believe they will save money with a solar system. The salesperson responds with data from the local utility company and testimonials from satisfied customers. Even more powerful, the salesperson gives the potential customer a list of two or three neighbors down the street who are thrilled with their solar system.

Now that you are an expert at using the ten objection handling techniques, the question arises, what’s next? What do you do after the buyer objection is handled?

What Comes After the Buyer Objection?

Remember, as a professional salesperson; you view an objection from a buyer as a request for information because the customer is engaged and interested. You handle the objection professionally, and then it is time to move on with your presentation. Or is it?

Trial Close

The first thing you need to do after handling a buyer objection is gain agreement from the buyer that you have answered their question satisfactorily. The best and most natural way to do that is with a trial close.

We covered the use of the trial close in detail in a recent article. So, if you need a refresher to check it out here, How to Leverage the Trial Close in Your Ultimate Sales Presentation.

Once the objection is handled, you must ensure that you have answered the buyer’s objection with a trial close. You do not be in a rush to finish your presentation and move on without using a trial close after every objection. So don’t rush!

Pick Up Where You Left Off

Once you’ve confirmed the objection is handled with a trial close, the next thing to do is a transition back into your presentation. This transition can be as simple as saying, “Very good; let’s continue then.” Or, “Thanks for asking, that was a great question. Now, as I was explaining (and continue where you left off).”

Close the Sale

If you were at the end of your presentation when the buyer raised an objection, then you’ll want to follow with a trial close and move toward closing the sale. In a future article, we’ll cover techniques for closing the sale, but for now, remember to use your trial close, summarize key benefits, and ask for the order!

What if You’re Stuck?

Every professional salesperson reaches the end of their presentation and hears an objection they cannot overcome. It has happened to me. It is bound to happen to you. Your product is not a perfect fit for every customer. If you think your product will solve a customer’s problem, then don’t be afraid to close and ask for the order. You never know, you may still make the sale. One thing is for sure. You will never make the sale if you don’t ask for the order.

The Ultimate 10-Step Sales Presentation Series

Step 6: Determine Objections is the seventh in a series of articles, which have been created to teach you how to craft and deliver the Ultimate Sales Presentation in 10-Steps.

If you missed a previous article in this series or you want to review one again, you’ll find them here:

If you want to make sure you don’t miss one of these articles, you can sign up to receive the series here.

Join the Conversation

As always, questions and comments are welcome. What steps do you take to handle objections in your presentations? Which objection handling techniques do you like the best? Why?

I’d love your help. This blog is read primarily because of people like you who share it with friends. Would you be kind enough to share it by pressing the share button?

Category: Salespeople

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