Not satisfied with the price, quality, terms of purchase… These are far from all the reasons why customers refuse goods and services. How to quickly and efficiently handle objections and bring customers back is a customer Objections headache for most sales managers. Natalia Korzhova, head of the Telfin sales group, talks about effective methods and techniques for handling objections.
Objection is normal. Before buying especially expensive goods and services, customers often doubt, so they ask a lot of questions, compare the range and prices with competitors, react to every detail in the conversation and service.
Why do objections arise?
There may be many reasons for a customer to refuse a purchase, but this does not mean that he does not want to buy the product. In this way, the buyer wants to make sure that the purchase will really solve his problem.
Reasons for objections:
- Not enough information to make a purchase decision. In other words, the manager has provided few arguments in favor of the proposed product. The main thing is to tell why your product will be useful to the client and what advantages it has over the products of your competitors.
- An ineffective method of negotiating is used. Refusal can often be a defense against an intrusive seller, i.e. the client is forced to defend himself, since you have allowed excessive pressure. In this situation, do not under any circumstances conduct a monologue, do not impose your opinion on the client.
- The time and place for communication are not well chosen. Find out in advance when and how to contact the client. It is better to use the business environment of the office or a pre-scheduled business lunch/call country code +358, finland phone numbers to discuss important issues.
- A low-quality customer base has been collected. If more than 20% of contacts in the potential buyers’ base refuse the offered goods and services, it means that it contains people who do not need your product for objective reasons. Review your contacts, use filters by different parameters.
The client may also object for personal reasons, such as wanting to test whether you can be trusted, to demonstrate their image, or simply feeling afraid of making a final decision.
2 types of customer objections
You can’t always understand the real reason why a client refuses to buy. But it is extremely important to do this in order to properly work with the objection in the future.
Types of customer objections:
- False objections. In order not to reveal the real reason for the refusal, the client may hide behind fictitious database structure of the network data model reasons. Ask the client an important question – if I resolve this issue and the result satisfies you, are you ready to buy the product? If the client answers “no”, look for the real reason.
- True objections. Often, clients are not satisfied with the terms of the deal: price, terms, quality. For example, a client may be put off by an inflated/lowered price, inconvenient payment methods, etc. Check the objection again for falsity. If the client says “yes”, work on the objection.
The main task of a sales manager is to find the true cause and understand the client’s pain, and then offer solutions, showing concern and interest in solving this problem.
How to work with objections?
When negotiating with clients, there are always organizational and emotional components. In the first case, you must strictly follow asia email list the instructions and customer service standards, in the second – focus on your feelings and the client’s behavior.
5 stages of working with objections:
- Listen to the client. Let the client tell you how he sees his situation and outline the problem, why it is not possible to buy a product or service. Often, clients themselves name the reason for the refusal. It is important not to interrupt the client and give him the opportunity to speak to the end.
- Look for the reason. If the client still hasn’t identified the reason, help them, start asking leading questions, tell them about the cases of your other clients from the same industries. Already at this stage, you can show the client that you are on their side and want to help solve the problem.
- Check objections. If you see that the client is weakly involved in the dialogue and is not interested in the result, check their objection. If you have identifi a false objection, do not work on it, you will only waste your time. Ask clarifying questions to find a specific reason.
- Present your arguments. It’s time to act and fully present your product or service in accordance with the client’s needs. Prepare a comparison with competitors in advance, it will help you strengthen your position. Your arguments should be objective and indisputable.
- Move on to active actions. Offer the client to meet or call again, use the trial period, etc. You can also familiarize the potential buyer with a sample contract in advance, where all the agreements reached will be spell out.
To make it comfortable for you to work through the client’s objections, you can follow scripts during the conversation. In this case, you need to write down all possible reasons for refusal and a plan for conducting negotiations for each specific situation in advance. Experienc often refuse scripts and communicate with the client, following their feelings and based on feedback.
Rules of emotional behavior of a manager when working with objections:
- Communicate with the client in a language he understands.
- Never take a purchase refusal personally.
- Be confident, stay calm and compos.
- Remember about feedback and involve the client in your conversation.
Handling Sales Objections: Techniques and Examples
To work quickly and effectively with objections, you can use absolutely different techniques and combine them depending on the situation. The choice of technique also depends on your experience, the company’s field of activity, the communication channel and the context of the objection itself.
Techniques for working with objections:
- Questions. Ask questions to get the client talking, to get more information about the problem. Use open questions in the conversation, turn objective facts into questions to show your interest and awareness.
- Successful cases. The experience of other companies can also be a useful and interesting example for your client. For example, you can tell how specialists in different industries solv a similar problem. Tell about the results right away, do not force the client to understand the details themselves.
- Social proof. If your product or service is already used by many companies, there are reviews, recommendations for work, then the client treats such a product with greater trust. Show the client statistics to confirm that people need your product.
You can also use metaphors to work out objections to simplify communication with clients and make your speech simpler and more emotional for the interlocutor. Another technique for dialogue with a potential client is a reference to the past. In this way, you can clarify information about the current supplier.
Services for employee training
As practice shows, not all sales department employees want and know how to work with objections. To encourage them to leave their comfort zone and not ignore customer objections, employers use financial motivation, in particular, they set a fixed salary, which changes depending on the fulfillment of the sales plan. In addition, companies conduct training for young and ineffective employees, using a number of IP telephony services for these purposes:
- By recording conversations with clients, you get useful data for study and analysis. This way, you can determine the key reasons for refusals, find an answer to an objection and a difficult question from a client, change scripts depending on the type and reason for the call, prevent controversial situations, etc.
- This service helps to automatically study conversations with clients, search for dialogues by keywords and client remarks, evaluate calls by various parameters, for example, by speech activity or vocabulary of subscribers.
- Following a conversation, clients can rate specialists themselves. Call ratings help control the client satisfaction index and promptly respond to their complaints. For example, by selecting the lowest score, you can identify unsuccessful calls.
Don’t give up if the client is unhappy with something, he didn’t refuse you, he just express his dissatisfaction. Therefore, you still have a chance to close the deal if you work through the objection quickly and efficiently. At the same time, remember that some objections require a process of overcoming, and not just a prompt response. Use the techniques describ above, strengthen your relationships with clients and get closer to the sale.
