Handling Sales Objections To Price, And The Real Reasons We Get Them - By Stephen Craine

Sales objections can be the obstacle stopping you achieving sales career success. So imagine what you could achieve if you understood why we get them, and how to handle sales objections successfully.

I’m not going to tell you what to say when a potential buyer hits you with an objection. Smart rebuttals and rehearsed replies don’t work because they don’t get to the buyer’s beliefs that support and help form the sales objections. Think of this as a sales martial arts approach. You’re not meeting the objection head on, you’re taking away the foundation of beliefs and evidence that it stands on.

I’ve used two examples a sales objection to pric, to demonstrate the theory and process behind successfully handling sales objections. Read it, think about it, and understand it. Once you do that the words are easy to add to the process for turning objections into sales.

Other suppliers are cheaper

The customer is comparing the product you are offering with another product they see as similar, but the price appears cheaper.

The first action is to check the customer is comparing like with like. Do they have all the facts about the two products? The customer is not an expert on your product. The information they use to compare products may be incomplete, or based only on marketing hype.

You can overcome this sales objection by showing how what you can offer is of greater value than the competing offer. Think about what you can give the buyer that the others can’t. The products may be identical, but what about the service. It could be after sales service or guarantees. Management of their account could be important for business customers, and could be the added value difference that overcomes the price objection.

One sales technique many companies use to make it difficult for buyers to compare products and prices, is to package their products differently to their competitors. Think about how mobile phone deals are packaged. Have you tried comparing the different tariffs, call charges, free text, and additional extras? It is not by chance that all the suppliers have big positives to shout about, and no one can compare the deals on offer.

Consider packaging how you present your products to the buyer. How can you package your sales proposal to make it difficult for the customer to compare it to the competition? How can you present the additional features your company gives its customers, as part of the whole package?

The buyer thought it would be cheaper

The buyer has preconceptions about the price. These could be based on other purchases they have made, their belief’s about the cost of manufacture, or false information they have been given.

Find the source of the sales objection, the beliefs that it is based on. Question what they expected to pay and how they formed that estimate. Don’t tackle the price objection head on. Think like a martial artist and take away its supporting beliefs.

Challenge the information that the buyer used as evidence to form their preconception by showing why it is wrong, and then replace it with your own facts. The aim is to destabilize their current beliefs, and put new ones in their place. Use proof that what you are saying about your product is correct. Facts from an independent source, reviews and feedback from satisfied customers, or documents and guarantees, will all work on getting the buyer to form new beliefs.

Now put these sales objection techniques to work for you

As I said at the beginning, I’m not telling you the words to say to overcome sales objections. What I’m giving you is a new viewpoint to use when overcoming sales objections. With this viewpoint you can look for the reasons and beliefs supporting the sales objection, and move or change them to deal with the objection.

If you are experienced enough to see the theory and meaning behind this article you can gain more information on how to use it at Overcoming Sales Objections. You’ll see how NLP techniques have been adapted to overcome sales objections in the buyer’s mind where they are formed.


About the Author:

I'm a working sales manager and I have developed these sales objections ideas, and used and proven them with my sales teams.

You can see details of the course I present to them, and how you can use it in a complete sales training workbook at Sales and training Solutions Overcoming Objections - http://www.sales-training-sales-tips.com/sales-and-training-solution.html#objections