"Sales Rebuttals" - The Truth Behind Handling Objections

Sales objections and the rebuttals used to handle them need to become a primary part of your conversations with prospective customers.

I am sure most of you have heard "the ABC of sales is always be closing", and "lots of little yes' make a big yes". These sales cliché's are utter nonsense for anyone selling to a business customer. The days of avoiding objections by manipulating your questions are long gone. This type of technique may have worked in the past, but now customers - especially business customers - are much more sophisticated and aware, in fact, using them simply eats away at your credibility.

When I work with my team we try to focus on giving the customer a chance to say no. We try to make it easy for the customer to give us a list of sales objections, yes I know it does sound a little odd, and can take some getting used to, but it works.

You know why customers should buy from you. Your company and sales manager have (I hope) spent time teaching you the benefits that your products/services afford customers.

So what is the point of spending all of your time focusing on that? You already know why they will say yes. You are much better off working with potential customers to find the reasons why they will say no, uncovering the sales objection is key to acquiring their business

Not only is this a far more honest manner of dealing with potential customers, it also saves your endless hours chasing business in your funnel that never had a realistic chance of closing in the first place.

Look at it this way - and yes, I know this is an unusual analogy, but it works...

You are at a bar and you see someone you find attractive and decide to talk to them. Your goal is to get their phone number and have them agree to a date, just like a sales call when you are looking to move to the next stage of the sales process.

Now, let's assume there is something polarizing about you - something people either love or hate, something you can not change. In this example you have a tattoo on your face (Ok, bad example, but work with me).

You know that no matter how charming you are, how attractive the other person finds you, or even how desperate they are, if they dislike facial tattoos enough nothing you say will gain you their phone number.

So, what is the point of thirty minutes of banter and sweet talk if, by the time you come to ask for a phone number, they look at you and say "I would never go out with someone with a tattoo on their face..."

Save time, get to the point early - one of the first questions you should have asked was "would my tattoo stop you from going out with me?" If the answer is no, then you can relax and enjoy the conversation.

If they say yes, test the objection, try to overcome it, see how big a deal it really is - if it really is a deal-breaker and because there is no way of removing the tattoo - walk away.

This is a stupid analogy, but it definitely makes the point.

Do not hide from objections, draw them out early in the conversation. Give the person in front of you the chance to say no, so both of you can cut through the sales-garbage and focus on whether there could be a good fit.