How to Overcome Sales Objections
In sales, objections are great! Yes that's right,
objections are at the heart of an adrenaline surge for any
professional sales person. You see when someone raises an
objection to you, what it really means is that potential
customer is possibly interested in what you have to off but
you haven't addressed all their questions yet!
If this happens welcome it with open arms! It is a signal
that you need to go back and find out exactly what they
want, get their questions answered and get the order
signed. They are already listening to you.
If you need to clarify what has been covered so far ask
them,'You told me that. (state what they have told you so
far).. Is that right?' If you get a no find out the correct
answer, if yes, move on as it was not an objection but a
smoke screen to delay placing the order.
Remember price is never the issue, cost or their budget may
be, but showing value is vital to getting a sale. If you
can show your prospect how your product or service will add
value, solve a problem or make their life better in ways
they expressed as potential issues for them to you, you can
get the order.
Another area key to closing the sale is that you have built
the right rapport, simply put, if someone doesn't know,
like and trust you, you will never get the order from them
no matter how much value you show them!
A key area when fact finding is to establish your clients
budget and show them the value of your product and services
with the benefits and uniqueness to them. No point wasting
your time or theirs if they have a budget of say $100 and
your product is $1000. If that is the case move on and find
a new customer.
Possible phrases that crop up as objections. I want to
think it over, I want to check with more suppliers ,Your
price is too high, I have to speak with my partner, I'm
happy with my current supplier ,We've spent our annual
budget, Get back to me in 6 months
Remember most of these phrases are delay tactics, they give
the buyer more thinking time, or they are just excuses in
the main! They usually arise when either you haven't
qualified the prospect sufficiently, you haven't
established enough rapport so they like and trust what you
are telling them is credible. Maybe you haven't established
a need from them yet or worse still your presentation is
weak and needs attention, your belief in what you're
promoting may not be convincing enough.
For future reference, identify all possible objections
write them down and have an answer ready to address them.
Ask yourself, what might people say to get out of
committing to your offering?
A final point- there is power in the word No - No is good,
no sometimes means no not now, every no is closer to the
next yes, don't take no's personally this is business, It
usually takes around 7 no's before sale is made. Each no
moves you closer to the sale.
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The Savvy Customer
Copyright 2008 Curtis Bingham
AFTER $14 MILLION dollars and four years, our customers don't want to buy what we have? What a depressing statement from a VP of Sales. How many times can you afford to have a new product fail in the marketplace? How many customers can you afford to lose because you don't meet their needs?
Shortest time to market no longer cuts it, nor does lowest cost. And excellent customer service is now expected. As the old rules for achieving competitive advantage fade away, what can you do to secure customers and vanquish competitors?
The only true, sustainable competitive advantage is an intimate understanding of customer needs. You can develop such "clear customer insight" in many ways and use it to win profits and the loyalty of "savvy" customers.
Learn About Your Customers
Often, we attempt to understand our customers by employing approximations of customer needs and wants, such as third-party market research, anecdotal evidence from sales or service organizations, competitive activities, website tracking, and, worse, our own opinions. We need to go directly to the source, gathering real, direct customer insight that's accurate, current, and meaningful, and upon which we can bet our businesses.
Not every customer has something to offer. The 80/20 rule applies here: select the most valuable 20 percent of your customers according to an accepted metric such as strategic fit, gross revenue, gross margin, cost to support, or frequency of purchase, and cultivate long-term, two-way relationships with them. Ask them to share with you their candid opinions. Go visit them and observe the use of your product or service in actual environments.
While customers are critical to learn from, prospects may be even more valuable. In many cases, customers keep doing what they've always done, and are poor predictors of new technologies or other marketplace shifts. But prospects are not already infatuated with you or your current products, and will communicate more realistic views of the changing marketplace. So listen to prospects as well as customers.
Information to Gather
What information needs to be gathered to obtain clear customer insight?
*Working environment* Ask, "What is the environment that our customers are working in?" "Who is using the product vs. who is the buyer?" Understanding the environment may provide clues as to how your products are used and how their use could be improved, there by increasing the value to customers. You need to know how customers are or would be using your product or service.
Ideally, you should go directly to your customer site and watch the product or service being used. In this way, you can gather information that may not be evident as someone describes their environment and can't be uncovered using surveys or other impersonal means.
*New opportunities* The greatest value in gathering firsthand customer insight may be the ability to uncover new opportunities, either for new applications of existing products or for new products. During direct customer interviews, you can uncover latent needs that customers may not even know they have. Frequently, your company will be uniquely capable of addressing these needs.
Acting on the Results
Without this step, nothing else even matters. Here are a few ideas:
1. Draw a poster-sized picture of your stereotypical customer and post it in the most prominent spot you can. Give this stereotypical customer a name. Record on the picture all of the details about the customer that you know, including the environment they are in, their worries and concerns, and their most painful needs.
2. Laminate smaller versions of the poster and hand them out at meetings. Before making decisions, ask yourselves if your customers (by name) will even care about the decision you are making. If they do, will your decision alleviate their pain?
3. Examine your current products and services for problems you are causing your customers. Are you destroying your relationships despite yourself? Make a list of everything that you can do to improve. Rank each improvement according to the value to the customer and the difficulty to implement. Select the most critical and the easiest to implement and fix it this week.
4. Explore new areas you can profitably address. What areas of significant pain (or latent needs) did you uncover? How can you provide added services or products to address these needs? Flesh these out and review them with customers and prospects.
5. Have customers rank your forthcoming new features or product and service offerings. Describe the changes to existing or new products and services you are considering based on your newfound insight. Have your customers and prospects rank your changes. You might have them spread $100 over each change to signify both order of importance and relative value, or rank them from 1 to 10 to signify order of importance. Determine how much they might pay by either asking for a figure or using comparative methods.
6. Create an implementation plan that balances real customer insight with business reality. Create a resource allocation plan that heavily weights the customer value and more lightly weighs the strategic fit of the change with the corporate direction, as well as the difficulty/cost of implementation.
7. Execute. Armed with real customer insight, you are prepared to keep your most valuable customers as your gre a test allies in thwarting competitors.
The only sustainable competitive advantage is clear customer insight. By leveraging your customer knowledge, you can make strategic and tactical business decisions that your customers and prospects will appreciate. Even better, they will pay for them, increasing your revenue, profits and overall success.
Curtis N. Bingham, President of The Predictive Consulting Group, helps organizations dramatically increase customer acquisition, retention, & profitability. For more information about his new Customer Experience Audit, Customer Strategy, or Chief Customer Officers, visit his website at
http://www.predictiveconsulting.com or his blog at
http://www.curtisbingham.com .
3 Secrets To Help You Make More Sales
If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me "How can I make more sales?" Well, lets just say, I would have a heck of a lot of nickels! The fact is the answer is different for everyone. I would have to look at your product and analyze your entire process to tell you exactly where the problem is. Lucky for you, there are 3 basic secrets I can share with you to increase your sales right off the bat.
These methods will work regardless of what you are selling or how you are selling it. That's what makes it so beautiful! You see it doesn't matter if your prospect is hearing, watching or reading your sales pitch; these tactics will work for you if you apply them consistently.
#1 Build Impulse:
Impulse is your prospects "willingness to buy." You must understand that your customers impulse is at ZERO when they first come across your product. It is YOUR job to raise that impulse to the point of purchase through a series of well delivered messages. This is called a "presentation" or if you're old school (like me) it's called a "Sales Pitch."
Your pitch has to be well thought out in order to raise impulse effectively. You must anticipate those points in the pitch where the prospects impulse level will drop. Use the products hot spots to raise the impulse back up and always close at the very peak of their impulse level for best results.
#2 Leverage The Law of Averages
The number one way to double your sales is to double the amount of people you expose to your product. Every product and every salesperson will have an inherent law of average. This law represents the relationship between the customers that refused to buy and those that actually bought. For example a 1:10 law of average means that you must get 9 no's before you arrive at one sale.
Remember this is an AVERAGE. It's not to be taken literally. I may sell the first 2 customers I talk to and then get 18 "No's" in a row. At the end of the day you average out your yeses and nos to get your LOA. Now, lets say you wanted to make 20 sales today, if you spoke to 100 people today and only made 10 sales then how can you make 20 sales tomorrow? You got it! Talk to 200 people.
#3 Up-Selling
I think this one of the most common areas where marketers and sales people drop the ball. They invest all this time and money into finding prospects then when they develop a buyer they just stop selling. Hello??? You have a buyer here. Buyers BUY. So keep selling! Suggest other products that might benefit the customer or perhaps a volume discount a second item. Whatever the case may be, you have to sell more or at least generate another lead from this sale. Ask them what friend or family member could benefit from an item like this of their own.
All you have to do is ask? Whats the worst that can happen, they might say "No, I'll just take one." Big deal! Let me ask you a question... when you go to McDonald's and order a value mealdont they ask you if you'd like to "super size it"? Does anyone ever say "No never mind, I just wont eat anything at all now because you asked me to buy more." Of course not! So what are you afraid of? Sell. Sell. Sell!
Omar Martin is a sales expert dedicated to training and developing high performance sales leaders in every industry. He is an internet marketer and sales page designer whose sales experience, skill level and coaching ability has benefited thousands of sales professionals across the USA. He posts free sales advice and products on:
http://www.omar-martin.comHis latest product is:
http://www.HighPerformanceSalesSecrets.com
Anyone Can Sell Anything With The Right ATTITUDE
So many people out there think that selling ability is a God given gift or talent. This couldn't be further from the truth. The reality is that ANYONE can sell. Selling is a learned skill that requires no special gift or abilities.
While at the gas station yesterday a gentleman struck up a conversation with me. He was admiring my car and asked what I did for a living. He said that he would do what ever it takes if it meant he could drive a BMW like mine. I thanked him for the compliment as I chuckled, then I told him I was in sales. He proceeded to inquire about how I got started in sales and what products I sold. I told him that I started 8 years ago by selling pizza coupons door to door. His jaw dropped to the floor! He said "No Way Really?? I could never do that!"
Just 15 seconds earlier he was willing to do anything to own a car like mine but now, all of a sudden he's freaked out because I said "Door to Door sales" I asked him why he felt that way and he said he just couldn't muster up the courage to approach a stranger and strike up a conversation. Obviously my response to that was... "Where have we met again?" He laughed and said "I get your point."
The fact is that we sell ourselves everyday. We talk to strangers everyday and we influence other peoples decisions everyday. These things are a part of life but when the average person contemplates doing it for a living, the fear of failure sets in. People are inherently afraid of rejection and failure and that fear usually precludes them from ever getting ahead in life. It precludes them from taking risks and starting new endeavors. It sadly keeps them in a miserable rut and they usually just end up envying those that took a chance to do something they themselves weren't even willing to try.
I noticed that the young man was wearing a wedding band on his finger and I mentioned "I see that you're married..." He said he's been married for 2 years. I then said "See, you are a salesman after all, you got her to marry you!" He laughed in agreement then finished pumping his gas and waved so long.
Anyone can learn to be an expert sales person if they have a coach or mentor and put in the time and effort. There is only one prerequisite.... You Must Have A Good Attitude.
Does that sound corny? It may, but it is a fact! Here's the deal... I can teach you the 5 steps to a sale, I can teach you the factors of impulse. I can teach you how to raise impulse. I can teach you how to close the deal. I can teach you how to up-sell, how to work a territory correctly and how to manage a team. I can even tech you how to maintain a positive attitude when your having a bad day.
But do you want to know the one thing no one can teach you? It's how to HAVE a positive attitude. Notice I used the word HAVE. Many people out there have written books on how you should "fake it to make it" and essentially how you should "pretend" to be a positive person. I hate to break it to you but, Attitude Is Not A Light Switch! You can't just turn it on and off when you please.
To be successful at sales all you need is a positive frame of mind and an optimistic attitude! "When you fix whats on the inside... everything on the outside fixes itself." Your attitude boils down to a simple choice: Do you want to live a positive life or a negative life? Make the decision and follow through. Your positivity will be contagious and it will attract more positive people. These are the people that will like you, trust you and BUY FROM YOU with just a simple nudge in the right direction!
Omar Martin is a sales expert dedicated to training and developing high performance sales leaders in every industry. His sales experience, skill level and coaching ability has enabled him to build huge power-selling teams of door to door and telemarketing sales experts across the United States. He posts free sales advice and products on:
http://www.omar-martin.comhttp://www.HighPerformanceSalesSecrets.com
The Five Biggest Mistakes Sales People Make
No matter how you bring your prospects through the door,
you will have to contact them. There is no getting around
this fact. And whether you are a cold-call specialist or an
internet marketer who generates their own leads, you still
will need to follow-up with prospects. But, here's the
problem. Most people end up losing their sale. Without
realizing it, they make important mistakes that lose them
money. The bottom line is that over the years, I have
observed that people make five common mistakes in sales:
- Wasting Time. People waste time. Obviously, watching
TV and gossiping on the phone are obvious time wasters.
But, some time-wasters are less obvious, but still as
dangerous. At the end of the day, there is no greater use
of your time than talking with prospects. That's it. Any
time that you spend doing other activities is taking away
from this critical process. Of course, you need to spend
time on other activities, like marketing and managing your
team. But, never forget that 80% of your work day should be
spent on talking with new prospects.
- Living with Poor Discipline. Poor discipline is
different than wasting time. Top performers organize their
week, set goals and have standards and benchmarks that they
strive to achieve. They get up early in the morning and
keep going until they have finished their tasks. Even if
they have a sick child or a broken dishwasher, they
understand that there are always hurdles in life; however,
they still achieve the goals that they set.
- Practicing Poor Follow-up. A few years ago, there was a
study done on the follow-up statistic of purchased leads.
72% of purchased leads are never called. And even more
surprising, only 3 out of 10 people are given a call when
they enter their information in a website. Top sales
people not only follow up with their prospects, but follow
up with their prospects with a proven series of between 5
and 20 different steps. You should send your prospect a
series of emails, a phone call, an invitation to an
opportunity call or an online webinar, a letter in the
mail, etc. Research suggests that you will close 75% more
leads if you have a systematic follow-up program.
- A Poor System. An entrepreneur without a system will
never, ever come close to the systemized entrepreneur. If
you have a step-by-step process that you follow, you will
be more successful. Top sales professionals have a system
for the following three areas:
- Generating leads
- Managing leads
- Following up with leads
- Being Too Dependent On Your "Leader". This is one of the
most insidious problems in the sales industry. People come
into their business hoping that the "person at the top"
will show them the magic formula for success.
Unfortunately, there isn't a magic formula. Top leaders in
the industry forge their own way and make their own
success. When people become too dependent on others for
their success, they will never make it to the top. Remember
that the sales profession contains some of the richest
people in the world. One of the most wonderful parts of
sales is that there is no limit on what you can achieve.
However, there are some important factors to take into
consideration when pursuing a successful career in any
sales job. Make sure that you never make mistakes that will
cost you the sale!
Jessica Swanson is an extremely successful entrepreneur,
marketer and life coach who has achieved a high six-figure
income. She has mentored hundreds of others on how to
achieve the same results. You can visit her at
http://www.JessicaSwanson.com
Sales Is As Easy As ABC
A. You can`t build anything without a solid foundation. The A is for Attitude - the foundation of all successful sales people. Without a positive attitude and belief in yourself, your organization, It`s products and services and the market, there is no foundation upon which to build success.
Sales professionals need to reflect, confirm and take hold of their attitude, realize it is theirs, develop it into a millionaire`s attitude, overcome fear and be able to deal with rejection, increase productivity and save time and money.
Sales professionals need to reflect, confirm and take hold of their attitude toward the organization`s mission statement, products and services and team members, while developing an owner`s mentality.
Sale professionals need to reflect, confirm and take hold of their attitude towards the market, knowing how they are perceived, while profiling the ideal prospect and fully understanding their competition
B. Sales professionals could have a fantastic attitude, but a positive attitude alone is not enough to guarantee long term sales success. You need goals and an action plan to get you where you want to go. The B is for Behavior - the daily actions that are required to accomplish goals. Goals and behaviours from a personal, organizational, and market targeting level. Without these goals and behaviors there is no motivation, no ownership mentality or drive to go the extra mile.
Sales professionals need to learn the relationship between consistent positive behaviours and success. The first step is to learn this on a personal level. Sales professionals need to identify and develop personal goals and action plans based on why they come to work.
Sales professionals then need to follow the same procedures to develop goals, action plans and behaviors for organizational objectives while improving their time management skills.
Sales professionals need to know how to target their sales efforts through the 80/20 rule and the ABC target model while obtaining pertinent industry, organizational and client information.
C. This is the area where traditional sales training has placed all its efforts - on sales techniques. In this ongoing, non traditional sales approach the C is for Competency - the capability of following a sales results system with the appropriate sales competencies to build and maintain long term relationships. Without a sales results system and without the sales competencies, time is wasted and there are no meaningful sales results.
In order to build a long term relationship, one must first establish rapport. Sales professionals need to learn about the relationship selling model, the components of the rapport pie and how to build rapport in the first 30 seconds of meeting.
Once rapport has been established, questions can then be asked. Sales professionals need to learn why questions are so important, the type of questions that should be asked and how to deal with questions from the prospect or client without giving free consulting. When asking questions, sales professionals must listen effectively, and learn how to qualify opportunities by setting the parameters, uncovering buying motivators, financial ability, decision making processes and summarizing prior to making a proposal or presentation, referred to here as a prescription.
Sales professionals need to learn how to prescribe solutions specific to the customers needs, letting the customer buy, retaining the account, keeping competitors out and developing the account to its maximum potential.
Now that the prospect has purchased the solution, Sales professionals need to maintain the relationship, develop the account for more business and how to obtain new prospect introductions and referrals.
The Bottom Line: Sales is as easy as ABC. Sales people need to follow a proven Sales Results System, or sales process. Businesses today cannot succeed without sales. Without sales there are no transactions. Without transactions there is no revenue. Without revenue, there is no business, no jobs, no bottom line. Sales is the bottom line!
Bob Urichuck is an International Speaker, Trainer and Best-Selling Author. Learn personally from Bob in the areas of Sales, Motivation, Leadership and Team Skills. Bob presents a series of great ideas and strategies with combination of facts, humor, and practical concept in a high-energy and self-discovery process that you can apply right away to achieve results. Subscribe to Bob's Free Newsletter, worth $297, visit
http://www.BobU.com Now!
