While pitching your product to a prospect, you could be met with a resounding rejection. Objections are always a hard pill to swallow. But, these don’t mean a complete no. Overcoming sales objections is a skill and you also can develop it.

What Does Overcoming Sales Objections Mean?

It means to respond in a way that changes the prospect’s mind to convert into a customer. Overcoming sales objection means when a prospect explicitly states concerns about a product or service and the salesman provides ways of how to alleviate it and helps the deal to move forward.

Why Are Overcoming Sales Objections Important?

It Means That The Buyer Is Engaged

When you pitch your products or services to prospects, some knee-jerk objections are thrown from the buyer’s side. This means that the buyer is interested in the product. This helps you in overcoming those objections and helps you to jump straight into a genuine conversation. When in the end, you're discussing the pricing situation, you can capitalize on the opportunity that the prospect is fully involved.

Lets You Understand What The Buyer Is Thinking

When you get further into the sales process, objections from the buyers become more specific. This lets you understand what is going on in your prospects’ heads. If they are not specific in some places, you can easily adapt and overcome those.

Helps To Add Value To The Conversation

Objections are an opportunity to delve deeper into the conversation and add more value to it. You can start your reply to their objections by “Help me understand what you mean by.....”. This helps you get a feeling for where they are going and add value, additional facts, etc. Buyers object to ask for clarification and this is your chance to align with the buyer and take the conversation further.

Figure Out Qualified Prospects

Through your prospect’s objections, you can understand whether he/she is willing to purchase your product or not. There are genuine objections and then there are brush-offs. Figure out if your prospects are even going to pen a check. If not, it's better to not waste time on them.

Now, let's discuss some basic steps on overcoming objections.

How To Overcome Sales Objections

Listen To Them Completely

• Listen to the objections your prospects are stating fully and refrain from responding right away. Responding quickly is risky as you have to assume the objection. Let your prospects finish speaking.
• Express verbal confirmation from time to time, to make your prospects realize that you're listening intently.

Note: Never react defensively to any objections. Train yourself to stay focused on the problem that your prospect is stating and help alleviate them instead of showing any negative emotions.

Understand The Objection

Overcoming sales objections requires you to fully understand your prospect’s concerns before responding to them. Many a time, prospects don't state in their objections what their prime problems are. There are some underlying issues, that are your job to fully understand and find out. For this, restate their objections to make sure you're on the same page with them. Ask them open-ended questions to skillfully understand the true source of their objections.

Respond Accordingly

• The first step is to acknowledge their problems.
• Start with their most pressing problem and give them a solution for it. Once you're done with the main issue, your deal automatically goes further.
• Your goal is to resolve their problems right away. If you have the authority to do so, resolve them in real-time. But, if you need help from a higher authority or you need to look something up, schedule a meeting at some other time.
• Don't wing your responses. Prospects can sense it, which creates distrust.
• Keep your replies concise and to the point.

Make Sure That You've Satisfied The Objections

Reiterate your prospects’ problems for overcoming sales objections and ask them if you were able to satisfy their concerns. If they are happy with your solution, only then move forward.

Step Back When Needed

• Help your prospects realize the vision of their ideal solution, don't confuse them.
• Explaining irrelevant benefits, answering unasked questions, failing to solve their pain points, etc. can distort the prospects’ vision. Know when to step back.

Follow Up With Them

Even if they are satisfied with your solution, they might want to take some time to consider purchasing your products or services. However, don't keep them hanging. Set a follow-up meeting shortly so too much time doesn't pass by. You can also follow up on them through emails to make sure you're in touch. The easiest way to do so is by automating your email outreach. OutreachBin is the best solution for this. This software specializes in sending pre-written emails to your prospects along with having amazing email sending features. You can also send automated email sequences through OutreachBin to better perfect your follow-up game.

Pricing Is Never The Real Issue

If you're prospects state that they have an issue with the pricing of the product, it's a value issue. The pricing is seldom an issue when your prospect is sure of the value of your product. So, when your prospects have a pricing problem, provide them with more value and alleviate their pain points to seal the deal.

Now, let's look at some common objections and what you can do to overcome them.

Common Sales Objections And How To Overcome Them

“You Don't Deliver This Feature”

Your prospects might demand personalization of all your products. If it's possible, customize your product as much as possible. If not, make your prospects feel like it's personalized by interacting with them and actively listening. However, if your prospects need something that you're unable to provide, then they are probably not a good fit for you.

“I'm Already In A Contract With Someone Else”

These are the easiest kinds of sales objections to handle. That is because it's a straightforward concern, with a relatively easy answer.

• Your prospects might be afraid of the inhibition of cash flow when switching the contract. You can provide them with a creative discount to overcome the cost of breaking their contract early, or you can explain to them the ROI that will make up for the lost money.
• Ask your prospects questions to understand if they are happy with their current vendor or itching for a new one.
• If they are satisfied with their current contract, schedule a follow-up meeting a few weeks before the expiration of the contract when your prospect is looking to find a new vendor.

“ I Don't Have Time”

This might mean one of two things or both.

• They don't have the time to handle this.
• This is not a good time to buy.

What you can do for overcoming objections like these are,

• Don’t be too desperate to sell and don’t oversell.
• Find out if your prospects are qualified.

You could handle it like this, “I don't want to waste your time either. Give me 3 minutes to explain my product. If you're interested, I'll provide you with more information. If not, we're going to leave it at that.”

“It’s Too Pricy”

Generally, value issues are disguised as pricing issues. We already explained it.

“I Need To Run It Past My Boss”

• If your prospect doesn't have the authority to make the decision, speak with the person who does.
• If your prospect needs to convince his/her colleagues about the product, help him/her prepare for likely objections and their answers.

“We Allocated The Budget Somewhere Else”

• Make your products seem like a priority to them that is worthy of their budget.
• You can share stories of other companies that saved money, increased efficiency, and had a huge ROI with you.

“ We had a customer with a similar issue. But after purchasing our product, they increased their ROI which they allocated to other parts of their budget.”

“ I Can Get A Cheaper Version Of This Product”

• If your prospect is putting you in a competitive situation to drive up discounts, emphasize the feature that makes your product superior and provide your deepest discount.
• If your prospect thinks they can find a product similar to yours for a cheaper price, explain to them the differences between your product and the other ones in the market. Emphasize worth, not cost.

“Competitor Says (False Information About Your Product)”

• Start with, “That's not true” and then pause. According to Hoffman, the buyer will be satisfied 90% of the time with this response and will move on. This makes your competitor sound insecure and desperate and makes you sound confident.
• If your prospect asks you some more questions, give them proof for why that statement is untrue.

“I've Never Heard Of Your Company”

Don't go for the elevator speech on this one. Provide a quick summary of your company and your product.

“Were a ____ company that specializes in ____. It would be a pleasure to speak with you about your revenue model and see how we can help”.

“ This Isn't A Problem For Us Right Now”

Listen to them carefully and understand why it isn't an issue for them or is of low priority. This problem can also be an excuse to rationalize their inaction. In that case, work on it and instill a sense of urgency in them.

“I've Heard Complaints About Your Company”

• Don't immediately start defending your company. This will only validate those complaints, as word of mouth can be quite powerful.
• Thank them for sharing that feedback with you. Follow up after that with an offer to add value. This establishes your credibility and trust with the prospect.

“ Thank you for sharing this with me. We’ll look into it. While we're on the phone, can I help you with ___?”

“You Don't Understand My Issues. I Have Problems With ___ Not ____”

This can be crucial as it's tough to make your prospect understand that he/she is heard. In that case, rephrase what your prospect’s prime concerns and pain points are and state your impression of it. A lot of misunderstandings can be avoided simply by restating your prospect's pain points.

“I'm extremely sorry. Let me restate my understanding of your issues and help me realize if I'm missing something. Is that alright?”

Final Words

Objections can be a hard blow on your confidence if you don't think of them as an opportunity, but a rejection. One of the major points of overcoming sales objections is to get back up no matter how many times you're pinned down. Remember, objections are inevitable when it comes to sales. So, learn to overcome them instead of being afraid.