Best Practices and Strategies to Successfully Overcome Objections

In the competitive arenas of Sales, objections are a normal and expected occurrence. Whether you're launching a new product, negotiating a deal, or trying to solve a customer's problem, encountering objections is part of the process. The way you handle these objections can determine your success in closing a deal or maintaining a positive relationship with customers. This blog post explores best practices and strategies that can help you overcome objections, ensuring you remain credible, professional, and approachable throughout.

Proven Best Practices to Overcome Objections

1. Write Down the Objections You Encounter

With any product or service, you will find there is a set of objections that you encounter. Write down the objections you encounter so that you can fully prepare your responses and proof sources for each. Being prepared allows you to remain in control of the selling conversation and maintain your professionalism while doing so.

2. Resist the Temptation to Respond Immediately

When you encounter an objection, it can be tempting to respond immediately. That is often a poor technique because by doing so, you can seem defensive or argumentative. Instead, view the objection as an opportunity to learn more. 

Rather than responding immediately to an objection, probe to better understand what is behind your customer’s objection. By doing this you will have a more complete understanding of the objection and why they are voicing it. You can then provide your best and most effective response.

Good probes can be: “Help me understand what you mean…” or “Tell me what prompts your question…” or “Tell me more about that…” Get as much information as your customer will share. Then ask, “what else concerns you?” or “what else can I answer for you?” Listen to each response until your customer has no more to add.

By asking questions, your customer will provide you with more information to work with. Listen carefully to their response. There are many reasons why a customer may object. Your goal is to understand why they are objecting and what the nature of their objection is. Get as much information as possible before offering your response.

When your customer has provided a full response (be patient and don’t interrupt!) thank them for the additional insights. Then, paraphrase back to them what they said to confirm you understood exactly what they were conveying to you. Only then should you respond to their objection. You will have much more information to work with and your customer will be impressed with how much you care about their concern (because you listened and confirmed your understanding by paraphrasing it back to them). They will be more inclined to listen to you as well when you respond to them.

3. Identify the Nature of the Objection to Respond Appropriately

Is the customer misinformed or confused? Or is the customer missing information that is critical to their purchase decision? If so, provide the customer with the correct information.

Is the customer doubting or skeptical of what you have presented to them? Show them proof to back your claims.

Is the customer objecting to a true weakness or drawback that is inherent to your product or service? Seek to outweigh the negative with the positives that your product or service provides.

4. Don't Avoid a Suspected Concern or Objection

If you have a strong suspicion that your prospect has a concern or when you are aware of an existing objection, address it directly. A proactive approach is to incorporate your best response and evidence into your presentation. However, it's important to first verify the concern or objection. Attempting to address an objection that the customer doesn't actually have can make you appear defensive and may introduce doubts or concerns that weren't initially present.

5. Utilize Trial Closes

A trial close enables you to assess your prospect's level of receptivity, gain insights into their thoughts, and catch questions or concerns before they derail the opportunity. A trial close can be as simple as "What are your thoughts on what we've discussed so far?" Utilize trial closes frequently throughout your presentation or sales conversation to ensure you have clear communication and mutual understanding with your prospect.

Respond to Objections in a Way that is Credible

1. Quality, Validity, and Credibility Matters

In addition to best practices (a.k.a. objection handling techniques), your ability to overcome objections is highly dependent on the quality, validity, and credibility of your response. That is, the response you provide must address the objection specifically, accurately, truthfully, and believably.

Proof sources should be used to confirm what you have verbalized in your response.

Proof sources may be in the form of data, or other forms of substantiation, such as pictures, articles, third-party reviews or recommendations, expert opinions, etc.

A product demonstration or product trial is also a terrific proof source. Seeing the product or service in action and gaining firsthand experience with the product or service is invaluable.

2. When You Are Not Prepared

At some point you will encounter an objection that you are not fully prepared to address. A temptation, especially when you are under the pressure of the moment, is to guess or provide information that may be incomplete. Resist the temptation! Your credibility is vital to your success so don’t compromise it with a response that is not the best it can be.

Instead, indicate that in the interest of providing the most accurate and complete information possible, you would like to gather some resources and then follow up with your customer to provide a more thorough answer. This approach enables you to address the objection with a much more cohesive and thoughtful response.

You will feel less pressured because you will have done your homework and compiled everything needed to be at your best. Your customer should also appreciate your extra effort to provide full and accurate information. When you do follow up, do it as quickly as possible so that you do not lose the window of opportunity. Whenever possible, follow up with your customer in person rather than with an email or anything else that is not a live interaction.

3. Trust Issues

Building trust is especially crucial when customers have had negative experiences in the past. Share testimonials and positive reviews to bolster credibility. For example, if 85% of previous customers rated their experience as excellent, use that statistic to ease fears. Offering guarantees or warranties can also reassure customers of your commitment to quality and service.

Remain Professional and Likeable When Overcoming Objections

It is not uncommon for sales professionals to be competitive by nature. However, we should never be competitive with our customers. When handling objections the goal is to bring both sides to common understanding and agreement. What was halting the sales process (the objection) is resolved and now we can progress together to a successful outcome (the sale).

Overcoming an objection should not be viewed as a win/lose proposition. Both sides “lose” when an objection halts a sale and both sides “win” if the objection is resolved.

As a professional, you must be able to overcome objections in such a way that you remain likable in the eyes of your prospective customer. The old saying “win the battle, lose the war” comes to mind. It can easily be applied to the salesperson who is “right” and successfully proves their point but loses the sale anyway because they have alienated their customer. Don’t allow yourself to get into an argument with your customer! Self-discipline and self-control is a key in successfully overcoming objections. Keep the selling conversation productive, and the customer engaged.

Key Takeaways

Overcoming objections is a critical skill in Sales. By knowing and implementing proven best practices, you can navigate objections with confidence and professionalism. Always listen actively, validate concerns, provide credible responses, and maintain an approachable and likeable demeanor. With these strategies, you will be well-equipped to turn objections into opportunities, strengthening relationships with your customers and driving success.