In a sales talk, it rarely happens that the customer makes a purchase decision right away. He first wants to be convinced, because, in addition to your solution, he can choose from many competing offers. So why should he buy from you? You have to provide compelling arguments for that or do a bit of objection handling.
But no matter how convincing your explanations may be – almost every customer will still confront you with objections. It is best to prevent this with your conclusive argumentation, but you should also be prepared for the typical contradictions. With the appropriate answering and questioning techniques, you can then counter effectively and refute doubts over the long term. In most cases, quick-wittedness does not come from the hips but requires training.
Here you can find out which objections you have to reckon with in the sales pitch and how you can best react to them. Because targeted objection handling is already half the sale.
What is objection handling?
The customer usually has an information deficit compared to the seller. This deficit must be compensated for in the sales pitch so that the buyer is not persuaded but rather convinced. As a seller, you should not regard questions and objections as annoying interruptions to your presentation. It is better to see such objections from your customer as part of the communication, take them up and refute them with adept objection handling.
You can see contradictions as an opportunity to make your argument even more convincing. Under certain circumstances, it can even be a buy signal if the customer hides his desire for more information in a request. When you go into the sales pitch well-prepared, customer objections become a natural part of the process.
What exactly is an objection?
With an objection, the potential buyer presents a reason why he does not want or cannot buy the product or service, in short: your solution to his problem here and now. Objection handling means the salesperson’s quick-witted reaction to his customer’s objections. Because an experienced salesperson knows the typical objections and knows exactly how to refute them. He learned that in sales training.
The best objection handling makes itself obsolete. A good salesperson will always try to deal with objections proactively and avoid them in the first place with clever wording. But unfortunately, that doesn’t work in every case. Methods for overcoming objections are therefore part of the tools of the trade for every salesperson.
An objection should never be dismissed. Good salespeople include counter-arguments in the communication and provide the customer with information that was previously missing. In this way, the salesperson actively steers the conversation in the direction of a decision. The sales talk gets a structure.
The processing of objections takes place in phases:
1. The customer raises an objection.
2. The seller initiates its objection handling.
3. Questions and/or a pinch of humor open up the customer for further arguments.
4. The seller concludes the objection handling with a question and thus returns to the actual content of the conversation.
To recognize an objection, you must learn to distinguish it from an excuse:
| Objection | Pretenses |
|---|---|
| Expressed on the factual level | The seller should never take an unobjective statement personally |
| Genuine concerns are raised | Customer does not want to deal with the topic |
| Open questions that may contain hidden desires | Customer keeps his true opinion behind the mountain |
| Customer makes a specific statement | Customer supplies advanced pseudo-reasons |
| Customer wants to be convinced | You can’t get rid of an excuse |
| The objection represents a justified counter-argument from the customer’s point of view | The customer does not want to argue at all |
Proper objection handling technique
In order to be able to methodically refute objections, the salesperson must know the typical replies of customers. However, theoretical knowledge alone does not help in the sales pitch. For this reason, experienced salespeople practice again and again in practical test situations.
You should know the following techniques:
Objection handling method ‘Boomerang’
“I understand that a busy entrepreneur like you is short on time. Of course, we know that our customers have to set priorities. That’s why I plan this conversation from the beginning to last seven to twelve minutes. After that, it’s up to you how we proceed.”
Objection handling method ‘Technology of Winners’
“If I show you how you can generate an additional EUR 2,000 a year in your company pension with three simple approaches – would your time be well spent for this conversation?”
Objection handling method ‘accept’
“I realize you don’t have time to waste. Suppose I could give you two suggestions that would save you valuable time in the long term and permanently – would that matter to you?”
Objection handling method ‘open counter question’
This allows you to research the background of an objection and unmask any pretexts. The objection handling would then have taken care of itself. An open counter question can be, for example, “What do you mean by too expensive?” ring. Another possibility would be “If we can agree on the price, which points would you still care about?” or “What do you compare my price to?”.
Objection handling method ‘Salesstory’
The seller tells a story when he once wanted to save money when shopping himself. For example, when he chose a no-name battery that was significantly cheaper than the original. The story doesn’t have a happy ending, of course, because the battery didn’t perform as expected. At the end of the sales story there is the question “How important is quality to you?”.
Method ‘if’
“Thank you for your honesty. If price weren’t an issue at all, what would be most important to you instead?”
Method ‘Perspective Technique’
“At the moment it’s not even a question of whether you’re actually interested in what I’m offering. First of all, let’s find out if you are directly affected by the ABC issue. If that’s the case, then of course it’s up to you whether you want to shift your priorities or not.”
Method ‘I am different’
“I understand your skepticism and of course I know that many providers expect an immediate order from a conversation. I’m more concerned with finding long-term partners for fruitful cooperation. For this I am quite willing to make an advance payment with an information meeting.”
‘Closed counter question’ method
“Would you be interested in making your production 20 percent more efficient?”
Example: Objection handling in action
The handling of objections can, for example, go something like this in a practical sales pitch:
Salesperson: Hello Mr. Customer, I would like to introduce XYZ to you.
Customer: I don’t have any time for that at the moment.
Seller: Of course I am aware that your time is limited. That’s why I only scheduled this conversation with a time frame of five minutes.
Customer: Actually, I don’t have those five minutes either.
Seller: If I show you during this time how you can generate an additional 2,000 euros a year, would the five minutes be a worthwhile investment?
Customer: Possibly. But your product is too expensive for me anyway.
Seller: Compared to which other product do you find our offer too expensive?
Customer: I can’t give you anything concrete right now, but I’ve definitely seen cheaper comparison offers.
Seller: Yes, there are. And of course I understand that you want to save. I myself recently wanted to save when buying a battery. Unfortunately, I had to make the experience that my no-name product did not perform as expected. How do you feel about quality, Mr. customer?
Customer: I attach great importance to quality products. However, I am currently not interested in your offer.
Seller: Let’s not even talk about interest for a start. First, let’s find out if the ABC issue affects you directly. Then you can decide how you want to proceed.
Customer: I’m not interested in that either.
Seller: Okay, then would you be interested to learn how you could increase the efficiency of your production processes by 20 percent?
Customer: That would indeed be of interest to me. Do tell!
Objection Handling: Techniques that give you an advantage
A salesperson will have to deal with the same objections from his customers over and over again. That’s part of his job. The more positively he views these objections, the more openly he can deal with them.
Consider the counter-arguments of your interlocutor as an opportunity to convince them with further arguments. Because that is exactly what objections are, if you have dealt with the topic of objection handling accordingly.
With the right strategy, you can defeat any objection, unless the argument is just a ruse. A good salesperson has learned to distinguish objections from excuses. Then he can positively influence the purchase decision with adept handling of objections and argumentative persuasiveness and come to a successful conclusion.