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Written by: Victoria Fleming | Buzzwords
Sometimes a customer will say no. The important thing to remember is – that’s OK!
The important thing to find out is why! Always welcome an objection – it’s a chance to set your customers mind at ease about something that is bothering them.
Once we know this we can see what kind of a ‘no’ it is.
A ‘No, convince me’, ‘No, not now’ or a ‘No, never darken my doorstep again’. The third kind rarely if ever happen – but as a salesperson you sometimes think this IS what you are hearing.
Types of Objection
Price
Is it really a price objection? Or is it really value? You need to drill into this objection and find out more – often its masking a different reason, and if they really have a price option can you do something around payment terms or offer them a cut down product?
Competitor
Do you know your competitors? If you don’t then you really should – and you should know how to present yourself in the best light in the context of them as a competitor. My hot tip? DON’T sell against them (i.e. ‘oh you don’t want to go with them, I had a customer do that and it was terrible because…’) – you will only alienate them. But DO push your strengths – e.g. ‘where we really excel is our after sales – we’ve got some great testimonials from customers’
The Status Quo
It’s hard to change – so how are you going to do it? It takes time and that is often something people are very short of, but to have got to the point of closing on a product you must have had some initial buy in – so think about how you can minimise the work the customer has to do – can you deliver the change for them as well by project managing, showing a planned approach or picking up for the customer?
Prospect ‘goes dark’
So your prospect has stopped taking your calls, is not responding to your emails and you are reduced to internet stalking them to try and ‘run into them’ at a networking event. You need to regain control of the situation – and if they are no longer talking to you its hard to do… my top tip is to never get into this situation (ask me if you want to know how to avoid it!) – but once you are there are only a couple of ways back. Firstly try to offer some value – can you email them a white paper or industry document that they might find useful which they then feel obliged to thank you for? Alternatively you could invite them to an event they might enjoy or as a last attempt try and catch their attention with a card or letter in the post. There are also some innovative ideas you can use at this point if you have the nerve – send flowers of a sachet of coffee and suggest a catch up! Raising a smile always increases your chances of success.
So objections are just part of our buying process – welcome them and take it as an opportunity.