Your customer needs what you have to offer, you’ve had what you feel is a very productive sales call and then boom — the customer hits you with an objection.

The timing of the objection couldn’t be worse, or at least that’s what you thinking, because you thought you would be able to close the sale.

The fact the customer is throwing out an objection doesn’t need to throw you for a loop.  In fact, it’s great the customer did throw out an objection, because it allows you to demonstrate value and show them even more why what you have makes even more sense.

First thing you need to do when the customer objects is to make sure they mean what they’re saying.

Surprisingly, many times what the customer says to you is not the real objection. It’s merely what they are saying either because they don’t know how to say what they want to or they just want to throw you off track.

If you don’t know why they said what they did, you will find yourself going down a dark path, resulting in very little opportunity to close the sale.

When the customer throws out an objection, you need to ask “why?”  This is absolutely critical, because otherwise you will be tempted to take what they said at face value.   Ask why and ask them to explain to you more about what they’re objecting to.

Your goal in asking the customer more is to allow you to first ensure the objection they said is what they mean, and second to begin breaking it down into smaller pieces you can deal with.

Overcoming the objection occurs when you then link the objection back to a critical need they have.

For example, a customer may say they don’t like the order quantity your company requires.   In asking them to explain, you find out the real issue is not the physical quanitity but it’s the financial outlay.   Knowing this, you then can craft options to your proposal that provides them with payment options they can handle.

With this example it isn’t that you linked it back to a need they have, rather you linked it to a need they just shared with you.  Either way, you were able to develop a solution.

Overcoming objections is not a show-stopper. Rather, it’s an opportunity to engage the customer and ultimately close more sales.

Copyright 2014, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price.

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