Help for Sales Reps: 6 Ways to Categorize Your Clients' Objections

By Larry Prevost

We encounter objections throughout the sales process. Wouldn’t it help immensely to have a way to categorize them. That way, we have a better understanding of how to address them or even if we should address them. While we may face a variety of objections, we can broadly classify them into six categories:

1. Genuine. A real, honest-to-goodness obstacle that needs to be addressed before you can do business. It can be anything from “Your system costs $500K and we only have $400K allocated to spend. Do you do terms?” to “Your system requires a raised floor that supports 500 pounds per square foot and ours isn’t rated that high. What can we do?”

When I was in technical field support, I was constantly called in to meetings and asked about clarifications on system specs or to come up with some exotic resolution so that the sales rep could close the sale. A genuine objection is an opportunity to shine. Solve the problem and you will close the business.

2. A Delay. This is the objection that the client will use if they feel that events are moving too quickly for them and they need to get control of the sales process. This also is used by prospects who don’t have the authority to buy or the money to buy and are looking for a way to save face.

3. Misconception. Your prospect or client is hesitant to move forward because of something they heard or saw. This objection is based more on emotion than fact and can be the result of your competition using FUD against your product or company. FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt), is a term first coined by Gene Amdahl after he left IBM to sell his own systems. He used the term to describe the sales and marketing tactics that the IBM sales machine used against his company and systems.

Solution?

4. Skeptical. Your prospect doesn’t think your solution will solve their problem. This means you missed something during your investigative analysis. Go back and ask more questions to adequately diagnose the challenge that they are facing.

5. Hopeless. This is an objection that can’t be solved at the time it is put forth. If you are meeting with a client and they say, “Looks good, but we just bought a comparable system from your competitor and we are using a 3-year depreciation model,” you won’t be closing the business this year. Ferret these types of situations out at the beginning of the sales cycle and you’ll avoid the majority of these kinds of objections.

6. Trivial. These are the “fun” objections that don’t really move the sale forward. You’ll typically find these types of objections in sales meetings when you’re presenting your solution to a group of people. In fact, tech people love these types of objections. They don’t have any bearing on the business reasons for moving the sale forward, but they create endless hours of entertainment as the sales rep gets caught up in a game of “Stump the Chump.” Don’t get caught up in answering objections that add no value to the sales process. Trivial objections can be gracefully ignored with, “You raise a very valid point and we’ll cover that momentarily.” Then you let the politics of the group take care of the person raising the objection.

In your next sales call post-mortem meeting, ask yourself and your team, how many objections the team received and how they would classify them. With time, you will get better at identifying which objections need to be addressed immediately, which ones can be put off, and which ones can be totally ignored.

Larry Prevost is an instructor and an IT consultant for Dale Carnegie Training of Ohio and Indiana. Visit the Sales Expertise Center

Courtesy: MANTA
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JACQUES' Two Cents:

As a Sales/ Marketing Executive, Consultant, Trainer, Motivator, I was frequently called upon to conceive, write and test various closing techniques "from the psychological point of view".

Of all the productive Objections/Rebuttals contributions I made, my favorite and most successful one was to (after doing an in-depth analysis of the prospective buyer's needs, concerns, problems, budget, etc. in advance of the sales presentation) make a list as complete as possible of any/all objections this prospect could possibly "hit you with"---in order to avoid turning into a "suspect" LOL.

Next, I'd write down as creatively, yet pragmatically, as feasible a simple solution or two for each of the problems being disected--- easy for the prospect to understand and agree with...ALWAYS ending with a "Don't you Agree, (their Name)?" or "Doesn't that make sense, (Name)?" or "Wouldn't you prefer this, (Name)?", etc.---ALL "closing, agreement and commitment questions"!

By so doing, in the majority of cases, you would have had the propspect mentally and emotionally "BUY" and sell themselves on the wisdom, ease, affordability, desirability, desire, etc. for your product or service---thus, eliminating the objections which at the end of the presentation are lethal or far more difficult to overcome without high pressuring the buyer.

For, in effect, the above technique amounts to pre-qualifying and pre-selling the propspect even before they hear or see what it is that you have to offer them!

USE these professional methods to help beat these hard economic and recessionary times---and increase your chances to make it through!----(and, of course, do not hesitate to contact me pertsonally if you have any questions or comments on the subject). As always, I wish you and yours well throughout this Holiday Season and 2009!

Your Friend,

Jacques