Handling Classic Objections
Classic objections are those objections we’ll hear many times: No need, no time, no urgency, no trust and no money.
We have to be able to answer them in some way.
Our challenge is that initially we don’t know if they’re ‘true’ or simply a ‘test’ to show how much resolve we have. And it’s likely that neither we nor our potential customer can genuinely answer them without a lot more information. On the phone we simply don’t have enough time to answer them probably, and a ‘logical’ discussion can lead to an argument, which is rarely useful.
I’m suggesting a polite ‘push-back’ for basic telephone objections, which follows the structure:
Basic objection. We use a ‘break state’ word or phrase (we have to stop them talking), we then demonstrate we’ve genuinely listened (enthuse about their objection), build on their objection (add another one), politely push back and close. The idea is simply to make it easy for them to agree to a meeting than disagree with us.
Look at the interaction more as an Aikido move than a logical discussion.
An example might be:
“Would you be available next Tuesday at 03:45 pm Or next Friday at 10:00 am”
“I’m not interested”
“That’s really good,”
“What?”
“My two very best clients initially said they weren’t interested. They both said they were too busy as well. However they’re now really pleased they invested 20 minutes as I’ve saved them both considerable time and money”. Would you agree to a short meeting, no longer than 20 minutes on X or Y on ……..
Assuming yes, confirm email address, the details and get off the phone. Send an email confirmation.
And providing we stay genuinely polite we can push-back a number of times.
In the next section we look some other telephone objections.
NLP Sales Section Index
Recommended Sales Books
- NLP Sales Introduction
- Customers’ buying cycle
- Questions to identify your initial problem and value statements
- Getting appointments (framework script)
- Handling classic and specific objections when getting appointments (this page).
- Handling other objections when getting appointments
- Advancing the sale
- Closing
- Value, proposals and negotiation
- Implementation, case studies, referrals and testimonials
- New Media
- NLP approaches that make the difference.
