Closing a sale or even getting a lead interested in what you are selling is a tricky scenario. Connecting with your lead or getting them on the phone is just the beginning of the journey towards closing your sale. No matter where you are in the sales process you will encounter sales objections that will need to be overcome before your prospect can move forward with you.
A sales objection is pushback from the lead about moving forward with learning more about your product or service, much less making a purchase. Every salesperson has faced the dreaded, “Sorry, I’m not interested” from a lead, and typically, most give up as soon as they face a sales rejection. But you don’t have to. While sales rejections are disheartening, there are ways to turn the situation around and overcome them.
1. Try to reschedule
Sometimes, the objection is not about you or your product but about timing. It is no secret that customers are more receptive to sales messaging at certain times rather than others. When a lead puts up an objection, they might simply not be in the best state of mind to receive sales messaging.
One thing to try is to attempt to reschedule. If a lead says they are not interested or tries to dodge, offer them a reschedule. You could, for example, ask if now is a bad time and if you could possibly get back to them another time when it would be more convenient. This will not always work but can help you save some otherwise lost leads.
2. Anticipate the Objections
Objections are a common enough thing within sales that they can be boiled down to a science and some common objections can be anticipated. This will, however, require the use of some specific tools that tackle each objection in its own unique way.
One tool you can consider is Pipedrive, a dedicated platform for sales. Pipedrive has not only general sales objectives tools but also specific rebuttals and information about how to work around the common objectives for sales. Whether a lead says they aren’t the person to speak to or flat out says they are not interested, Pipedrive has a tool to help you navigate that.
If you are armed with a tool like Pipedrive, your ability to overcome objections will increase several times over and so will your close rate.
3. Interrogate the Objection
Keep in mind that the purpose of these objections is to immediately shut down any conversation which is why they are usually conversation-ending statements like, “I’m not interested.” One of the best ways to get around them is to interrogate these statements and get the lead thinking about why they wish to end the conversation.
If a lead says, “I’m not looking to buy XYZ product right now.” ask them if it is because they are satisfied with their current product. If they say yes, you can outline how what you are offering is better and so on.
The trick is to not give up immediately you sense some resistance from your lead but press on and try to find out the source of the resistance.
4. Promise a short call
One of the major reasons that leads are resistant to a sales call is that they do not want to spend a lot of time on the phone listening to a sales pitch. Thus, one of the best ways to get around sales objections is to promise that your call will not be long at all.
If a lead, for example, says that they do not have a lot of time, retort by saying that neither do you or that you also hate long calls. Then, assure them that what you want to say will not take a long time.
To stop a sales objection even before it happens, promise at the start of your call that you only need 3 or 5 minutes of their time, and you are less likely to meet objections.
Sales objections can be difficult, but they are an inevitable part of the process and must be worked through. Thankfully, the tips above can be deployed to overcome them and keep your lead on the phone long enough to make an impression on them and make your sale.
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