“Let me just tell you I’m only looking for information, actually I’m asking everywhere about all the possibilities on the market…” All sales experts know about such words their customers often tell them as a barrier to hide their own desire of making a purchase. Unconsciously, this way customers also challenge professionals to test the quality of their offer through the arguments they could return. This article will teach you how to answer 5 of your prospects’ most frequently risen objections.
Now let us introduce you to Mr Martin, working as a Sales Manager in company X. For the five years he has been occupying this position, his work and ability to listen to his prospects have always been exemplary. He is constantly making his selling methods evolve with his customers’ needs.
And here is Mrs Lewis. She has been working for group Y as a Professional Buyer for about ten years. As her colleagues like to say it, her experience allowed her not to rely on everyone. She is naturally very suspicious and never made a choice before weighing all the pros and the cons of a business proposition.
Mrs Lewis is currently looking for a technological innovative solution that is namely sold by company X. Thus she gave a phone call to Mr Martin’s office for a conversation about it. Being quite confident at the beginning, Mr Martin though finds out that Mrs Lewis has a lot of objections as regards his offer. How will he manage to overpass these objections in a professional way, and what’s more give the expert buyer a positive impression?
Objection #1 : “I am only looking for information.”
Mrs Lewis (L): Thank you for taking time to answer me for a simple informative call.
Mr Martin (M): You are very welcome! Please tell me what exactly are you looking for?
L: Well, for Y, we need a reliable solution to realize the increasingly broad objectives of our group. So quality is really one of our top-priorities.
M: How would you define a reliable solution?
Here, Mr Martin asks Mrs Lewis to describe by herself what she needs, because this need is the reason of her informative questions to come. He makes her understand she has to give him a precise answer before he gives her any, and these points will finally be useful for him to better introduce his offer after. What’s more, asking how your potential client defines the ideal solution for him or her is also very important to understand his or her needs.
Objection #2 : “I gather information about everything that can be found.”
L: I need to gather several offers on the market to be able to analyze them and thus choose our supplier optimally.
M: That is a wise strategy, and I am particularly interested in it! How could I make the difference?
L: Well, the professionals we are going to work with have to be able to provide us a solution at the level of our expectations and objectives.
M: That is especially why experts like group A and company B decided to work with us, and today they are both very satisfied with our services.
As his offer is compared to others, Mr Martin remains a fair player and demonstrates his interest sincerely. He keeps calm and asks for a piece of advice to win the game in an honest way. He also highlights his solution’s legitimacy by telling Mrs Lewis about two well-known companies who already trust their offer.
Objection #3 : “I already have a supplier.”
L: I would just like you to give me a piece of information about the market now. In fact, we already have a supplier for this solution.
M: I understand, and I will do my best to answer your questions. Do we have any chance to talk about business together, though?
L: It depends on a few things. For example, we are currently wondering if it is possible to make the technical aspect of our solution easier.
M: Do you mean that if I offer you a solution that would be easier to set up and manage, then you would agree to rely on our company for this sector?
Mr Martin assumes that if Mrs Lewis is seeking for information about what can be found on the market, that’s because she is not totally satisfied with their current supplier. Thus he will do everything to find out this supplier’s weaknesses, and Mrs Lewis will have no other option than answering “Yes” to his final question.
Objection #4 : “I will talk to my director.”
L: I contacted you because our director would like to get some information about this solution as it currently works on the market.
M: All right, I will tell you everything you wish to know. And how will things happen as regards your final decision?
L: I will make a report to my director and he will take the final decision.
M: Did your director tell you anything special about his needs and expectations towards this solution?
Things are becoming more complex here, because Mrs Lewis cannot agree the offer without her director’s approval. Then, since the moment he knows the final decision does not belong to her, Mr Martin decides to focus on the needs as group Y’s director expressed them.
Objection #5 : “I haven’t been told good things about you.”
L: To be honest, I did not hear the best things about your offer, but I contacted you anyway to have a totally objective approach.
M: That is quite surprising, until now we had only positive feedback from our customers. Where did you get such an information?
L: I met an expert working in company C at the New Technologies trade fair last month. He told me that your solution was too slow and had many drawbacks your competitors’ had not.
M: I regret that company C did not report us about this personally. I will make sure this situation will be improved no later than this week. And now, we will pay even more attention to our customers’ feedback on our products.
Mrs Lewis has some doubts about company X and challenges their credibility. Mr Martin doesn’t try to argue with her. Listening to her carefully, he wishes to get a deep insight into the situation. Thus, he promises (to him and Mrs Lewis as well) to make things better, and implicitly says that if they deal together later, she will not have to face such problems.
