Overcoming Objections.

Is that the goal?  Are you sure?

I’m writing about this because I’m in Sales. I’m also in Advertising and Marketing – which is more Sales.  You are in sales in some way.  Have you been “taught” things about the science of selling?  Some sales education includes the topic of Objections.  It’s about anticipating objections – and then knowing how to precisely respond to those objections.

What do YOU think about anticipating objections?

I think that kind of thinking is backwards (or sideways?).  I believe that we’re encountered by objections because we’re thinking too much about them. Or thinking about them, period.  “What if they say this…what if they say that?”  Worry, worry, worry.  Why worry about what might happen?  What will happen…will happen.  But YOU control what will happen.

Keeping on the subject of Objections…my solution to overcoming objections is to KNOW as much as you want to know about what you are offering (selling).  When an objection comes up from someone you’re selling – you can either automatically answer the question honestly because of your knowledge of the subject, or you can bumble and attempt to lie your way through an answer, or you could honestly say you don’t know but you’ll find out, or you can agree with them that maybe your solution isn’t their solution.  It is what it is.

Why force a sale?  Just be a potential solution…or don’t be.  It doesn’t matter if you’re not someone’s specific solution to their troubles.  All you do then is find someone else who might be.  And then, maybe their objections are answered easily and clearly, and you’ve just become someone’s solution to their problem, and all is well, and you’ve made a sale.  You’ll make more harmonious sales when you just be what you are.  And if you’re honestly NOT a very good solution to your prospects’ problems…then there’s a “cross in the wires” and you’ll never have a fulfilling or successful career in what you’re doing.

I handle objections by being completely honest.  Could someone maybe “wow” a potential new customer better than me in a certain situation?  You bet.  But I’m not worried about wowing a prospect like they were hit with a beam of light from the heavens.  All I want to do is be a good person and allow them to see and feel that I have their best interests at heart.

Don’t stress about sales.  If sales will come they will come.  You just have to be set up properly to allow for it.  Are you helping people?  Are you passionate about it?  Do you want to help more people?  Then you will.  If you want something for nothing…sorry, you’re screwed.  If you want to know the precise response to every objection to your sales attempt, then all you need to do, is know as much as possible (or as much as you want) about what you sell and how it helps people create a better life for themselves.  But don’t ever want a precisely measured and memorized response to an objection.  Your response will be a little different every time.  But the meaning and the idea of your response will be the same.  The more you know, the more you won’t have to even give a second thought to objections and potential objections.

I’ve gone through massive amounts of stress due to my sales and marketing career.  I’ve been up, down, and all around.  I’ve learned that laziness will bring you exactly what you fear it will bring you.  I’ve learned that going after something in which I’m not “all in” will produce no fruit (or very little).  I’ve learned there are not cheats to getting what I ultimately want.  I’ve learned that sales does not have to be stressful.  I’ve learned that money and “things” doesn’t create a happy life.  Whoa…I may have got off track…

So, I don’t even THINK about what a potential new customer might object to.  I either know everything I need to know about what I’m offering…or I don’t.

You may say a salesperson should have a “sales bible” or scripts or a list of questions, objections, and responses.  I will always disagree with you.  And I’ll be a happier salesperson.  Neener neener neener.

But don’t sell for someone else.  Sell for YOU because it helps people live a better life or it takes away some kind of distress in their life.  If you WANT to help more people with your “solutions”…you will.

**** Know your craft.  Know what problems you solve.  And stop worrying.  Just be. ****

I have no idea why I wrote this – except for maybe I feel that one budding salesperson could read it and be inspired. Or maybe a struggling salesperson will read it and decide that Sales isn’t for him or her… and move on to a more fitting profession that will ultimately make them happier.  Isn’t that all we want?  To be happy?

Have a groovy day.  : )

Sioux Falls Radio Advertising blog

Duane Christensen

(Assistant bacon manager at Results Radio Townsquare Media)