4 Steps to Overcome a Sales Objection

How to help your buyer feel more at ease

GREY Journal Staff
GREYJournal
4 min readFeb 10, 2020

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When it comes to sales, objections are inevitable. Every person you speak with will have questions or reservations about the product or service you offer. If they didn’t, they would have already bought from you!

Objections shouldn’t stop you in your tracks. Objections are an opportunity. They are a request for more information and a signal to you that the buyer is engaged.

The key to being successful is to learn how to uncover and resolve objections quickly and effectively. There is nothing worse than letting an objection go unaddressed through the sales process. The faster you isolate the objection and resolve it, the quicker your prospect can let go of the objection and move into a buyer’s mindset.

There are 4 steps you can follow to help your buyer feel more at ease:

1. Listen to the Objections

Entrepreneur listening to customer objection during sales meeting
Entrepreneur listening to customer objection during sales meeting

Listening is key. When trying to surface objections through the sales process, the buyer will often provide what’s known as a false objection. They might say that they don’t have the budget when what they really object to is the product or their trust in you.

Don’t get defensive or try to provide solutions right away. Give your prospect space and allow them to share all of their concerns freely while you practice your active listening skills to take in what they are saying.

2. Acknowledge what You Heard

Entrepreneur acknowledging customer concerns during sales meeting
Entrepreneur acknowledging customer concerns during sales meeting

Once the prospect has expressed their concern, take a moment, and repeat back what you heard to ensure you understand what they’re saying. This is an important step as not only does it clarify their points, but it helps the prospect to feel heard and valued. All of this enables you to build trust.

3. Make a Statement to Validate Their Concerns

Entrepreneur acknowledging customer concerns during sales meeting
Entrepreneur acknowledging customer concerns during sales meeting

Once you’ve confirmed that you understand where your prospect is coming from, you can continue to build trust by empathizing with your prospect and validating their point of view.

For example, if you are selling a marketing automation software and your prospect is wary that making a switch will cause confusion or their worried data could be lost in the transition, you could say, “I understand, changing platforms can feel daunting. Thankfully, we have an incredible tech support team who has experience working with similar organizations, and can handle a seamless transition for you.”

When you respond by acknowledging that their concern is valid while offering a solution, you can mitigate their fears and increase trust.

4. Ask a Follow-up Question

Entrepreneur following up with client over the phone
Entrepreneur following up with client over the phone

Once you hear an objection, you must keep things moving. If you’ve followed the steps up until this point, you still might feel your prospect pulling away. Use follow-up questions as a way to keep them engaged and dig a little deeper to uncover any additional roadblocks.

Remember that each sale is different, so even though you might think you understand what your prospect needs, you still need to bridge the gap to their desired outcome. Use open-ended questions to uncover a need and dig deeper with at least 3 additional questions to find the why behind that need. Allow your prospect to do 75% of the talking as they will use that time to open up and reveal pain points you can help solve.

Remember, the more information they provide, the more you have to work with to potentially turn the sale around. Adding this tactic to your sales process can help you uncover your buyer’s needs and start closing more deals. If you’re not sure where to start, or if you need more help with your sales process, check out our blog on creating a scalable sales process.

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This article originally posted on GREY Journal.

This article originally published on GREY Journal: https://discovergrey.com/hustle/grow/4-steps-to-overcome-a-sales-objection/

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GREY Journal Staff
GREYJournal

Founded in 2016, GREY is a lifestyle brand and magazine that celebrates the leaders and entrepreneurs disrupting their industries.