The Ultimate Guide to Overcoming Common Sales Objections

Changing someone’s mind, or even explaining a point of view to someone willing to listen, is never an easy task. Even an open-minded person is going to put roadblocks in front of you with difficult questions, often of the devil’s advocate type. These questions don’t mean that the person doesn’t want to have this conversation. Even when someone wants to change, they’ll still vociferously defend a position they might not even believe in, forcing you to dig deep to convince them. If you don’t keep your cool and choose a path of empathy and understanding, the discussion could turn into a heated and unproductive back-and-forth.

You can face the same difficulties handling sales objections. Fortunately, the same approaches that might help you change the mind of a friend or family member apply to handling sales objections and closing deals. All it takes is some empathy, a solid knowledge of your products, and a little bit of practice.

Sales Objections Are Part of the Process

When we talk about “sales objections,” we’re talking about any concerns, doubts, or hesitations expressed by a potential buyer that stand in the way of making a purchase decision. Objections are a normal part of the sales process. They don’t necessarily mean a customer isn’t interested in buying. In most cases, they are simply doing their due diligence as someone responsible for making decisions on behalf of a business.

Framework for Handling Objections

Tough questions from customers, especially ones that you can easily refute, can be frustrating for salespeople. A simple framework for overcoming sales objections is to validate rather than contradict their objection, ask questions to get a deeper understanding of their concern, and provide solutions.

It’s tempting to want to immediately contradict an objection, especially if it’s factually wrong or irrelevant to the situation. Shutting down someone’s feelings is rarely productive, as anyone who has ever told their significant other that their concerns are “not a big deal” knows! If you want to get someone to see your point of view, you first have to see theirs. The simplest way to do this is not to say “no” or “yes, but..” to objections but “yes, and…”

In improv comedy, comedians make up scenarios from scratch, without a script. How do they keep an improvised sketch going without slowing down to think? The principle of “yes,  and…” “Yes, and…” encourages comics to accept whatever absurdity their comedy partners throw at them, to build on it rather than shut it down, taking a scene in unexpected directions. Accepting and then expanding on someone else’s idea enables a deeper connection and more creative collaboration between performers.

“Yes, and…” works for salespeople, too. By saying yes to objections, you validate the customer’s concerns, which brings you closer together. You can then demonstrate the depth of your concern by asking follow-up questions. The customer will give you a deeper perspective on their concerns, which allows you to offer a more specific solution.

Some Common Sales Objections

The types of objections you encounter will vary by industry and product, but most sales objections boil down to four categories:

• Cost (product pricing, company budget)
• Timing of the purchase
• Trust between buyer and seller
• Product features

Cost objections. Most companies are under pressure to keep costs down. Price objections are some of the most common sales objections salespeople will face, especially when competitors are offering a lower-priced product. In that case, acknowledge that your product is indeed a little pricier while emphasizing what makes your product different: unique features that your competitors don’t offer, superior quality, or better customer service and support.

If a cost objection is more based on budget concerns, discuss flexible payment options. Be sure to emphasize the value proposition, return on investment, or long-term cost savings, as well as how your product best aligns with their business strategy.

Timing objections. “We’re interested, but now just isn’t the right time for us.” This objection might be related to budget, but there might be other internal issues at the company giving them pause. They might be in the midst of adopting some new system or training new employees. Ask follow-up questions to get a better sense of their concerns before answering. If your products are limited in supply or you are offering limited-time discounts or promotions, this would be the time to mention it.

Lack of trust. Just validating their objections, asking questions, and providing solutions goes a long way to building trust, but a customer might still have concerns about your company. Once you understand the source of the lack of trust, you can provide the appropriate testimonials, case studies, or awards to answer these objections.

Product features. Sales and marketing materials that address a lack of trust can also answer objections surrounding product features. If they’re worried about how new software or hardware will integrate with their existing systems, ask questions about their tech stack so that you can talk about the appropriate integrations. Highlight the help your support team can provide. Case studies are particularly useful in demonstrating product features and implementation as they tell the story of a successful implementation and how exactly a product’s features have helped a real company like theirs.

Address Objections Before They Occur

The best way to handle sales objections is to provide solutions to common problems before a stakeholder even meets with a salesperson. Often, your website is a lead’s first point of contact with your company. Address their objections and build trust early in the customer journey by creating content covering common issues and concerns your customers have raised in the past. Blogs, testimonials, infographics, and case studies are all useful in this regard.

Practice Makes Perfect

Anyone who has worked in sales or retail probably had to role play customer interactions during their training. It can be awkward for even the biggest extroverts to put on a performance in front of their colleagues, but role playing exercises are the best way to internalize the validate-question-solution framework and practice your “yes, and…” skills. One way to make it a little more fun is to have salespeople not play themselves but a character.

Playing the role of the customer is fun, but the person in the role of the salesperson could feel the pressure to get it right, like they’re taking a test. Instead of asking a salesperson to play themselves, have them take on the role of the best salesperson they can imagine, someone who always says the right thing. Another fun alternative is to have them play a terrible salesperson: what could you say to alienate this customer and lose the sale? After all, you have to know the right approach in order to satirize the wrong approach.

Objections Are Opportunities

Instead of seeing sales objections as doors slamming in your face, see them as doors opening onto opportunities to build relationships and demonstrate the value of your product or service. When you master the art of handling sales objections, you equip customers with the knowledge they need to make a decision to buy.