For anyone in sales, any sort of sales, anywhere – you’ve encountered objections.  Anything from a small “no,” to the big, “I’m not buying your product,” every salesperson has had to work with prospect and customer objections.  So let’s talk today about how to isolate and overcome customer objections.

First, we need to define an objection, when I am talking about a sales objection in this sense, it could be any sort of roadblock that is preventing you from moving forward in your sales process.  It really is just a need for more information, before the prospect feels they can make an informed decision.  Most of the time it is not an outright, “NO!”  The roadblocks that come up are often more subtle than that.

Now, I am from the Auto Industry so here is the easiest of examples (in my mind anyway).  “Hello, Mr or Mrs. Prospect, welcome to ABC Motors, what specifically brought you in to see us today?” “OH WE’RE JUST LOOKING… THANKS!” <— see the objection – In that example, it’s a simple objection, and it may not seem like an objection at all, after all, everyone is being polite, there is no hostility, but it is an objection – it’s a conditioned response from the entire American public to the question, “Can I help you?”  I would bet you have done that very same thing when trying to find something in a grocery store, or electronics store – AND YOU ACTUALLY NEEDED HELP FINDING SOMETHING – but a store representative asks, “Can I help you find something?”  And your response… …you see my point.

This is one of those things that needs to be approached in a simple form, don’t over-complicate the overcoming of objections to yourself.  In fact, most of the time, that is what happens, we create a larger objection in our mind, or for ourselves than the prospect ever would’ve created for us.  Now that we’ve got that covered (and I got a little rant out of the way) – here are a few easy steps.

1. You have to isolate each objection.  Something to vague, broad or global cannot be overcome.  And if there are multiple concerns or objections you have to isolate EACH of them.

2. The only way to isolate an objection is to ask a lot of questions to get the prospects perspective.  Remember that peoples perception is reality.  For example: Your prospect says, “The price is too high.”  Isolate and clarify by asking questions.  Do they mean the overall price?  The price for THIS particular product?  The price in comparison to other products?  The payments that they will pay for the product?  What does price mean to them?

3. Never take any objection personally.  This is huge, I have trained so many sales people over the years and when someone says, “NO,” instead of the sales person, selling through that objection and providing more information to the prospect to help them with their decision, they tend to shut down, take it personal that the product is no good or that they are no good – in the end missing out on the sale.  The reason is because sales is overall such a personal business and most of the time, people are involved with people.  Just don’t take the objections and “No’s” personally.

For sales people that can focus in and do those three things – isolate, ask questions and don’t take it personally, you will see your success continue to grow!  Keep providing more info, on you and your product or service, keep overcoming the things that come up, keep selling!