photo credit: Unfurled

Beginners and wimps tremble over objections.  The Pros smile with glee.  Why?

To understand you have to think about how you act when you’re thinking about making a purchase.  Anytime you’re thinking about making a purchase requiring more than a trivial investment you go through a thought process.

• First, you ask yourself if this is something you might like to have?
• You ask, “what would I get if I had this?”
• You ask, “is there something that does the same thing better or at a lower cost?”
• You challenge yourself if you really need it.
• You worry what others will think.
• You wonder if you’re making a mistake.
• You ask, “could this wait?”

The list goes on.

Now if you’d stop acting like a typical salesperson and act like an advisor you’d respect the prospect’s thought process and concerns.  When the prospect shares an objection you might say, “that’s a good point, tell me a little more about what you’re thinking.”  Then you’d continue asking questions until you really understood.

If the prospects objection is valid don’t try to push for the sale.  That just makes you a jerk and ensures you’ll never get the sale.  You may be shocked to learn that when you stop acting like a salesperson and start acting like a concerned advisor you’ll increase sales both now and later.  Because you weren’t a jerk and acted like a decent human being when the time is now the person who said, “no” today will come directly to you when it’s time for “yes”.

Thinking you’ll never get objections is unrealistic, my friend Colleen Francis, recommends “talk 20% and listen 80%.”