Class after class, one topic scares every new Sales Consultant to death; Objections!
The biggest one, that stymies Salespeople, is, “I want to think about it.”.
I have been reading, Guerrilla Selling by Jay Conrad Levinson, and he boils the answer down to CREDIBILITY. (Yes, that is my suggested reading for this week)
Credibility is broken down to four “C’s”; Consistency, Credibility, Congruency, Common Ground.
Let’s start with Consistency. In my training I talk about mentioning the “Sale” within the first step of your process. These sale items, are the benefits of buying now. Early on they are mentioned casually. When the client opts to, “think about it”, these same sale items are reintroduced with a fuller explanation. It is much more effective to reinforce a topic, than introduce new information.
Credibility, is next. This means using straight talk. Real benefits that the client can use to reason with themselves. Leave out, “This deal is only good today”, if it is not a true statement. Many times the client is saying they want to think about the decision because they are not sold on your honesty.
Congruency, is key. This is how things fit with your message. A violation of this would be telling a client they have to use a rebate or incentive immediately and having a banner in your showroom stating the incentive lasts another two weeks. When you talk about about limited availability or special pricing make sure it fits the messages you have in your showroom and on the web.
Last is Common Ground. Many times the acceptance of your claims, because many times clients must take your message on faith, boils down to feeling like they have a common thread with you. This can be living in the same neighborhood, knowing someone where they work, having kids the same age, anything that creates a link. These types of links let the client know that you are just like them and engenders a feeling of having their best interests at heart.
In closing, many times the ability to overcome an objection is sewn throughout the entire sale. The objection is about testing you. Check out Guerrilla Selling, and be a better you.
