Pre-handling Objections

When training I’m  often ask if there are any objections that come up all the time

Invariably, people say there are.

If I then ask what they have prepared to handle those known objections I get blank looks and embarrassed frowns. It makes no sense to know that an objection comes up in a high percentage of calls and not have something ready.

Check in time – do you? Be honest.

So why not take the exact opposite approach and actually address the white elephant in the room. If you know there is going to be an objection based around price or some other aspect of your offering, then why not confront it right at the beginning and deal with it before it’s

 even raised?

The advantage of this is that, in the same way that fronting a bully takes the fun away from the bully, fronting the objection takes most of the sting away from what your client could say.

For example, I recently did some work with a bank whose mortgage rates were among the highest around. Their mortgage managers were worried about people bringing up their interest rate. What we did was reverse this by ‘naming of the white elephant‘

“Mr. Customer, families that really gain value from our offering are looking for the Rolls Royce of banking. They understand that we may not be the cheapest rate but are looking for a complete 25 year relationship with the bank that won’t let them down. If that sounds like you then we have a great conversation to have. But if you want a mini, then there may be other options for you.”

You’ll notice in the above example that they’ve also added an additional benefit to soften this interest rate objection.

Another organisation we recently worked with fixes brakes and the car problems. When people called up and ask for a price for a brake job, they no longer just give a price and hold on to the phone feeling awkward.

Instead, what they have done is create a ‘value stack’ that adds value to the proposition and lessens the price sensitivity.

For example – “That could be between $190 and $290 depending on what we find and it includes a 2 year parts and labor nationwide warranty and we give you free brake shoes for as long as you own the car and have the brakes done here.”

By adding this value stack and being bold on the price, those customers were less price-sensitive because they saw the value being offered. As a result they almost doubled the number of first time callers that booked a car and to get a job done.

In this way, we can take away the sting of the most obvious objections before it even gets raised and start a value base conversation rather than a price driven auction between suppliers.

< Back