When Should You Answer a Sales Objection?
L
ast week, I posted a six=step recipe for answering sales objections. I intentionally left out one part, because it's highly controversial, or at least will be until after you guys have had a chance to weigh in on the subject.
When Tom Hopkins coached me on how to answer objections, he recommended acknowledging the objection and then shelving it until the end of the presentation, like so:
- Sales Pro: "...and here's the second benefit...
- Prospect (interrupting): "This is going to really cost me, right?"
- Sales Pro (acknowledging the objection): "Are you worried about the cost?"
- Prospect: "Yes."
- Sales Pro: "I can understand that. I'll get to the price in a minute and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised, especially since our product has this second benefit..."
He also believes that by the time you're done with the presentation, the customer may no longer consider the objection valid or, even better, may even have forgotten all about it. His rule of thumb is if an objection doesn't surface at least twice, it's not a real objection.
I have a different opinion. I think that might have worked back when sales pros gave sales pitches. In today's world of consultative selling, with the conversational approach, the "shelve the objection" ploy is only going to irritate the customer. So I don't recommend it.
Now, here's the problem. While I'm pretty savvy about sales theory and observant about human behavior in sales situations, when it comes down to it, I'm just some guy writes about Sales for BNET. Tom Hopkins is one of the world's top experts who has literally taught MILLIONS of people how to sell.
This is one of those times when the Sales Machine community can contribute to our communal knowledge of what works in sales situations. Here's a poll:
READERS: PLEASE weigh in with your opinion in a comment. This is a fairly important issue, because it deals with a key element of the sales process.
RELATED POSTS: