Your Best Response to Three Common Objections

I once had the opportunity to be personally coached, one on one, by the great Tom Hopkins, arguably the world's most famous sales trainer. It was an incredible experience, needless to say. We spent most of the discussion on handling sales objections and he told me something that seems more true to me every day.

Tom said that until you hear an objection, you're not even close to making a sale. He pointed out that when people want something there's a natural response to come up with a reason why they can't have it. Therefore, the appearance of an objection is usually the first sign that you're going to make a sale.

That's certainly encouraging. However, you also need to know how to respond to objections when they come up. By far the most common objection is, of course, "it costs too much" (in all it's myriad variations). I explained how to handle that one in my post "How to Handle 'It Costs Too Much'" (Neat title, eh?).

Here are three more very common objections, and how Tom recommends that you respond to them:

• Objection: "I can get it cheaper elsewhere."
• Response: "In today's world we can almost always get something cheaper. I've found that when smart people invest their money they look for three things: the finest quality, the best service and lowest price. However, I've also noticed that no company can consistently offer all three-the finest quality and the best service at the lowest price. Which two of the three is most important to you in the long term?"

• Objection: "I have a friend in the business."
• Response:"There's an old saying - I don't know how true it is - that sometimes friendship and business don't mix. If you bought from a friend you might not say anything if you weren't happy with the purchase, but with me you can just get on my case until you get what you want."

• Objection: "I did business with your company in the past and they were unprofessional."
• Response: "I can really appreciate that. I really hate it when that kind of thing happens to me. You know, though, suppose the shoe were on the other foot and it was your company that had acted unprofessionally. You'd probably fire the person responsible. That's probably what we had to do, and now it's my job to make certain that you're treated right."

Readers: What objections come up in your sales situations? And how do you handle them?

UPDATE 9/8: This blog post is continued -- addressing some reader comments -- in the post "A Reader Dings My Advice...You Choose" and "Three Common Sales Objections Revisited".