I defined what an objection was at the beginning of this book.
We are a society that we are continuously being sold to. All of us have our “go to” objections we use when we are confronted with these sales pitches.
Here are some examples.
- The gas station clerk asks you if you would like to buy a candy bar with your drink purchase.
- The department store cashier asks you to sign up for a store credit card.
- The Insurance person cold calling you to sell you have health insurance.
- The Real estate lead company calling you asking if you want to subscribe to their lead service.
I could keep going, but you get the point. You were probably thinking about your “go to” objection while you were reading them.
Here is the reality of those examples and your objection.
- You don’t dislike the gas station clerk. They are probably a nice person. Maybe you are on a low carb diet? Maybe you just didn’t want a candy bar? Whatever your reason is, just because you didn’t buy a candy bar today, does not mean you won’t buy one during your next visit.
- The department store cashier is probably a nice person. Maybe you just didn’t want a new credit card? Maybe you were worried you would get turned down? Maybe you were in a hurry? But next trip to that store, there is a possibility, you could say yes.
- The insurance salesperson cold calling people about health insurance may have the best rates and coverage in the industry. You probably won’t know today, because when he called you, you had a million things going on and you just didn’t have time to talk…..so… you hung up on him… maybe said “don’t call back”. It wasn’t that you didn’t need health insurance, you just didn’t have time and were frustrated.
- The real estate lead generation company calling is something we deal with all the time. We would all love an extra deal a month, right? But they always call at a bad time and sometimes I don’t even understand what they are selling.
In each one of these examples, we used a go-to objection. These objections had nothing to do with the salesperson, the product/service or really anything. Some of the objections we give have far more personal reasons that we say no, than true disagreements with what is being offered.
Objections are a numbers game. The more people that come thru that convenience store door and are asked “would you like to add a candy bar for a dollar?”. The more candy bars they will sell. Maybe it is 3 out of 10 buy? If they had 100 people come thru the store. That is 30 more candy bars sold today and an additional $900 in revenue for the month!
So the store has a conversion ratio of 3 out of 10 people buying a candy bar. I am almost certain a certain percentage of the 7 out of 10 non-buyers, think about a candy bar later and go back to the store to get one for a dollar.
Everytime you hear an objection like “Bring a buyer and I will pay you 3%”, make them an offer for full representation (we cover this in more detail later in the book). You will always have a certain conversion rate, then an additional conversion rate from your follow up.
Lead sales companies follow this same model. They call us, because most of us want more leads. A certain percentage will schedule a demo. A certain percentage will buy as soon as the demo ends and then an additional percentage will buy from their sales follow up.
Generally, when sellers seems angry, short or frustrated on the phone, it is typically not you. It is often the personal situation they are in.