Episode #22: How to Overcome Sales Objections: Techniques & Tricks

Have you been finding it difficult to get people to commit to purchasing your product? We’ve heard this struggle from several of you lately, so we want to address it specifically and give you the tools and techniques you need to overcome this particular challenge. 

A few weeks ago, we talked about overcoming your fear of sales by redefining and reframing it. (If you haven’t listened to that episode yet, we recommend going back and listening to that one first, as it will help set the stage for this topic.) Getting comfortable with asking for the sale is a huge first step, but now it’s time to go deeper and think about why some people still won’t purchase, even when you are comfortable with sales. 

Most of the time when people don’t follow through on a purchase, it’s because they have some sort of objection to the product. Now, an objection doesn’t necessarily mean a personal offense toward the product. It could be a simple question that hasn’t been answered, a concern about whether the product is worth the price, or any number of other things. 

We’ll cover the main ways objections pop up in the sale process and how to address them in a way that helps you close the sale. 

Be Proactive in Addressing Objections

Before you get in front of your next customer, do some preparation. Make a list of common objections you’ve heard so far. These can be questions you’ve frequently gotten or reasons people have given for not making a purchase. For each one, answer these questions: 

• What is the objection? 
• Why might the customer have this objection? 
• How can you address this objection for the customer? 

The next time you talk with a potential customer, incorporate information that addresses the most common objections. If you’ve heard these objections from multiple people, it’s highly likely that most of your customers have the same concerns, even if they don’t say it directly. 

If you’re interacting with them online, make sure you incorporate these common objections into your landing or sales page.  If you have a longer list of objections or need to provide more detailed information to address them, consider linking to a FAQ page where people can go to get more educated on your product or service.

Another good technique is to include the most common objections, and your answers to them, in your email or social media marketing material.

Addressing these objections upfront is a great way to help people move forward more quickly.

On the podcast episode, Oie gives an example of a brand that did a great job of addressing the high cost of a product in their sales video—and made a compelling case for purchasing it anyway. 

Questions Are Usually Objections

As you describe your product and how it will help your customer overcome their challenges or reach their goals, they will have questions come to mind. So before you ask for the sale, ask if your potential customer has any questions so you can understand exactly where they are in their thought process. 

It’s really important to give opportunities for customers to share their thought process and questions, as questions are usually some form of objection, whether conscious or subconscious. Try one of these ways of phrasing it: 

• What questions do you have? 
• Do you think this is a good fit for you? (If they answer no to this question, it’s time to understand why, so you can answer further questions or correct assumptions they may have made.)

In an online business you can host live Q & A sessions to hear and answer your prospective customers’ questions firsthand.  Webinars and Facebook Live are great tools for this.

You can also ask people through emails or social media posts to reply or respond with questions or concerns they may be having.

Listen to the episode for an example of how a sales consultant didn’t offer an opportunity to ask questions and how that postponed the sale as well as how her approach could be improved to get more people to purchase during that first initial interaction. 

Don’t Forget to Follow Up

If the customer wasn’t quite ready to buy at the time of your conversation, that’s okay! Sometimes, people need time to think through everything they learned and assess if it’s the right fit for them. This is why it’s crucial to always follow up. 

Give them a day or two to process the information and then reach out to remind them of the benefits of your product. Talk about how it will help them overcome a struggle or reach a goal. 

And of course, when you follow up, don’t forget to ask for the sale! Ask which product they would like to purchase, or send them the link so they can complete the transaction immediately. Make it as easy as possible for them to finalize their purchase. 

You can also reach out again to see if they had any technical difficulties or ran into other barriers that prevented them from buying your product. Any help you can provide can make it that much easier for them to make their purchase. 

Make sure you implement things like the Facebook Pixel into the site that hosts your sales/landing pages so you can see who visited your landing page yet didn’t move forward with the purchase.  Then use this information to send additional ads to respond to common objections and return to your landing page to make the purchase.

Additionally, use your website’s analytics to respond to things like abandoned shopping carts to ensure your customers have what they need to make an informed decision.

Listen to Episode #22 Now!

Understanding your customers’ objections to your product and being able to immediately address them helps you hone in on who is a good fit for your product. If you’re able to give information related to common objections upfront, you put people’s minds at ease more quickly and help people who aren’t a good fit for your product recognize that early on, so neither of you waste your time. 

Once you understand the common objections to your product or service, you can adjust your sales pitch to incorporate that information and leave time for questions. If you don’t make the sale on the first conversation, follow up to provide additional information, provide them with a purchase link to make it super easy for them to move forward, and help them with any other issues they may have. 

This is a next-level sales tactic, but if you’ve been working to redefine sales, as we previously discussed on the podcast and you work hard at knowing your customers, you’ll be able to address the objections and close more sales than previously. 

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Links mentioned in this episode:

• Episode #15: Overcome Your Fear of Sales
• Episode #13: Knowing Your Customers