Learning to respond to questions from prospects is vital in sales. Follow my three-step process to handle customer objections simply and effectively.
Selling starts at ‘no.’
Until then, it’s just a conversation.
Before your customer is ready to say ‘yes’ to your offer, it’s only natural they’ll ask questions about your product or service to get a better understanding and convince themselves they want to buy.
How you handle these objections can make or break your sales.
In this guide, I’ll share my three-step process for handling objections with ease.
Use this approach to build trust between you and your prospect, and make it easier for them to buy what you’re selling.
Three Steps to Handle Customer Objections
When faced with an objection, your instinct may be to immediately start to ‘defend’ your product or service.
For every negative aspect your prospect brings up, you reply with a positive one.
This can lead to your target customer feeling ‘attacked’ and made to feel like they’re wrong.
Instead, follow these three simple steps to make your client feel heard and understood while still getting your message through.
Doing so will develop trust with your target customer, which is critical for closing a deal.
1. Repeat
Start by listening carefully and acknowledging what your customer has said.
Remember, it doesn’t matter if you think their objection is important or not – what matters is that they think it’s important.
Make a simple statement that tells the prospect you’ve heard their concern and understand why it’s important for you to address their question.
It gives you an opportunity to show them that you are paying attention and understand their perspective.
Let’s say your target customer has raised a concern about your promise of on-demand customer support.
Your reply could look something like this:
“I understand that on-demand customer support is important to you because you’re implementing our product for the first time. If errors come up, you can lose revenues.”
A simple response like this makes your prospect feel you truly understand their position, making you the ideal candidate to solve their problem.
2. Reframe
The next step is to gently reframe the objection by mentioning how your product or service can be helpful to your client.
In my work with startup founders as a business coach, I’ve come up with two methods of reframing:
1. Reposition your customer’s objection in their mind
A common objection you’ll receive is based on the pricing of your service. Here’s how you can go around it using this type of reframing:
“1,000€ per month is a fraction of how much you’ll save when you implement our solution.”
If your business is based on initial investment, you can say something like:
“You’ll see an ROI (Return On Investment) in as little as three months.”
In this part, try to provide exact calculations for the money or time your customer could save.
This adds a layer of credibility to your offer.
2. Provide comforting information
By providing new information that ‘soothes’ your customer, you make them feel cared for. In turn, they’ll start trusting you with their business needs, and you’ll slowly prepare the grounds for closing a deal.
Here’s an example:
“Our startup may be only a year old, but the founding team has 15 years of professional experience in the industry.”
3. Reinforce
The final step is reaffirming that you offer the best solution to your customer’s problem.
Follow this general formula:
“I’m confident that if we work together, you won’t have to worry about [restate their problem here] any longer.”
Following these three steps ensures your client will feel seen and helps you set the tone for further communication.
Look for Hidden Objections
When discussing your business, be mindful of your customer’s questions.
Objections can often be ‘disguised’ as questions, so be sure you address the objection and not just answer the question with a simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’
For example:
Question: “Can you guarantee that you can deliver your solution within three months?”
Objection: “I don’t trust that your startup can deliver such a complicated service in such a short time.”
Identifying ‘hidden’ objections can sometimes be challenging, but it gets easier with time.
You can practice looking for hidden objections by presenting your sales pitch to a ‘friendly audience’ and then asking them to pose questions.
You can guess what objection they had in mind when asking you their question and then use the three-step process to handle the objective effectively.
Handle Objections Like 1-2-3
Let’s now take a look at how this three-step process comes to life.
Customer Question
If your automation software is that good, how can I convince my workers to implement it as soon as possible?
Their ‘Hidden’ Objections
Objection 1: I don’t ‘really’ believe your software can automate all of our processes.
Objection 2: My workers don’t want to switch to new software if the old one works just fine.
Your Answer
Repeat: I understand why switching to new software for you can be risky. Maybe you’ve tried to implement other automation software solutions in the past, and they didn’t deliver on their promise.
Reframe: Think of how much time is wasted on tasks that can be automated by one simple program. [Our product] replaces manual data entry, as well as the need to create and maintain multi-step workflows.
Based on our calculations, your workers could save [specific amount of time] per week, which they can then devote to more productive tasks. With that, we offer a one-month free trial period during which you and your employees can test our software.
Reinforce: So, we believe that [our product] will automate your business processes with little to no risk and save time for more meaningful work.
Prepare and Become More Effective
After enough sales conversations, you’ll hear the same questions and objections from your prospects over and over again.
Keep track of these questions and prepare a three-step answer to each objection in advance.
Have your answers accessible during your sales conversations so you can refer to them easily.
Handling objections well will be tough at first, but with some practice, you’ll connect with your target customers, assure them you’re just what they need, and close deals effortlessly.
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Be Ready to Handle Any Objection A Prospect Throws Your Way!
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You’ll learn how to focus your offer and message, build a structured sales model, and execute based on targets so you can add 3-to-5 enterprise clients to your business each quarter.
