Best Practice #20: Is always well prepared to handle most common
objections.
Effectively handling objections is one of those practices that truly distinguish the committed, professional sales people from those who aren’t that interested.
That’s because it takes time and effort to become well prepared at anything, much less objections. Those who are serious and committed put in the time to prepare themselves, while those who aren’t, don’t.
To keep it simple, let’s define an objection this way: You make an offer to a customer or prospect which calls for him to commit to some action, and the customer replies with something other than “yes.”
So, for example, you say something like this to the customer: “Want to get together next Tuesday?” and the customer says, “That’s not going to work.” Or, maybe you say, “Shall we go ahead with the project?”
and the customer says, “No.”
Both of these are examples of “something other than yes” – or, in other words, objections.
Being well prepared to handle them means two things: One, you are prepared, behaviorally, to finesse the person, and, two, you are prepared, intellectually, to handle the idea expressed. In my seminars, I like to simplify this to: Finesse the person, and then handle the idea.
