Objection handling just got harder – customers know everything!

Today in sales, knowledge is power.

Sales people need to collect and process knowledge in a wide variety of areas to stay on top of the game. This knowledge includes, but is not limited to: buyers and their preferences; product information; competitor product information; economic factors; industrial information, and media consumption. Quite a powerful little list, isn’t it?

Knowledge is particularly important when dealing with objections in the modern sales environment. Why? Well, when you’re confronted with an objection from a customer or prospect, you’re being handed an opportunity. Reading between the lines: regardless of the type of objection, your customer is engaged with you and the sale is moving forward. If you can handle the objection well, you move to a position of trust.

So if knowledge is such a crucial element in dealing with objections in sales, what should the modern sales professional be doing to stay up-to-date with what’s going on in the industry and the customer’s world?

1. Use Google – Run a Google search on your customers. See where they are showing up and look out for recent announcements.

2. LinkedIn – Use it to find out important small details about your customer – who they know, what they know and how they came to be talking to you are all important discoveries. There is a whole chapter how important this particular point is (especially in the B2B arena!) in our book The Natural Sales Evolution.

3. Industry forums – Industry forms or magazines are a great way for you to spot what’shot in your customers industry and to find ‘trigger events’ that may lead to a customer objection (or help you to handle one).

4. Plug into social media – Twitter is an incredible resource for the modern day sales professional. Use the # function to search for the latest news on a topic relevant toyour industry.

5. Connect with your customer – Get close to the customer by finding out what you can about them. Find out what they value most, and use this information to pre-emptobjections or deal with them effectively.

6. Competitor analysis – This is very important in today’s competitive market. If you get an objection which is based around a competitor’s offering and you don’t have the knowledge to handle it effectively, you might lose your trusted status. If a customerknows more about the competitive landscape than you, they have the knowledge,and therefore the power. It’s not the end of the world when customers have morepower – it might make them feel good! However, it does leave you slightly vulnerablewhen you are put on the spot with a comment like, “But Wiggins and Co. will give mea bonus two-year guarantee”.

Follow these 6 tips and you will manage to keep up to speed, which will ultimately result in your customers trusting you. Remember the Natural Law of Sales #10 states that ‘People buy from people they trust’.

We run workshops specifically geared towards handling objections in today’s world. Call our team on 0207 043 1582 and they can work with you on the right solution.

Good luck!