Objection Handling

Devon Pratte

What’s the best rebuttal for “ we heard about your company and we aren’t impressed. Our friend said she used you and she wasn’t happy with the process but she enjoys the process.”

Emily Erickson

I think the best way to go about this is to find out more about what the person didn't like and ask questions to the prospect about what you can do to correct that and get their business.

John Kaplan

Devon, that is a tough one.

I like where Emily is going with her feedback. I think it is always best to be open and honest and handle the objection directly. If you know who they are speaking about and what they are referencing you should not shy away from commenting.

I have had the experience when somebody inside the same company had a challenge with my company. When it was brought up to me, I was lucky enough that the customer told me who they were referencing. I did NOT know that they had an issue so I asked for time to get a better understanding the and right to come back and address it. I first made sure that the customer was ok with me sharing how I came to know about the issue. In this case, it worked. If the customer is unwilling to share the details with you, do your best to address what they know or how the feedback affected them.

Always return back to the decision criteria that you are establishing with your customer. Turn the feedback into a positive expectation that works its way to the final decision criteria. This way you can address it formally and it proves that you listened to them.

David Chimenti

I agree with everything said above, the only thing I would add what John said about any objection the other day which is to have an attitude of gratitude for the info you obtained. Now you know it’s a problem and they’ve considered allocating budget for it. You may even know what went wrong if your company has strong alignment from top to bottom

Joern Wozny

There is a 7-step technique, but it takes practice:

1. ListenAllow excuses; Take the person and the objection seriously (do this with facial expressions and/or gestures).

2. “Mirroring”:

Repeat the objection as a question; show understanding for the objection: “You are not impressed? If a friend says this, then I can understand that very well.”

3. QuestioningShow interest in order to better understand the situation: “Did your friend perhaps describe in more detail or give examples of what he didn't like?”

4. Isolate

If this one objection can be refuted, we want to know if this is enough to convince. Or whether the contact person will raise further objections or whether it was just a pretext: “Apart from that, would you see other points that could bother you?”

5. Acknowledge

We recognize our conversation partner's argument as valid and therefore value the person making it: “To be honest, the example you gave would also make me skeptical.”

6. Rephrase the objection as a question:By asking this question, you first get permission to enter into your objection handling and thus increase the likelihood that the person will listen to you more sympathetically and be more willing to acknowledge your arguments: “Assuming there was a plausible explanation for how this issue came about, would you be interested in the exact circumstances and how we can prevent this from happening in your case?

7. Argue with facts, best practices and experiences of other customers instead of expressing opinions:

You bring a new perspective from other comparable customer situations into the conversation, which in all likelihood has not been considered by the person you are talking to before. In doing so, you are not rebutting him, which would seem like a “defeat” to him, but giving him a new idea that gives him the opportunity to reassess the situation or have it reassessed (i.e. by an employee of his team). This way, you can make your contact person look good, even though his objection has been turned into a pro argument: " … your argumentation, examples, best practices and so on."