by Brian Tracy
ACTION EXERCISES
Make a list of the five ingredients of megacredibility. Determine one thing you could do in each area to increase your believability and lower the prospect’s perception of risk.
Begin with your clothes, your grooming, and your overall appearance. Imagine that there is a contest for making a great first impression on a prospective customer. Would you win? If not, decide today what you are going to change and improve so that you will look more convincing when you meet your next prospect.
Review your sales materials and your presentation. Determine what you could do immediately to build the credibility of your company and your product. Make greater use of testimonials and visuals during your presentation. Use any method you can to demonstrate that what you are selling is more valuable and desirable than the price you are asking and that your product or service is superior to any competitive product or service.
13
Handle Objections Effectively
It is the constant and determined
effort that breaks down all resistance,
sweeps away all obstacles.
— CLAUDE BRISTOL
Every prospect has questions and concerns about your offering that must be dealt with effectively before he or she can proceed with confidence. This is normal and natural and to be expected. Your ability to answer objections effectively is a critical skill that will largely determine your level of sales and income. Your job is to master this skill.
When I began selling and the prospect objected to my offer, I would be crushed. When the prospect said things like, “I can’t afford it,” “We’re not in the market for that right now,” “We don’t need what you are selling,” “Your price is too high,” or “We can get it cheaper somewhere else,” I would accept the objection without arguing and go on to the next prospect.
Then I learned that objections are simply part of a normal sales process. They are inevitable and unavoidable. My job was to identify the major objections that I would get and then develop answers to them.
The fact is that objections are good. Objections indicate interest. Videotapes of thousands of sales calls show that successful sales have twice as many objections as unsuccessful sales. When the prospect starts objecting, it means that he or she is beginning to consider your offer seriously. You now have a chance to sell.
The Law of Six applies to objections. This law says that there are never more than six major objections to any offer. Your job is to sort each possible objection into one of the six categories and then to develop a bulletproof answer to that objection.
The objections could revolve around your price, the customer’s satisfaction with his or her existing supplier, complacency with the existing situation, the newness of or lack of familiarity with your product, or even knee jerk sales resistance that comes automatically.
The Sweep-Aside Method
When you experience initial sales resistance to any offer such as when prospects say, “I’m not interested” or “I can’t afford it,” you can reply to these objections with the Sweep-Aside Method. Say these words positively and politely: “That’s all right. Most people in your situation felt the same way when I first called on them. But now they’ve become our best customers and they recommend us to their friends.”
With a qualified prospect, this usually triggers the response, “What is it?” to which you respond, “That’s exactly what I would like to talk to you about, and I only need a few minutes of your time.”
The first rule in handling objections effectively is that you should hear them out completely, without interrupting. Even when the prospect is objecting, you are getting an opportunity to listen, and listening builds trust. A negative prospect can be transformed into a neutral or positive prospect when you practice the “white magic” of attentive listening.
Treat each objection as if it were actually a question. When the prospect says, “I can’t afford it,” say, “That’s a good question! How can you justify the price at this time? Let me see if I can answer that for you.”
Here are three responses you can use for any objection:
First, you can pause, smile, and then ask, “How do you mean?” This question is almost impossible not to answer. You can use it over and over again in the sales conversation. “How do you mean?” or “How do you mean, exactly?”
Second, you can say, “Obviously you have a good reason for saying that. Do you mind if I ask what it is?” Often the customer does not have a good reason for objecting, and this response will help to clarify that.
The third way you can handle objections is by using the “Feel, Felt, Found” Method. When a customer says something like “It costs too much,” you can say, “I understand exactly how you feel. Others felt the same way when they first heard the price. But this is what they found when they began using our product or service.”
Then go on to explain how other customers found that the benefit or value of your product more than justified the price you were charging. Demonstrate that what the customer receives is greatly in excess of the added cost that he or she has to pay. Show how happy other customers were afterward, even though they spent more than they initially expected.
When I do sales consulting with a company, I explain that salespeople can increase their sales in two ways. First, they can present more benefits and reasons to buy. Second, they can effectively remove more of the objections, or reasons not to buy, that are holding their prospects back.
We then conduct a sentence-completion exercise to identify the main obstacles in customers’ minds that hold them back from buying. We complete the sentence, “I could sell to every qualified prospect I spoke to if he or she just didn’t say____.”
We go around the room and write out, on flip charts, every single objection that anyone has ever received. We then “cluster” these objections into their logical categories, which are never more than six. Finally, we go around the room once more and solicit the very best answers that anyone has discovered for answering each particular category of objection.
Once you arm yourself with a repertoire of excellent answers, you will sell with greater confidence and effectiveness in any market. Objections will never hold you back again.
ACTION EXERCISES
Make a list of every reason that prospects give you for not buying what you are selling. Organize this list by priority and frequency. Determine the major objections you get that stop you from making sales to qualified prospects.
Write these objections on the left-hand side of a sheet of paper. Draw a line down the middle. Then write a logical and persuasive answer to each objection in the right-hand column.
Ask other salespeople how they answer these objections. Practice responding naturally to them when someone brings them up. Get testimonial letters or other proof to demonstrate that the objection is not a valid reason not to buy. From now on, refuse to take no for an answer unless there is a very good reason that makes it impossible for the prospect to buy.
14
Deal with Price Professionally
Men who accomplish great things
in the industrial world are those
who have faith in the money
producing power of their ideas.
— CHARLES FILLMORE
Price is seldom the reason for buying or not buying anything. Sometimes I ask my sales audiences if they would like me to prove this claim. I then ask them, perhaps one thousand participants, “Is there a single person in this room who has a single item about their person that they bought solely because it was the cheapest available?”
No one ever raises his or her hand. The point is clear. Many factors go into the buying decision, and of course price is one of them. But price is never the main reason. The main reason is always something else. Your job is to find it and deal with that concern effectively.
According to one study at Harvard, fully 94 percent of sales in America are made on a nonprice basis. Follow-up surveys with customers who argued an
d negotiated long and hard over price turned up the surprising fact that they finally made their decision on nonprice factors. Factors such as suitability, convenience, reputation of the company or product, service, appearance, and appropriateness to the customer were more important.
The first rule in dealing with price objections is never to argue or defend your prices. Instead, probe gently and professionally to find out the real reason that the customer is hesitating. Ask, “How do you mean?” Use the “Feel, Felt, Found” Method described in chapter 13. Position yourself as a consultant and ask good questions to uncover the real needs of the customer. Focus on the value of what you are selling rather than getting into a price argument.
In addition, you can deal with price in several special ways: First, when the prospect says, “Your price is too high,” reply by politely asking, “Why do you say that?”
Remember that the person who asks questions has control. When you ask a question, you must pause and remain perfectly silent until the prospect replies. Then, whenever possible, follow with another question and again remain silent while the prospect answers. This method is vastly more effective than talking and attempting to overwhelm the prospect with features, benefits, facts, and figures.
Second, when the prospect says, “I can’t afford it,” gently ask, “Why do you feel that way?” Then remain silent as you lean forward attentively, waiting for an answer.
Prospects often have no answers to these questions. However, by asking them, not only will you maintain control over the flow of the sales conversation, you will often learn the real reason behind a prospect’s hesitation.
Here is another key rule with regard to price: Price out of place kills the sale. If you get into a price discussion before the prospect thoroughly understands what you are selling and the benefits to him or her of owning and using it, you will usually kill all possibilities of a sale. You must therefore put off the discussion of price until the customer has indicated that he or she likes and wants what you are selling.
Often the prospect will say near the beginning of a sales call, “Just tell me how much it is and I’ll tell you if I’m interested.”
If you give in to the temptation to give the price at this time, you will usually find yourself back on the street in a few minutes, wondering what happened. Instead, say, “I know price is important to you. Could I come back to that a little later, after I’ve had a chance to understand your current situation?”
Sometimes, prospects will be quite demanding and will insist that you state the price before allowing you to proceed. When I was faced this situation, I would simply counter by saying, “I don’t know.”
“What do you mean, ‘You don’t know?’” the prospect would ask. I would then say, “I don’t even know if what we have would be suitable for you. But if I could ask you a couple of questions, I could give you an estimate that would be accurate to within a couple of dollars. For example, I would need to know what you are doing now in this area.”
Once you postpone the price discussion, you can then go into a questioning process, positioning yourself as a consultant, focusing on uncovering the problem or need of the prospect for which your product or service is the ideal solution.
The third way to handle a price objection is this: When the prospect says, “That’s more than I expected to pay,” respond by asking, “How far apart are we?”
Often, the prospect has a price in mind that he or she thinks is the amount your product should cost. Sometimes, the prospect has budgeted a certain amount to purchase what you are selling. Once you discover that number, as long as it is reasonably close to what you are asking, your job is to demonstrate that the difference in price is more than made up for by the increase in value that he or she will receive.
Never be hesitant to reassure the prospect that “This is a very good price” or “This is a great deal; it is worth every penny you pay.” Or you can say, “This is an excellent product or service; you will be very happy with it.”
Customers today do not want the lowest price. They have had enough experience with low-price items to know that they are also low-quality items and usually cause far more problems than they cure. Instead, customers want a “good price,” a “fair price,” a “good deal,” a “great deal.” But they don’t want something just because it is cheap.
The fourth way to handle price is used when the customer opens with the question, “How much is it?” He or she demands to know the price even before you have had a chance to ask any questions or before the customer even knows what you are selling. At this moment, you are in great and immediate danger of losing both the prospect and the sale. If you answer this question by giving the price, you will invariably get the response “I can’t afford it!” and the conversation will be over.
Here is a direct, “in your face” reply to the question, “How much is it?” You smile, even into the phone, and say, “That’s the best part! If it’s not exactly right for you, there’s no charge.”
This almost always brings the prospect to a halt. “No charge?” he or she will say, “What do you mean?”
You then say, “If whatever I’m selling is not exactly right for you, you’re not going to take it, are you?”
The prospect will say, “No, I’m not!”
You then say, “And if you don’t take it, then there’s no charge, right?”
The prospect will then say, “That’s true. What is it, then?”
You reply, “That’s exactly what I want to talk to you about, and I just need a few minutes of your time. I’ve got something I have to show you.” You then proceed to arrange a face-to-face appointment and you are on your way.
The key to dealing with price objections professionally is for you to be proud of your prices. Remember that they have been carefully set on the basis of many factors. They are fair and reasonable. The value that the customer gets is far greater than the amount he or she pays. By helping the prospect to buy your product or service at these prices, you are doing him or her a favor. You are helping to improve the quality of his or her life or work.
ACTION EXERCISES
Make a list of all the benefits that customers will enjoy from owning and using your product or service. Wherever possible, quantify these benefits in terms of the dollar value they represent. Build your sales presentation around these values and emphasize what the customer gets versus what he or she pays.
Make a list of all the price objections you receive from your prospects and then develop positive responses to each one. Ask your colleagues how they deal with specific price concerns. Practice these answers at every opportunity.
Finally, if you are stopped or stumped by a price objection, ask the prospect, “Let’s put price aside for a moment. Is there any other reason why you would hesitate buying my product or service right now?” This question often brings out the real reason behind the prospect’s reluctance to buy.
15
Know How to Close the Sale
Our grand business is not to see
what lies dimly at a distance,
but to do what lies clearly at hand.
— THOMAS CARLYLE
Your ability to ask for the order at the end of the presentation or at the end of the sales process is absolutely essential to your success. Fortunately, tens of thousands of sales conversations have been videotaped so we now know exactly how the highest paid salespeople close sales most of the time.
The sales process follows a logical series of steps from beginning to end. First, you establish rapport and trust with the prospect to assure that he or she likes you and is open to following your advice.
Second, you ask questions to clearly identify what the prospect needs and wants in the area in which you sell.
Third, you show the prospect that what you are selling, all things considered, is the best possible solution for him or her at this time.
Fourth, you satisfactorily answer any objections or questions the prospect may have.
&n
bsp; Finally, you ask the prospect to take action on your offering. This last step is the key determinant of your income.
Before you move to close the sale, you can ask one of these two questions: First, “Do you have any questions or concerns that I haven’t covered so far?”
If the customer says no, you can then smile and confidently ask for the buying decision.
Second, you can ask, “Does this make sense to you so far?”
If the prospect says yes, you can then proceed to close the sale.
You can use three excellent techniques to ask for the order. The first method is the “Invitational Close.” It is perhaps the simplest of all. When the prospect says that he or she has no more questions or concerns, you could ask, “Well then, why don’t you give it a try?”
This is an amazingly effective closing technique. It is low-keyed, friendly, professional, and completely lacking in pressure of any kind.
If you are selling a service or you represent a large company, you could say, “Why don’t you give us a try?”
If it is a tangible product, you could even say, “Why don’t you take it?”
You can then reinforce these words by adding, “And I’ll take care of all the details.” Often a prospect doesn’t know how much he or she wants what you are selling until you offer to take care of all the details.
The second technique you can use is called the “Directive Close.” This is the most popular closing technique used by the highest paid salespeople in almost every industry.
With this technique you ask the question, “Does this make sense to you so far?”
When the prospect says yes, you say, “Well then, the next step is this” You then go on to describe the plan of action from this point forward. You explain what the prospect needs to do now and how much of a deposit you will require. You take out the order form or the contract and begin filling it out.
