Handling Objections

Don’t be frightened of objections – this is a completely natural part of the process and should be expected. Your client isn’t being negative – 9 times out of 10 they are actually just asking for more information or a bit more time. At the same time, when they are giving an objection it’s a critical time to listen to what they are saying.

Knowing how to handle objections when a potential customer is genuinely interested in….or doesn’t understand and would benefit from…your product/service is one thing – pushing and pushing someone who is clearly not interested at this time is both fruitless and will give you no chance of getting their business in the future.

It’s just as important to know when it’s time to back off.

Here are some of the most common objections and how to respond.

‘It’s too expensive = ‘Tell me why you are charging so much’ (unless you have overpriced your product/service you should be able to explain why the value matches or exceeds the cost).
‘I’m not sure it’s right for me’ = you either haven’t understood their needs, or haven’t explained how the product/service will meet their needs.
‘I don’t have the money’ – this could be genuine, or it could be that they’re just not interested. Ask if they’d like you to send them some more information in the future – this should help you get to the bottom of it. If it’s genuine then keep in touch with them to move them further along the continuum.
‘We don’t have any budget left’ – this indicates a cash flow issue – or again, it could be that they’re just not interested. Try and get to the bottom of which it is.
‘We already use (insert competitor name) – ask how the relationship is going, what they like and don’t like about their service to help you improve your service to them in the future.
‘I don’t have time to look at this right now’ – sympathize and let them know that you weren’t planning on going into detail today, you just were hoping to give them the headline information to see if a longer discussion might be worthwhile in the future.
‘Send me some information’ – your response to this should be ‘of course, what would you like to know?’