When selling your services or products I’m sure most of you get objections much like I do. “I would like to think about this,” or “I don’t have time to do any of this,” or “I’m not ready yet,” or “That seems expensive,” or “Call me back in a couple of months.” What does all this mean? Most likely they are afraid of making a bad decision. If they spend the money and it’s the wrong product or service they will look foolish. And no one wants to look foolish. How do you overcome these fears?

Well, in many cases you may not have developed enough rapport in the beginning of the sales process to develop trust with your prospects. Developing rapport is essential. People will not buy from you if they don’t like you or don’t trust you.  So some of these responses may be a smoke screen. They simply don’t want to deal with you. But let’s assume you have done your job in developing rapport and you have followed your sales process to a “T” (assuming you have one) and are at the decision point and you still hear these type of objections.  Here are some ideas on how to proceed.

Listen. Listen to what they are saying. Do not assume you know what they are about to say even if you have heard these objections before. DO NOT finish their sentences for them. Listen intently and try to understand what their objection is. 

Do not argue or contradict the prospect. For example if they say you are expensive you may want ask what “expensive” means to them and compared to what, rather than argue the point. The word “expensive” might mean something entirely different to you than it does to them. Don’t assume you know what they mean. Ask for clarification.

Empathize with them. You may want to say “I understand, many of my clients felt that way before they really saw the benefits of my service.” Then ask for clarification.

Don’t avoid the issue. You will surely lose the sale if you simply ignore what they are saying. Again, you need clarification. You may say, “I’m not sure I understand what you are saying, can you tell me more about what you’re thinking.”

Feed the objection back to be sure you got it. “Let me make sure I understand what you are saying,” and reiterate their objection and confirm that’s what they meant.

Make sure this is the only objection. For example if price is the problem you may want to say. “OK let’s take money off the table, is there anything else that is holding you back from moving forward?”

Answer their concerns. If you have been selling for any period of time you can probably count on one hand what the standard objections are to your product or services. Once you understand what the prospect is saying make sure you have a response. Script it and practice it.

Try to pre-empt common objections. If you keep hearing similar objections you may want to bring them up before the prospect does. “Many of our clients felt that our price was high until they were able to see the return on their investment.”

Don’t be afraid of dealing with your prospects objections. You need to understand that the objections are the issues that are holding them back from doing business with you. It will give you a clue as to what their fears are and why they are not comfortable with buying your service or product. If you deal with their objections and eliminate their fears the likelihood of closing the sale grows exponentially. And lastly, if you feel you are up against a brick wall don’t be afraid to walk. Take the deal off the table. If a prospect is that difficult to deal with before they’ve done business with you, what will it be like once they start sending you checks? If you have a pipeline full of other prospects your time might be better spent with someone else.