How To Handle ANY Objection In Sales

jordan stupar Oct 31, 2020

When it comes time for a customer to make a decision on purchasing a product or a service, there is a very good chance that you will hear objections. 

An objection is: the response, statement or reason that a customer provides, or an attempt to explain why they may not end up purchasing a product or service.

'I need to think about it.' 'I need to talk to my spouse'. 'Your price is too high'. 'I found a better quote from someone else.' 'This is out of our budget.' 'We don't like long contracts.' 'We're happy with what we have.' 'I'm not interested.' The list goes on...

If you've been in sales for longer than 10 minutes, then you're probably familiar with these common objections and, you've probably lost a deal and scratched your head wondering what you could have said to get the deal done.

Here's an easy-to-remember formula that you can follow to handle any objection, regardless of what you sell.

'ART+?' is the objection handling formula.

A = Acknowledge

R = Reply

T + ? = Transition With A Question

How does it work? It's simple. Let's use it on the objection, 'I need to think about it.' Instead of saying, 'well, what do you need to think about?', try doing this...

Step 1 - Acknowledge: 'I completely understand.' Acknowledging your customer's objection or concern fulfills the basic human desire to be understood. Having a predefined acknowledgement will also give your brain the extra moments it needs to properly respond to your customer and ensures a shorter, more direct response time.

Step 2 - Reply: 'I wouldn't expect you to make a decision without thinking about it first. I think about each decision I make as well.' Here, you are replying to the customer's objection and referencing the objection itself, almost verbatim. After acknowledging your customer's objection, your reply will include a reference to the objection itself. 

Step 3 - Transition with a Question: 'Tell me, on a scale from 1-10, 10 meaning you're ready to do this right now and a 1 meaning you wouldn't do this if it were free, where do you stand?'. In this example, you are allowing your customer to convey their real level of interest in doing business with you. Regardless of which number you customer responds with, you can ask, 'Got it, what would make it a '10' right now?'. Now, instead of 'thinking about it', your customer can provide you with the reason they are not ready to purchase right now.

Pro Tip: Your customer doesn't need to 'think about it'. They are already using their brain and have already been thinking about it. Your customer is using this objection to stall making a decision because of another reason: pricing, contracts, terms...etc. Although this word track helps handle the initial objection, you will want to prepare to handle additional objections in order to bring them to a '10'.

Following this formula is far better than responding with 'well, what do you need think about?' and encourages your customer to give you a real concern. 

You can use the 'ART+?' objection formula for any objection, from any customer. 

Need more help with objections?

If you're interested in learning more about this formula or want to practice responding to customer objections, I highly recommend grabbing a deck of Stupar's CashCards: Flashcards For Closers and activate your membership to Stupar Sales Academy. These resources will help you memorize the correct responses for objections on cold calls and objections in the close and dramatically improve your confidence when working with your next customer. Please contact [email protected] with any questions.

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