3 Steps for Objection Handling in Sales

01 | Understanding the Problem

It’s the status quo!

Most sales teams struggle with low close rates or poor opportunity win rates because they’re unable to uncover the buyer’s motivation to change. When salespeople fail to uncover the “why”, buyers tend to stick with what they know — the status quo. Studies have shown that up to 60% of deals are lost to no-decision or the status quo. In addition to the status quo, most selling methodologies emphasize a product or solution-oriented approach. Product-centric selling unknowingly drives the customer to focus on features, and price, causing salespeople to lose deals they could have won if they had uncovered the buyer’s “why”. Handling objections and implementing a problem-centric™ discovery is central to improving win rates and opportunity conversions.

02 | Diagnosing the Root Cause

At the heart of losing to the status quo is product-centric selling. Discoveries that focus on product need and pain rather than current business problems Pain is NOT the same as a problem, and treating them the same can have dire consequences. Deals are lost when your sales team uses firm and consistent qualification criteria that is customer-centric. When your sales team focuses on the product instead of the buyer’s business problems, they inadvertently put themselves in a defensive posture where they must “prove” the value of their offering and “convince” buyers their product is the best. This rarely works, as product-centric selling doesn’t align with the buyer’s intrinsic and business motivations for change. Preparing your sales team to diagnose a buyer’s intrinsic motivations for change challenges changes the entire buying process. It centers the sale around the value of change, rather than the value of the product or service.

03 | How To Fix It

The key to fixing low win rates and poor conversion lies squarely in the ability to move salespeople from being product-centric to being problem-centric™. This process starts internally in your organization by training your salespeople to embrace a holistic understanding of the buyer’s working environment. By increasing the sales team’s business acumen and their understanding of the buyer’s problems, the organization becomes better equipped to handle objections, minimize the impact of losing to the status quo, increase win rates, and steer clear of arbitrary feature requests.

Download the PIC to help your team understand your buyer’s business problems and why they exist.