Mastering Objections: A seller’s workshop on turning no’s into yes’s

Objection handling: Experts share tips & tricks on overcoming sales objections

In today’s challenging economic climate, even the best sales reps run into objections over and over again. From budget constraints to concerns about implementation, there’s no shortage of B2B sales objections that continue popping up as reps move through their prospecting workflows.

By preparing for common sales objections and figuring out a plan of attack, reps can overcome the objections they encounter and win more business.

To help you learn how to handle objections like a pro, Sean Murray, director of sales development at LeadIQ, recently hosted a webinar called Mastering objections: A seller’s workshop on turning nos to yeses that featured:

• Colby Oefinger, business development manager at Mindtickle;
• Cameron Emory, account executive at Salesforce; and 
• Dave Frechette, an advisory board member here at LeadIQ.

Read on to learn about some of the advice our panel shared about successfully overcoming B2B sales objections.

Tips from Colby

• Focus on extending the conversation. The best sales reps are always trying to learn more about their prospects, and that’s easier when you’re able to spend more time with them. By learning how to move past common objections, you can extend conversations, giving you more space to pick up new information. “If you can master those first 10 objections — I was expecting somebody else, I’m not the right person, I’m running into a meeting — you’re almost guaranteed to get that first 30 and 45 seconds to then get another minute,” Colby says.

• Don’t be afraid to fail. Even the best reps aren’t able to overcome every single objection they encounter, and that’s perfectly okay. “Sometimes we mess up a call and those are our biggest learning lessons,” Colby says. “I think that the biggest point for somebody new coming into this business is don’t be afraid to fail.”

• Study yourself in action. While experience is a great teacher, you can also learn a lot by seeing yourself in action — just like professional athletes look at their performance throughout the game. “Listen to your game-day footage,” Colby says. “If your calls are recorded, spend some time and watch that game-day footage because you might learn something about yourself. You can improve a lot just by watching yourself.: 

Tips from Cameron

• Embrace objections as opportunities. You might think that objections are points of friction, but you’d be wrong. The way Cameron sees it, objections can actually be a really good thing. “I like to think of objections as where the selling really starts,” he explains. “I think it usually can be a red flag if someone’s totally agreeable and just says yes to everything. They might be trying to get you off the phone or just not being totally honest with you.” 

• Give the prospect the floor. The best sales reps keep their mouths closed most of the time. Cameron follows the Sandler method of sales to do the same. “Essentially what that means is you’re talking 20 percent of the time and the customer-slash-prospect is talking 80 percent of the time,” Cameron says. “It’s really just a great way to let them talk, hear what they have to say, and have thoughtful follow-up questions.” At the same time, Cameron says that it’s important to remember this is a general framework — not something codified in stone. At the end of the day, interactions are meant to be conversational. “So, let’s say it goes off script or outside the bounds of what you’re preparing for, just be prepared to pivot and let them speak and show curiosity.”

• Remember that it’s not only about price. It’s easy for reps to stay laser-focused on price. But in today’s tricky environment, other factors can make all the difference in the world. “When you’re trying to figure out if you can be a better solution, don’t just look at comparing the price points and who’s cheaper,” he says. “It’s also a lot more factors. A lot of times it comes down to time savings and ease of use.”

Tips from Dave

• Be premeditated and calculated. By figuring out how to handle objections ahead of time, you can take a calculated approach to prospecting and almost know where the conversation is going to lead before it gets there. “I will ask a question to an objection and then I’ll stop and pause before I allow them to answer,” Dave says. “What you’re doing is leading the witness almost like a lawyer does in the stand. You need to be premeditated, and you never want to really ask a question that you don’t know the answer to.”
  
  
• Understand what’s going on in your prospect’s world. It’s much easier to sell to people when you understand their pain points and know how to solve them instead of just trying to hawk your own products. “The last thing you want to do is just try selling features and functions and hope that you get somebody to buy it,” he continues. “You have to be able to tie to a strategic initiative in the company to move the needle, especially if you’re selling into tech right now.”
  
  
• Turn individual losses into team wins. While every sales loss stings a bit, Dave suggests such opportunities can be a great resource for team improvement. “I spent a lot of time as a sales leader looking at lost deals, and my VPs and I oftentimes will go back and talk to the prospect to learn,” he says. “If they are a perfect ICP, you’ve got a really strong value proposition that lines up, you’ve got lots of customers just like them — then you ran a crappy sales cycle. That’s just the brutal truth. I don’t say that because I want to go and sit down with the rep and [tell them that]. I actually want to figure out what was the miss and how do we coach and make it better. So, we actually use it for enablement and learning.” 

Sharpen your B2B sales objection handling skills today!

For B2B reps, sales objections come with the territory. 

By preparing ahead of time and having a plan on how to diffuse common objections when they materialize, you can move past them swiftly, extending the conversation and creating additional room to learn more about your prospect and what makes them tick.

For more tips and tricks on how you can prepare to overcome sales objections, check out our recent post: Common B2B sales objections and how to overcome them.

Better yet, watch the full webinar to learn more strategies our panel of experts use to push through objections and close more deals.