Whether you have a sales team or are in a sales role as a leader, you need to know how to overcome objections and pushback in the sales process.
So how can you honor people’s objections while still closing the sale and delivering your product or service?
In this episode of the One Next Step podcast, I had a conversation with Lisa Zeeveld about my experience in growth management across several industries and various sales environments.
We'll chat about how to empower your team to exceed their growth targets and how to aid in organizational grow — which, as you might have guessed, involves overcoming pushbacks and making sales.
Here are some takeaways they shared:
1. Sales isn’t as scary when it’s a product or service you believe in and you know is helping other people.
That’s an important truth to remember.
Because when you believe in what you’re doing, it’s so much easier than trying to force a product that you don’t believe in on someone who probably doesn’t even need it.
Sales can have a negative connotation to it; however, it's helpful to realize sales is all about making sure the buyer's needs are being met. It comes from a place of servanthood to realize that if I have knowledge that could help somebody, they need to know that it exists.
2. Listen
Does what you’re selling actually meet the need that your prospect has?
You can’t answer that question until you listen to them about the pain point they are experiencing. Leading a sales process by preaching the features is a sure way to lose someone quickly.
An unhealthy sales process says, 'Here's what I do and you should buy it.' A healthy sales process says, 'Tell me why you've reached out. Tell me what your pain point is.' From there, the salesperson needs to determine if their solution actually fills that need and void of the buyer.
People want to be heard. Listen to them, identify their needs, and then sell away!
3. Build Value First
Most salespeople know not to come out of the gate with a price. That’s because at that point, it’s just a sales transaction and you might have already lost a potential customer.
Instead, show the value in what you are selling. How can it help them? Where does it fit into their experience? How does it address their needs?
When a lead or prospect is identified, my team often starts with some healthy cyber stalking. They're looking at LinkedIn and their business website to get an idea of where they are at in their business to tee up how the conversation may go.
Having an idea of where the client is coming from will help you to add value to the conversation and guide you in your thought process so that you aren't walking in blindly before you start talking to them.
Show them all of the ways you can help fill those gaps before you ever discuss price.