Objection handling is about building trust by listening and asking the right questions so your prospect can make the right decision. It does not involve pressuring or arguing. Sales objections are common and can occur at any point in the sales process.

Prepare yourself with five tips for better objection handling to turn that “no” into a “yes.”

Actively Listen to Your Prospect When Objection Handling:

Listen closely and don’t interrupt! Be an active listener to build trust with your prospect. Trust is vital for objection handling. Prospects need to feel like you hear their concerns. Use active listening and give them space to understand their worry. What are their goals, motivation, wants, and fears? Make sure to listen to them, as it will help you navigate the objection handling process more effectively.

An active listening approach will lead to the best outcome for both parties. Also, add softening statements like “I completely understand what you feel. It is not an easy decision.” This takes us to our next tip: Empathy.

Empathize With Your Prospects:

Use empathy to validate your prospect’s concerns. One of the best ways to handle an objection is to emphasize it and let them know that you fully understand their situation and pain points. The prospect will be more comfortable talking to you, lowering their guard, making them more open to accepting your solution.

For example, suppose a prospect says your solution costs them a lot of money and is a big decision. In that case, you might respond, “I understand it is quite stressful to spend that much money. We got that quite often from our clients before they tried our solution. Now they want to upgrade to all our platforms. Here are some testimonials and case studies to help you make a better decision.”

Strengthen your objection handling with a second aspect, evidence.

Use Evidence When Objection Handling:

Use evidence to ease the prospect’s concerns. Draw more conversions with results and show what you achieved with other clients.

Recognize these common sales objections, and prepare yourself with evidence that establishes the credibility of your company’s solution. Prepare a list of testimonials and case studies. Show how happy your current customers are, especially those who initially had the same problems and concerns.

Understand the Problem the Prospect is Facing:

Every prospect has specific objections, but you need to uncover the big problem that the organization is trying to solve. Spend time trying to understand your prospect; ask open-ended questions, and dig up the big problem they’re facing.

To uncover the root cause of a business issue, you need to discover if an individual or an organization has a burning issue that they need to resolve. Maybe the prospect doesn’t need what you are selling. You must objectively evaluate if your company is a good fit for the prospect’s pain points. Embrace the objections and use them to unlock new and vital data.

Ensure Your Prospect is Satisfied With Your Answer:

Finally, respond to the objections. After you are confident that you have uncovered all of your prospect’s objections, you should try your best to resolve their issues immediately.

Objection handling is about understanding your prospect’s pain points and showing that those pain points have been understood and will be solved. Keep your responses clear and concise. If you need more information to resolve an issue, then investigate further.

Once you have responded to the buyer’s objections, check if they are satisfied with your answer. Ask him if he is happy with your solution. If not, explain further. Identify the difference between prospects who respond with a lukewarm yes and those with an excited yes.

Objections are not wrong. They make you a better salesperson. When faced with protests, don’t lose sight of your end goal; overcome the challenges and try to win over your prospect. Use these five steps: Listen, Empathize, Showcase Evidence, Understand, Respond and Confirm.

You will strengthen your relationship with the prospect and overcome the obstacles preventing them from making the decision. Don’t think of objection handling as a way to refute, counter, or argue.

Objection handling is rooted in understanding a prospect’s core issue and explaining how your product or service handles and solves it.

In Closing (Or Winning as Salespeople prefer to)

Here are a few extra tips to take your objection handlings skills to the next level:

1. Practice makes perfect. You can practice in your personal life, with your friends or family. Also, you can record yourself handling fake objections.
2. Don’t prioritize numbers. Leads are essential, but building a relationship with your prospects is critical. Empathize and understand them. Empathy and listening will make you a better salesperson overall. Once you master that, you will start closing leads more effectively.
3.  Know when to call timeout. Yes, of course, you need to follow up with your lead multiple times, but there comes a time when follow-ups are just not wise. So pay attention to that.
4. Make sure to perfect your sales process from start to finish. Write a script. Have a playbook. It is key.

If you’re still worried about objection handling, here’s an Objection Handling Playbook template we built for you to start having better calls and closing more deals.