Eliciting sales objections :Business Strategy /Financial Advisors

Sales should be pretty straightforward, identifying prospects and leading
them down a logical path that results in a cheque. Why then is it so often
hard to do? It’s because prospects, awkward as they are, raise objections to
block a sale. Despite your best efforts, the prospect has thought of a reason
not to buy from you. If you haven’t armed your salespeople with counterarguments
to these objections, then the sale cannot complete.

Sales objections differ for each firm and prospect. Examples include:
& ‘I’ve never heard of your firm’.
& ‘I don’t know what your firm can do’.
& ‘You don’t know my business’.
& ‘I don’t believe your product works’.
& ‘I don’t believe your product will make/save me money’.
& ‘Your proposal exceeds my budget’.
& ‘Your solution is non-standard’.
& ‘You can’t provide the support service I need’.
& ‘This is new technology and I’m not sure it will last’.
And so on.

Such sales objections are an integral part of the selling process: in fact, many
have described sales as the process of overcoming objections. So, if objections
are an everyday occurrence to salespeople, why do they hate them?
The reasons are twofold: objections are numerous and they are varied.
This means that a prospect can declare any one of a dozen possible
objections at multiple points in the deal discussions. The result is that
salespeople must spend time addressing a prospect’s concerns, which
slows the sales cycle. The failure to successfully counter an objection ends
in a loss, which reduces lead conversion rates. Inevitably the finger then
points to marketing and its inability to deliver credible counter-arguments.
Firms across many industries tell us that they have three key issues

surrounding sales objections:
1. ‘We don’t know what the sales objections are’.
2. ‘We don’t know how to counter those objections’.
3. ‘Even if we can counter objections, the prospect wouldn’t believe us’.
Let’s examine these issues. Firstly, there are three proven ways to identify
sales objections. They are, in declining order of effectiveness: conduct a
win/loss analysis; hold a sales objection elicitation workshop; just ask your
salespeople.

A win/loss analysis project involves someone other than your firm
calling decision-makers that didn’t buy from you. You can’t do the calling
because it’s extremely unlikely that a decision-maker will tell you the real
reason why you were not chosen. They’re too polite, they don’t really care
and they feel rather awkward in telling you that your pitch leader had bad
breath (or whatever the real reason was). (You can call the decision-maker
that did choose you.) Win/loss is probably the most interesting project a
third party agency can conduct, as they can get some great insight into the
industry, as well as delivering juicy feedback to their clients. It is essential
to gain the sales director’s support for the process, as the results will affect
his operation. You should also treat win/loss analysis as a learning exercise,
not a blame game.