Tackling Tough Questions: A Guide to Objection Handling

In this gripping episode of "How To Sell More," we dive deep into the art of turning objections into golden opportunities. Mark Drager shares a transformative idea: objections aren't setbacks; they're stepping stones to understanding and success.

Here's what you'll learn:

• Objections are doorways, not roadblocks.
• Listening and empathy: the twin pillars of sales success.
• The power of a structured approach to tackle objections.

Unlock the secrets of objection handling with Mark's insights.

In the vast ocean of business, objections are like waves. They can either knock you down or propel you forward, depending on how you navigate them.

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Links to This Episode

• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• YouTube
• Audible

Key Takeaways

• Embracing Objections as Opportunities - Instead of dreading objections, seeing them as feedback can pave the way for refining one's sales approach and building trust with clients.
• The Importance of Active Listening and Empathy - By genuinely understanding and addressing the heart of the objection, salespeople can tailor their response more effectively, leading to better solutions and increased trust.
• Structured Approach to Overcome Objections - Having a predefined framework or methodology for handling objections can lead to more consistent and effective results in turning objections into sales.

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Top 3 Reasons to Listen

Practical Tips: Receive actionable advice and strategies that can be immediately applied in real-world sales scenarios.

Sales Psychology: Delve into the deeper psychological aspects of objections and how to navigate them.

Transformative Insights: Learn how objections can be powerful tools for understanding, rather than setbacks.

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More About our Host, Mark Drager

AKA the Badass Brand Architect, 5th Generation Entrepreneur, Host of The How To Sell More Podcast

When he's not podcasting, Mark's the Co-Founder & CEO of SalesLoop. He's a dedicated husband to his high school sweetheart, Jacqueline, and a proud father of four.

Mark didn't follow the typical route to becoming a sales & marketing expert. A connected figure in the entrepreneur community, Mark provides listeners with a unique mix of wit, insight, and straightforward advice.

Some of Mark's unconventional adventures include commandeering a Boeing 737-800 for a day, facing harsh criticism from a billionaire, and shedding 70 lbs in his late 30s. Though he never attended college, Mark stands as proof of the might of maintaining a student mindset and being ever-ready to seek assistance.

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A Transcription of The Talk

Mark Drager: There is not a single one of us who's responsible for selling a vision, selling an idea, a product, a service, no matter what if we are on one side of the table, and we are trying to work with someone or convince someone on the other side of the table to move forward with something, at a certain point, you are going to face those objections. And some of them, in my opinion, are really easy to be able to get around. I actually sometimes scratch my head wondering why people struggle so much just going ahead and turning the objection into a benefit. And we're gonna get into that today.

But then there are others that just seem like total roadblocks total deal breakers, like how do you respond to them? How do you take control back? How do you move on to the next steps? How do you ensure that there's a clear path forward without feeling like you're moving into a passive role? And there's some tips, there's some tricks, and most of all, there's some ways we can approach our conversations, to be able to handle those tough questions, not be afraid of the objection, and know that no matter what they throw at you, there's a way that you can keep driving the conversation and the process forward.

So first of all, I think it'd be really helpful for us to understand that there are common types of objections, and, and you've probably faced all of these. And so the most obvious one is the objection to price price, right? Like, the price doesn't fit, it's too high. It's just not what they expected. They're not sure if they can budget it, there's always an issue of price.

There are objections specifically to the product maybe, or the service you're selling. And maybe there's an issue with they're not quite sure if it's a fit. Maybe they're not quite sure if your company, your product, your service is the right one to move forward with. There are all kinds of objections always related to the product or the service itself.

There can be objections related to trust, you know, do you have the credibility? Do you have the trust? Do you have the ability to deliver on all the promises that you're making? Then there are what's called stall objections, you know, I need to think about it. Maybe next quarter, I'm not sure I didn't budget for this, you know, all of these types of objections that really just come down to, they are not ready to move forward right now. And lastly, there are these objections related to authority, you know, I need to talk to my boss, I'm not in a position to sign off on this, I need to go ahead and get other stakeholders involved, I need to go out and get financing, I need to go out and do something else, someone else is ultimately responsible for this. So don't blame me, I'm just the person who's collecting information.

And so at the end of the day, no matter really which objection you get hit with, it's going to fall into one of these five categories price, your product or service, if you built up enough trust, if someone is trying to stall or if they're trying to push off the decision making to some other authority or some other power. Now, as I mentioned off the top some of these objections and you know, are super, super easy, because through pattern recognition, we can start to notice exactly the same types of objections coming up from the same types of people in the same types of ways.

Here's the edited transcription for the second batch:

And as we work with people, and especially this is powerful, if you niche down if you if you can get the same types of conversations with the same types of people in really tight succession, you can start to test different ways to handle those objections. And you just become more confident over time.

But before we get into like real strategies and tips on how to do this, I just want to share a quick story with you. Because I think most of this actually has to do with our mindset and our approach.

I am not afraid of people throwing objections, my way, no matter what the objections are. And it's for a few reasons. First of all, if I don't know, I am totally fine telling people I just don't know, I just don't know now, why don't I know. I've never been asked that question before. that's ever been a concern for anyone I've worked with, you know, we've worked with, and I can go into my numbers, but it's like, well, we've done 1000s of projects with over 300 customers and 29 different industries. We've been in business for 15 years, and no one has ever asked that before. Right now. I'm not diminishing their objection, or their challenge. But I'm just saying this is a strange question. This is an outlier. This is not something that's ever come up. Great question. Let me take it away and come back to you.

So first of all, I am not afraid to tell people that I just don't know, especially if it's something that has never been asked before. What a unique question, What a unique situation. Let me go away and figure that out for you. So I'm not afraid of that.

Second, I have come to realize in life in business, and especially in sales, there's an opportunity in every challenge. And I've also learned that along the same lines that every weakness is a strength and every strength is a weakness in the right context or the right situation.

And so I can remember back when I started my company back in 2006, I sublet this little tiny office off of a colleague off of brand, Max callus so I sublet this office off of Max and his brother Lionel, they're running an internet marketing company. I just had one room within their bigger office and they were much larger than me they're already over seven because they already had a team.

And I remember one afternoon, gosh, maybe 2007 2008. I remember one afternoon, Max came back from from a meeting. And it was a sales meeting was a first meeting. And he was talking to the team and I happen to overhear it. And now, listen, you listen to podcast, I like to inject myself in conversations, it's gotten me in trouble. Sometimes I also like to talk and I like to help people. So I'm listening to Max. And he said, You know, I just met with this with this perfect prospect. And we're showing him the portfolio, we're showing him the work. And again, this is 2007, or eight, and this is a web development company. And he goes, and the prospect says, all your websites look the same. he didn't know what to say to that.

And I remember thinking, like I didn't even think, but I just naturally responded, because it just seems so obvious to me. Of course, they all look the same. Of course, our websites all look the same. We have produced hundreds of websites, we have done all of the work. And we have arrived at the secret formula for how a website should be laid out, to be able to convert the best and get be the most effective. And when you the most business or the most leads, or whatever your whatever your goal was, right? Like just drop in goal here.

But it just totally makes sense to me that if someone's like, Oh, your stuff looks the same? Well, of course it does. Because this is the most effective way to do it. Would you rather me create something totally unique and totally different just for the sake of it, but have it be less effective? So I said that I blurted that out, because it just made sense to me.

And Max took a step back, and was like, Huh. And in that moment, because again, I was young, it was many years ago, it was maybe 2425. At the time, I didn't realize that this natural skill that I had to be able to take someone's objection, and just turn it turn that negative into a positive because again, every strength is a weakness, if it's in the wrong place, and every weakness is a strength if it's in the right context.

So not how do we ignore what people are saying, but how do we just shift the context? How do we provide the context for our prospects? Or our clients or our networks? So they understand yes, you're right, they do all look the same? And yes, I can understand in a different context, let's say that you're, you know, building out a design portfolio, or you're trying to win an award for being unique or being different. Or if your main goal was to stand out from everyone in the industry, regardless of if it converts or not, if it creates, leads or not, if you can sell or not, like if all you wanted to do was be different than Yeah, I mean, that's, that's, that's true. Our stuff all looks the same, almost looks a little templated, doesn't it? That's not good. But if your goal is to generate more leads, your goal is to convert more traffic into clients. If your goal is to create a really effective marketing asset, then guess what? We have figured out through trial and error, the best way to approach this, this is the best way to do it. Do we want to do it the best way or not?

So I want to get into some tactics for how to approach objection handling. But in my opinion, the thing that has served me better than anything else is to is to really listen.

And before I respond, I have to ask myself, what is the real problem this doesn't only serve you in sales or handling objections, this actually serves you in you know, I run a I run an agency, a branding agency. And when we get feedback from clients, often the feedback isn't isn't really the real feedback. So this helps you with client experience, helps you with onboarding, can help you with recruitment can help you with employee training and employee engagement.

It's always the same no matter what if you're ever eliciting feedback. And all of an objection is in the sales process is feedback. It's the prospects opportunity to give you their feedback. And it reveals what their challenges what their issue is what they understand if they understand things if you need to educate more, or what have you. And so whatever it is they're giving you, that is your opportunity to be able to respond.

If you try to respond to the original objection right away, like what I did with Max, my friend, and I just responded right away without thinking of it. That might work hit and miss. But here's what you really need to do. What is the real problem, you need to understand the ask? Let me give you another example here, we used to produce a ton of videos like we I mean, we were a video centric agency for like 15 years. And so we have produced a lot of content for people. And sometimes we'd get stuff back where people be like, the videos too long.

Now, if you got feedback, like the video is too long, or let's say you make something you design something that's too big, the wrong color. I don't like it, whatever it is, our feedback was it was like, Oh, the video is too long. But the client was saying was not in fact that the videos too long, they were saying that it felt slow, or you lost me or I stopped paying attention or there was a lull, or I got bored. You lost retention at some point along the way.

It's not in fact that the videos too long, because unless if they're creating a six-second, a 15-second, 30-second, 60-second ad, unless we're creating something where it has to be fit within a certain time. window of time, it's not that the video is too long, it's that there's something within the content, that or the structure, or the music or the pace or the tone, or the graphics. There's something in there where we're just kind of losing people. And so I used to have to stress this with my team all the time.

Because if a client says, the video is too long, and we respond with, okay, let's make it shorter. We're not answering the right question. If the video is too long, and we respond with Well, tell me about that. What parts be along? Why does it feel long? Where does it lose you? Because in fact, it's not about the length, it's about the pace and the retention, now we can have a much more structured conversation, now we can actually get to the root cause of what the issue is.

And so when your prospect is sitting across from you, and they give you that objection, again, I want to be able to turn any negative into a positive, I want to ensure that there's logic behind it, I want to make sure that it's not bullshit. But I can't do that until I really understand the real problem, or understand the ask, now, how do we approach this, if you're the type of person who really loves to follow a checklist, or structured strategy, to get through this, I'm going to share with you the six steps that you can take to be able to actually help move really challenging objections through this process.

But I believe that simply not being afraid to say no. And looking to turn that negative into a positive is the way through most objections, there are some roadblocks, where that just simply won't work. And that's where this framework will help a lot more. So first of all, you need to listen really, really carefully. Before we can address any type of objection, we need to really understand it. And again, and that's why I said, we got to start off with understanding what the real problem is, you got to actively listen, you can't interrupt, you have to let the prospect finish. And you have to show empathy and understanding before getting defensive in any way.

Second, we have to really clarify the objection. And this still comes down to what is the real problem trying to get to that, but we have to clarify the objection. Sometimes they're not clear, sometimes they're not as clear as they sound, or really, they're masking other things, like I mentioned. So this is now the time to start to ask open-ended questions. You know, why do you believe that is? Can you elaborate on that? What makes you feel that way? Have you experienced that in the past? Is this a concern internally is this coming from, from your experience from other stakeholders, just trying to understand where the challenge is coming from, why the challenge exists, and who might be affected by it.

So that way, you can start to better guide and understand and even take this into account as you start to formulate your plan, your pitch, whatever it might be. Third, you have to acknowledge the concern, we can't brush it aside, we can't ignore it, it is a real concern for a reason. And so we need to be able to demonstrate the empathy and we have to be able to show our prospects that we're taking their concerns seriously that these are real concerns for them. Even if we have experienced this a million times, even if we know it's not a big deal. Even if we know that there's a way around it.

This is when you want to use affirming language. So I understand where you're coming from. That is a valid concern. Oh, geez, I can see why in this situation. Yeah, that would be really tough. Okay, let's, let's start to work on that and figure out how we're going to be able to work around that, how we can take this into account? Or if this objection is constantly coming up time and time again, you have no answer for it, this is a great opportunity to be able to shift your product, shift your value offer, create a different approach, create a different product, create a different payment structure, whatever it is, like actually engineer your way out of this problem.

So every time you hit this roadblock, you're like, I already got an answer for it. We have this smaller tier, we have the secondary service, we have this custom service, we have this upgrade, we have this way around it. Yes, you are totally unique. Yes, your challenges is totally valid. And that's why we've taken the steps to be able to address them in some other way.

Next step for you have to be able to respond appropriately, I just kind of gave a few responses like Hey, okay, we keep running into this, maybe we got to create something else. Now, this is where we want to address the root objection, not what they brought forward, but the real problem and then start to provide information or reassurance that there's ways around it. So some people like feel felt found, you know, I heard that 15 years ago, you know, I understand how you feel others felt the same way. But they found after using our product, blah, anyone in sales knows feel felt found, and they're gonna start to feel like they're being manipulated. I don't like using it, you can use the same approach. I just don't use those words. This is a great time to provide third-party social proof evidence, case studies or storytelling techniques, and or to continue to ask more probing questions to continue to dig deeper and deeper and deeper, turn that objection into a key conversation point, and then be able to start to work through that and even spend five or 10 minutes there spend 20 minutes there. It's okay, set up a second meeting to handle that objection. I mean, if it's a real objection, and you're not going to be able to move forward without overcoming it, then let's park there for a bit. And let's work through that. When you have responded appropriately. The next step is to confirm has this objection been handled? 

As it's been set aside? Are you assured Are you reassured? Are you comfortable? Because you might provide third-party credibility and they might think it's bullshit. You might do feel felt found, and it's simply may not be enough because that's great. That's great for them, but I'm unique. I'm different. I need to I need something else. You might ask probing questions and you might just end up running in circles. You may end up finding that just everything leads in circles. So at a certain point you have to either handle the objection or set it aside, and you need to confirm that they're comfortable moving forward, because you've handled the objection, or you've set it aside.

And then now's the time to redirect back to advancing the sales conversation. Once the objection is handled, you must continue to move the conversation forward, transition back to focusing on benefits, focusing on storytelling, focusing on scope, or right-sizing the project or the product or the service, or whatever it might be. 

Thank you so much for that question. I'm so glad you brought that up. Now, I better understand exactly how we need to be able to frame this going forward, or now I better understand some of the concerns that you have. And now I can address that in my pitch, my proposal, and my pricing, and whatever it might be. 

You want to reassure them because you want them to bring you all of their objections. You don't want them to hide them. You want them to just open up and say, "Listen, here are the eight things I'm worried about. How can we address these?" And you go, "Perfect, great. Let's figure out how to address these. Let's work together. Let's knock these things out. Because ideally, they're talking to you because they're looking for a win."

And you're talking to them because you're looking for a win. So why not work together to figure out how to make this win-win? Right? It seems reasonable to me.