The trip really to dealing with anchors or objections is a really simple one. Don't get emotional, don't get defensive, don't try to overcome it, because the reality is if you don't know what you're tackling, you may then handle it in correctly and put yourself at risk in terms of the opportunity.
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Hello and welcome to the Audible Ready Sales Podcast. I'm Rachel Klett Miller. Today we are going to be talking about handling objections with face objections a lot of times throughout the sales process at all different types, even from trying to get that first meeting until the final close. And I've brought Antonella Oday on here to talk to us about handling objections. Hi.
Antonella, Hi Rachel, thanks for having you back.
Yes, we're happy to have you Antonella. I'll just do a quick plug. She just hosted a live event on a sender on this very topic, So if you haven't checked out a sender and you are looking to up level your sales skills, please check it out at cender dot co. We're also running events every month on there. Super Valuable Antonella is one of our sales experts, but
thankful to have her on the podcast today. So Antonella, let's just start with the mindset that we need to have when we hear objections, Like, what is the mindset we need to have when when we hear those as a rep? Well?
When I think about mindset and objections, minds that I really think is everything when it comes to handling objections, how we see them, how we address them, very often will make or break our opportunities. And if we few objections as barriers, they tend to become exactly what we think they are. They end up standing in our way. They affect our state of mind, they impact our approach,
they ultimately impact the way customers engage with us. On the flip side, if we view them as opportunities, and when I say opportunities, I'm talking about an opportunity for us as sellers to better understand the customer's point of view, what they're thinking, to better understand their mindset and what's driving it. An opportunity to better understand their why they become just that, an opportunity that is more likely to
turn into business. Think about how valuable it is for both the customer and us to have them talk about those things out loud. To put this in an analogy that probably everyone can relate to. Think about them in the context of a road trip. You start on your journey, you hit a roadblock. Now you have two moves there.
You can get upset and feel your journey's been disrupted and complain about it, or you can view it as an opportunity that maybe takes you to a new route or one that has your problem solving skills, because we all know that in reality, roadblocks are part of the whole journey.
Yeah, you know, that's a great way to think about them as an opportunity, and it's good to know it, right. Wouldn't you want to know it now than at the final stages of the deal, because in the early part, if you know it, you can handle it, something about it right and manage it. One thing I wanted to talk about here at the start is the term objections and anchors. We often intertwine them. Talk about why we do and what we mean by anchors.
Yes, let's talk about anchors and what they are. So anchors are a tactic that can be used to reframe the conversation. Let me explain what I mean by that. So let's take, for example, if a customer says, Wow, you know, implementation seems more complex than I anticipated, and I'm concerned about the time required. They're trying to create a frame of reference for the conversation. They want the
focus on implementation, the complexity, the time. When they say I don't want to pay for functions I don't need, they're trying to change the reference for the conversation. And what's interesting is that this could be conscious where they're actively trying to frame or reframe the conversation, or it sometimes, very often could be unconscious from the customer. The challenge for us as sellers is that we allow this to happen. We let our customers reframe the conversation and we die
like deep into it. So now you know what's the connection between objections and anchors. All objections are anchors because they all attempt to reframe the conversation, but not all anchors or objections. You could have a situation where a customer might say something like, I find it interesting that you and your competitor tackling pricing so differently. We may see that or interpret that as an objection, but they
just might be saying it a statement. It may not need anything significant at all whatsoever, So it could come in the form of a statement that's not truly an objection. The trick really to dealing with anchors or objections is a really simple one. Don't get emotional, don't get defensive, don't try to overcome it, because the reality is if you don't know what you're tackling, you may then handle it incorrectly and put yourself at risk in terms of the opportunity. And when I say risk, it could be
risk to damage the relationship. It could be the risk of losing that customer. So use a customer's anchor or objection as an opportunity to better understand your customer.
Yeah, that's great, that's great frame of reference there. And I know there's a three step process that you have that we teach reps to use whenever they hear an objection, so I want to talk through that. I think for those of you listening, this is a great way to approach these objections in a methodical way and give yourself the right mindset and use them to help you in the deal. So first is showing that you hear it right and not blowing by it, not ignoring it.
Yeah, absolutely, it should be obvious, but not always the easiest to execute on right. The first thing you want to do is listen really well. You want to demonstrate that you hear what your customer's saying and that you desire to better understand their business. So how do you show your listening. You might say something that displays some empathy and acknowledge your buyer's concern.
What does this do?
It allows your customer to feel more comfortable. It opens the door to have a more in depth discussion about what's important to them. It lays the foundation to build some trust, all those things that we are focused on if we're truly trying to build relationships with our customers. What we don't want to do here is overpower the discussion by talking over your customer and steering the conversation
away from them. You also want to avoid looking like you're ignoring them and trying to get past the issue. The reality is there's something underlying that anchor or objection. The only way to get a good outcome for both you and your customer is to understand what it is.
That's so true. And I think I was in a contract negotiation actually this week, and we were going back and forth on one specific point and we were holding tight to it was a number in the conversation, and then we just took a step back, and I was like, why is this important to you? Why can't you come up to where we are? And then they walked it through. They said, well, here's the things that I'm worried about if we put this hard number in this contract. I
was like, that makes total sense. Okay, let's figure out how we can come to agreement because I understood the why right, and getting defensive or getting annoyed or just ignoring that in the conversation would cause problems down the road. We were going for signatures, So let's figure out what it is and understand the why, and then I can explain the why too to our team when they see that in the contract. So you also talk about understanding
that why. So we're not blowing by the objection. We hear it, we're going to acknowledge it, and then we want to understand the why. I just sort of kind of ted you up for that, so expand on that a little bit antonella.
Yeah, that's exactly right. The why is what is happening very often beneath the surface that helps us better understand the situation. It's the motivation behind their statement. So the how in terms of understanding that why happens through really good discovery, asking good open ended questions, asking questions that help them and you get clarification. So let's go back to that example I shared at the very beginning. Or
maybe the customer's concerned about the complexity of implementation. If the goal is to get to the real root of the concern there, I might ask some questions like what previous experiences with implementation or influencing your concerns about this one, or what resources or support do you have available in house to handle the implementation, What does a smooth implementation
look like for you. There's obviously a lot more questions you can ask, but you can kind of get a sense that these types of questions, where's the customer to validate and question their own point of view, and it either helps clarify things for you, it helps clarify things for them, and it potentially sets forth a good opportunity for us to reframe as well.
Yes, so that's the next step, right, reframing the objection? What do we do here? How do we reframe it?
So good news here, customers aren't the only ones that get to set anchors in these conversations. We get to do it as well, and we should as often as we can. So if we want to reframe the conversation, we can do it by using maybe a proof point you have that's valid and aligns well with the person that you're talking to, or it could be something that they shared in a previous conversation that focused on what's
important to them. It could sound something like we just finished working with acme Coorp, who had a highly complex system and limited internal resources, and we were able to successfully implement our solution in under three months. We provided and what's step by step guidance, We set up the rollouts so it would avoid disruption, and we offered hands on support to their team throughout the process. Not only was the transition smooth? They so great improvements in their efficiency.
Let's discuss how we can achieve similar outcomes for you. So I'm now refraining the conversation. I'm taking it away from the complexity and talking about how smooth and simple we've made it for others. So we're addressing what might be top of mind for them, but we're also now having a conversation around what we want to talk about in the context of still what's.
Important to the customer. Yeah, that's great, And you know, you can't talk about objections without talking about the price objection because it's probably the one we hear most often even throughout the sales process. So talk about how we would execute this like three step approach that we've gone through with that objection.
Yeah, so price objections do come up really often. But before I I walk you through like how am I tackle it? I do want to briefly discuss like what's really typically behind these price objections because the number one reason why they tend to come up is because the customer doesn't see value. They don't think your solution is going to deliver that ROI that they're looking for, and your only logical move if this is the case, is
to go back and try to re establish value. You do that through maybe some of the questions that you ask and keep that top of mind when you hear them come up, because you don't want to use these as a reason to go back to your manager and ask for concessions, right. You want to be able to handle these effectively on your own, because if you're giving price concessions every time you have a price objection, you're eating away at revenue for your organization, You're eating away
at margin for your objectives. There's a lot of downside to that. So let's say your customer says to you, Hey, you know, Rachel, your solution is very expensive. I just not seeing how we're going to move forward here. Obviously, you want to show that you're listening, so I may say something to the effect that, Rachel, I hear what you're saying. I know it's important to make sure that any investment that you make is justified and it's going to deliver the outcomes that you're looking for. So I'm
showing empathy. I'm proving that I'm actually paying attention to what you just said. Now, I want to understand your why Rachel, and I might ask a series of questions, and these are just some examples. Obviously they should have a good flow and they should follow one another. But I may ask questions like what aspects of the solution
are you not seeing value in? Or I may ask something like what outcomes have shifted since our last conversation, or what priorities should I be aware of that are not being met by our solution, or how are you measuring the ROI or savings from the solution over time? Things that help me understand and clarify where the customer really stands. But if you're my customer, Rachel, I want you to think about this more deeply, like am I
looking at this just from a price perspective? Or is there more to this that I don't even as a customer understand and I need to be thinking about. Once I get at better understanding of the why now, I want to reframe the conversation and I may say something to the effect of, hey, Rachel, you know we've talked a lot about how your goal is to increase revenues by fifteen percent this upcoming year. I put you in contact with one of the organizations that we're working with
and how we deliver those results for them. You've been able to understand it from their perspective. Let's revisit how we can deliver those outcomes for you. So now I'm taking the conversation from I think this is expensive. I want to reframe it around outcomes, because if I can get you thinking about outcomes versus price, I may be able to shift the focus for you on what's most important for your organization at the end of the day.
That's great, that's great a common objection that we hear, and thanks for giving us the context around that. I hope that this conversation for all of you listening, you're able to take some great little tidbits that will help you in your sales conversations this week. That's always our goal with the Audible Ready Sales podcast. Antonella, thank you for your perspective today.
Thanks so much, Rachel all right.
And thank you all for listening. Make it a great week.
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