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Management & Sales Training Newsletter
“Pre-emptive Strike”
Why might bringing the objection up first be the best way to handle an objection? There are three reasons:
1) Do you have more control over a situation if you’re proactive rather than reactive? Yes.
2) Do you have more credibility if you’re showing your prospects concerns that others have? Yes.
3) Once your prospect says the objection they own it, don’t they? And once they own it, what do they do with it? They protect, justify and defend it. They don’t want to lose face. They don’t want to look like their wrong. They would often times rather lose money than look like they’re wrong…you’ve seen people do it, haven’t you?
Now, don’t attempt to bring up every objection that may be out there in the entire universe. Sometimes you may bring up concerns that the prospect hasn’t even considered. So, how do you know what objections to bring up? 80% of objections you’ll hear are just one of only six. You don’t hear a new objection everyday, do you? Use good interviewing, qualifying and questioning techniques so that you’ll be able to uncover what objections are likely there.
Let’s take a look at an example of handling the objection before it comes up. We’ll call it the pre-emptive strike. Just as in war or in chess, often times the best strategy is to think ahead to your opponent’s move and to counteract their move before it’s made. Let’s say that you realize through good questioning that your prospect has been with your competitor for years and this will probably be an objection. Ever heard the prospect say something like, “Hey, I’ve been with them for fifteen years and I’m not changing!” Well, you could wait until they told you that and fight with them or you could bring it up first. Which is better? Bringing it up first!
It might go something like this, “Mr. or Mrs. Prospect did you realize that many of my clients had long-term existing relationships with our competition? Would you like to know the reasons why dozens of my clients have chosen to work with me although they had a long-standing relationship with our competition?” By using this tool you’re now taking control and creating credibility for yourself.
Another way you can use the pre-emptive strike is to combine it with a multiple choice technique. What’s the advantage? It makes it easy for your prospect to talk about their concerns and it allows you to find out what issues may be there.
For instance if you’re in real estate, you might start your sales conversation by saying, “Sometimes when I talk to people about what I do – and it may not be the case here – they tell me one or more of the following:
1. They see all realtors as being the same
2. They don’t really know how to select the best agent to list their home
3. They had a bad experience the last time they tried working with a realtor
Which, if any of these, is a concern for you?”
Once they give you the objection, you can probe on it by saying, “Really. I’m surprised at your answer. Why did you pick that one?”
