Vision Sales Services specialise in designing, developing and delivering the very best in sales training. Our programme in Selling and Sales Techniques is one of the most effective, practical and engaging courses for developing sales people.

At Vision Sales Services we are passionate about improving peoples sales skills. We believe that the sales process is in fact quite simple and it’s this philosophy that makes us so successful for our clients.

Look at the following model to see how we break down the sales process.

The above is a model of the various stages in a sales presentation. It is important to remember that as a model it will not always apply to every situation and that some stages may not occur or may occur in a different order.

To demonstrate how effective the techniques we use are, consider the following scenario between a client and a salesperson attempting to get an appointment over the phone.

Sales Person: “Hello, my name’s David Kavanagh, I’m from Property Maintenance Ltd. We provide all aspects of preventative and reactive maintenance….”

Client: Butting in “Yeah it’s okay we have our own maintenance guy” (objection)

Sales Person: “Right okay” ignores objection “How many factories do you have” (asks open ended question)

Client: “Five” (Identified potential need).

Sales Person: “And does your guy cover all five”

Client: “Yes”

Sales Person: “What if there was a problem and your guy was fixing something else” (Attempts to build up need)

Client: “Well we’d sort something out”

The above could antagonise the client as they may feel they’re entering into a battle of wills. This all stemmed from the sales persons reaction to the clients objection of “we have our own maintenance guy”

A much more effective approach is to use a powerful technique we teach called Softening the Objection. This involves reflecting or paraphrasing some of the clients objection back to them and then asking them to confirm it.

Sales Person: “Hello, my name’s David Kavanagh, I’m from Property Maintenance Ltd. We provide all aspects of preventative and reactive maintenance….”

Client: Butting in “Yeah it’s okay we have our own maintenance guy” (objection)

Sales Person: “Right, so you have a directly employed guy who does all you’re repairs, is that right” (Soften the Objection)

Client: “Yes”

By softening the objection you’re doing three very powerful things

• Firstly you’ve acknowledged the clients objection.
  
• Secondly, by paraphrasing or reflecting back to the client what they’ve just said you’ve demonstrated that you’ve listened.
  
• Thirdly, when clients give an objection they know that the sales person is going to attempt to change their mind, so psychologically, they put up a barrier and prepare themselves to disagree with whatever the sales person will say next. By asking “is that right” and getting the client to say “yes” the sales person has subtly got the client to switch their attitude from one of defence and has helped create an environment of agreement rather than conflict. This is much more effective in a selling situation than the first example.

The sales person can now enter into a business conversation with the client that will be so much more constructive because they’ve taken the edge off the objection. Our course would then demonstrate how to move forward with this type of call to achieve greater results.

So from now on get you’re sales people to Soften the Objection

Examples

Client: “It’s too much money”
Sales Person: “Right, so you think the investment won’t be worth it, is that right”.

Client: “We don’t need that service/product”.
Sales Person: ” I see, so you feel you won’t benefit from this type of machine, is that right”.

Client: “We had something like that a few months ago and it didn’t work out”
Sales person: ”Okay, so recently you used a service like ours and you weren’t impressed, is that correct”.

For full details on our programme in Selling and Sales Techniques contact:

Damian Burcher, PO Box 11230, Solihull, B90 2WS
Tel: 0121 745 3999 or Email: visionsalesservices@btconnect.com

This article is the property of Vision Sales Services and may only be reproduced with the understanding that credit is given to Damian Burcher.