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Disarm sales resistance early

By Tim Connor
Connor Research Group

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How many prospects do you have in your funnel now who are stalling?

How many excuses for not buying have you accepted during the past thirty days?

How often do you think your prospects lie to you about why they are not really buying?

There are many other questions I could ask you but I would rather focus on the solution than the problem although they are closely related.

How frequently do you hear things like:

- The price is too high.
- We need to think this proposal over.
- We are happy with our current supplier
- It is too much trouble to change this at this time.
- We have been doing business with the same company for years.
- We are too busy now to discuss this.

This list is endless.

Sales resistance is a function of a variety of causes in the sales process. Some of them are:

- Poor prospect qualification.
- Poor timing.
- Hidden agendas on the part of the prospect.
- Lack of trust.
- Lack of respect.
- Lack of understanding by the prospect in some aspect of your sales
message.
- Lack of acceptance of your sales message.

When a prospect gives you sales objections or sales resistance, one of the above issues is most likely the case. However, he or she might not tell you their real reason. There is, what I call in the sales process, a truth line. Prospects often tell you what is above the line, hiding the real truth below the line. For example: The prospect says, "The price is too high." What else could they really be saying? What is below the truth line? "I don't have the money or credit." "You haven't convinced me it is worth the price you are asking." (perceived value). "I don't have the authority to make a decision , but I don't want to admit that."

There is more to sales resistance than meets the eye. One technique I have used, when I get sales resistance, is to ask the prospect a question when I get any type of objection. "In addition to that, is there anything else that would get in the way of our doing business together now?" The rationale for this question is: I am accepting their objection as real for them. I am not challenging it. But, I am asking - what else is there that might be getting in the way? If there is nothing else, they will either admit that there isn't, or make one up. In either case, I am further below the truth line. If the prospect admits there isn't, I am now closer to closing the sale - presuming I can effectively deal with this issue.

The key to disarming sales resistance is to identify early in the sales process what the potential areas of concern are for the prospect and then weaving your answers into the sales process as you move forward.

You can effectively answer sales objections all day long and still not close the sale if you are not dealing with the real issues.

Revised: 07/19/2005 - Article Viewed 826 Times

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Biography

Speaker/Author/Trainer/Consultant & Personal Coach, Tim Connor is the president of Connor Resource Group in Davidson, NC.

He has been a full time professional speaker and trainer since 1973, and he has given over 4500 presentations in twenty countries, to a wide variety of sales, management and executive audiences. Each year over 85% of his presentations are return engagements for the same clients on such topics as basic and advanced management, customer focused sales, peak performance motivation, real-world customer service and building and maintaining positive relationships. He is also a results oriented consultant and coach to many managers, executives and business owners nationwide.

He is one of only 400 Certified Speaking Professionals in the country, a designation given by the National Speakers Association since 1974 and he is the founder of Master Speakers Int'l, an elite group of eleven experienced veteran international speakers. He is the author of 39 books including the international best sellers, Soft Sell, That's Life, Relationship Ruts, and How to Avoid Them, The Last Goodbye and The Ancient Scrolls. His presentations are lively, full of practical content, thought- provoking and entertaining.

Contact Information

Tim Connor
Connor Research Group
704-895-1230
tim@timconnor.com

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