Concerns, challenging questions, and objections can stall our sale…whether we’re live and in person or connecting through a phone or video conversation.
In this episode of Virtual Selling, Concrete Results, I’ll share practical and actionable strategies for you to stop the stall and move forward with a willing buyer.
Let’s set the stage.
Objections Are an Opportunity
Any challenging question, concern, or objection can be an opportunity to work and collaborate further with your buyer. Ditch the “handling and overcoming” objections approach and focus on the fact that most challenging questions, concerns, or objections are simply an education opportunity.
They are an opportunity for you to learn more about the buyer – and thus their concern or objection, etc. – or they’re an opportunity for you to educate your buyer further on the value you provide and why you should work together.
What can you do to set yourself up for success when you hear a challenging question, concern, or objection? Focus on strengthening your mindset and skillset!
Check Your Mindset
Your mindset and beliefs are prevailing underlying factors for whether most concerns, objections, and challenging questions will be worked through or lead to a stall or impasse.
Here are several beliefs that will stall your ability to work through the objection
Belief that…
- You can’t get a buying decision if you aren’t sitting in front of or in the same room as your buyers
- Trust can’t be established virtually
- Pricing discussions are best done face-to-face
Challenge Unproductive Beliefs
If you have any of these beliefs, they will stop you from approaching objections with a winning mindset. Work on changing those beliefs.
Many services and products are sold from start to end in a virtual environment.
While you may prefer being face-to-face, it doesn’t have to be a factor in your sales conversations for someone to build rapport and trust and be willing to work with you.
And pricing discussions can sometimes be easier when virtual rather than live.
But what’s most important is to believe that stated objections or concerns are a good sign that the person wants you to work through these obstacles with them.
After checking your mindset about virtual objections…
Level Up Your Skillset
Now consider the skillset you need for success.
When you hear an objection, simply use an early life lesson and
- Stop
- Drop
- Roll with 3 A’s: Acknowledge, Ask and Answer
- Acknowledge – with empathy
- Ask – open-ended questions to find the root cause
- Answer – with relevant information
This skillful approach slows down the conversation and gets both you and your buyer on the path for the information exchange that needs to follow.
What Virtual Nuances Come Into Play?
What’s different virtually? For one, you can’t see what’s going on out of screen view or hear outside the listening area.
This includes their body language, what they are doing with their hands, like writing a note, and sometimes we don’t hear the same tone or inflections if the audio isn’t top notch on both ends.
Adjustments You Need to Make for Virtual Selling
The adjustments YOU should make when having virtual conversations are to be more audible! To make sure you give multiple opportunities for them to respond to questions such as:
- What questions do you have?
- From what we discussed, what causes you pause? Or
- What concerns you about this?
Collaborative Selling Is about Trust
I know some gurus say never plant negative seed, but why not? In collaborative selling, you are on the journey together and giving permission for them to voice an opinion, concern, challenging question, or outright objection earns you trust and the opportunity to hear what they are really thinking and feeling.
So, if you want a green light to get through the objections crossing – make sure you have the right mindset to work through the objection, which will allow you to confidently give permission for the buyer to share any concern or objection.
Then use the collaborative approach: Stop, Drop, and Roll by
- Acknowledging what they’ve said,
- Asking for more information to get to the root cause, and then
- Answering with appropriate information.
It really can be that easy to virtually stop the stall. For more information about Stop, Drop, and Roll please review this video replay of a past training workshop I did on the topic.
I will see you in the next episode of Virtual Selling, Concrete Results as we talk about closing the sale in a virtual environment!
