Sales: Killing the Giant While He is Still 3 Feet Tall
The salesperson who makes excuses might say:
“They said our price were too high.”
“It was too far for them to drive.”
“They wanted it in blue.”
“They said the competition had a better product.”
Every salesperson has an excuse for why they don’t make the sale. It is only the professional salesperson who will, after the call, evaluate what took place and decide what he could have done better to have made the sale.
So the next time you get one of the objections above or another, realize that oftentimes it is your fault that it came up in the first place.
Let me ask you this – If you had to fight a nine foot tall 230 pound giant with 15% body fat would you rather do it when he was three feet tall and growing or when he was nine feet tall and indestructible? When you allow a prospect to verbalize an objection such as, “Your price is too high” all of the sudden the giant (or objection) has gone from being three feet tall and only a thought in the prospect’s mind, to being verbalized and a real nine-foot tall giant!
When a prospect verbalizes an objection, it becomes real to them and much harder to overcome. Therefore, the best way to handle the objections is before they are verbalized or put another way – when they are three feet tall. Sit down and list all of your common objections and then weave the answers to these objections into your sales presentations before the customer has a chance to say them out loud.
For example, I often promote my seminars by speaking in the Dallas area at sales meetings for different companies. When I first got started at this – years ago – I would often hear the objection at the end, “Let me know when you have one a little closer to me. This is too far to drive.” Wham! Just like that the door was closed. Nothing I could say at that point would make the sale because they were allowed to say the objection and make it real.
So since I knew this was an objection that I was going to get at offices far away from my event – I would weave into my presentation before they could bring it up, “You know, you are fortunate to be as close to this seminar as you are – we have people driving as far as 100 miles just to be here!” Bam! Just like that you have eliminated the distance objection. You killed the giant when he was three feet tall.
It will be much harder for the prospect to verbalize this objection now that you have already addressed it. What are your common objections? Price? Distance? Color? Figure out which objections you seem to be getting over and over and figure out a way to weave the answer into your presentation before they can become real to the prospect. If it is price you might say, “The quality of this product is actually going to save you money. Because of the high quality, it will last you years longer than a cheaper model that you will have to replace often.”
If you know the life expectancy of your product you might figure it out (down to the penny) how much this product will save your customer over its lifetime because it lasts so long. Regardless of what your common objections are – it is your responsibility to kill the giant when he is three feet tall. When he has been verbalized and grown to a nine-foot tall giant, your life is going to be much harder. Get a pen and paper and start listing the objections you heard this week, and let’s get started killing some three-feet tall giants!
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