From the course: Advanced Business Development: Communication and Negotiation

Anticipate objections

From the course: Advanced Business Development: Communication and Negotiation

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Anticipate objections

- It's perfectly natural for a client to voice some objections and to push back. Some will be minor, others will be more significant. To keep yourself from being derailed by objections, you need to be ready for them in advance. As an experienced Biz Dev rep, you should probably know the most common objections and have developed some thoughtful and informative ways to respond. Now, there's a subtlety to this. You don't want to seem defensive will anticipating obstacles. You want to be relaxed and prepared. Some of the most common objections will probably revolve around your competition. So here's an exercise to help you prepare for those potential objections. Imagine you're the most skilled salesperson ever with the best product knowledge, and you work for the competition. How would you sell against the company you work for right now? What holes would you poke in your product or your business. Once you've identified your weaknesses, there are two ways to address them. The first is advance framing. This is when you help form the buyer's selection criteria to minimize the competitor's advantages. For example, if you know your competitor touts their implementation team, then early in the conversations you have with your buyer, you might say something like, "Our clients find our automated tools "are extremely helpful because it allows them "to own their own implementation "rather than having to bring in people from the outside." They get better internal buy-in that way. You want your buyer to place a higher priority on the tools you offer than the team the competition offers. Of course, this only works if you have something that's actually valuable. The right framing can help you preempt obstacles, yet they can still come up. Which brings us to the second way you can address your competitors, and that's through questions. Now there's no quick fix here, but there are some best practices. Before you try to answer an objection, breathe and ask the client for some clarification. When you answer right away with, "Oh no, that's not a problem," or "That's wrong, let me explain to you "why your point doesn't matter," you seem kind of defensive. Instead, ask questions. I always try to make myself smile when I'm doing this. Say something like, "Oh, can you tell me a little bit more about that?" It keeps the conversation relaxed. Then, once you understand what the client means, you can provide a counterpoint or data or a story to help turn their thinking a little bit. Objections are not fatal if you handle them correctly. Anticipate in advance what they might be, and when they do arise, ask questions to clarify. Remember, the more you get rattled, the more rattled your customer will be.

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