Do Business Well

There are four main steps to handling objections:

Step 1 When you receive an objection, listen carefully and sincerely to what is being said. Show a genuine interest in what is being said. Maintain eye contact. Don’t interrupt. It is much better that the prospect verbalises the objection completely than to stifle it. If a customer says: ‘I’d like to think it over’ and you don’t probe, you’ve lost a customer. Ask: ‘Mrs Smith, you wouldn’t want to think it over unless you had something that is bothering you. What seems to be the problem?’ Merely sharing the anxiety that leads to the raising of the objection helps lessen it.

Step 2 Make sure you fully understand the objection by repeating it back to the prospect in question form: ‘May I just check this? You feel because our company is new on the market it might be preferable to join a more established company?’

Step 3 Show that you understand the concern: ‘I understand how you feel, Mr Nkosi’ or ‘From your standpoint, Mrs Gansamy, I would probably feel the same way’ Then give additional information: ‘I have a letter here from Mrs Brits. She felt the same way but, after a thorough investigation of the quality of our training tapes, the product brochures, the quality of our products, the rapid growth of the company and its commitment to its distributors, she joined. She’s never looked back. Why not give her a call?’

Step 4 Answer the objection. Unless you remove the objection, give a positive response and allay fears, you will not get a sale.

These steps are only suggestions. There are no hard and fast rules as to what you should do. Sometimes an objection is so minor that you can say, ‘Can I come back to that in a moment?’ and proceed to tell the customer about the

product under discussion. Often the objection gets lost that way, but if it is a serious objection, don’t try to shunt it away. It won’t go away and the customer wants and should get an answer.

You will, on occasion, get someone who initially seems interested and comes to a presentation meeting and then objects to everything! If you think the objection is real and that the individual won’t change, don’t waste your time; move on. Just ask yourself why the individual came in the first place. Maybe he or she is really interested. But, the truth be told, you want people in your network who look for opportunities, not people who look for problems.

The following comments may be of value:

1. The best way to overcome an objection is to prevent it

Prevention is better than cure. Let’s suppose you anticipate the objection that most people in network marketing do not end up as millionaires. Respond to this objection with the following: ‘Many people think that network marketing is a get-rich scheme. It is not. It’s a business — a very good business — but you get out of it what you put in. Yes, there are millionaires in this business, but many housewives are quite content to make a couple of hundred rand per month and to leave it at that.’

2. Don’t invite objections by rushing the sale

Frequently, sales are lost because the sales person closes before the customer’s interest has been properly aroused. As a result, the customer feels you are more interested in the sale than her problem, and there is increasing resistance.

3. Probe whether the objection is real or hidden

A good way to do this is to ask a question: ‘You say our price is too high. Tell me, Ms Jones, if I can show you that you are getting outstanding value for money, would you be interested?’ And the truth must come out. The customer is either interested or not. If she is, you must show that your product is value for money.

4. Be assertive if necessary

If the prospect says: ‘Network marketing doesn’t really work’, reply: ‘You say network marketing doesn’t work? Network marketing is a $40- billion plus industry in the United States. Numerous major companies such as Avon, Amway, Colgate-Palmolive and Gillette use network marketing. A.L. Williams was the world leader in writing up individual life insurance cover at the time they were taken over by Primerica. The fact is that it does work and has improved the quality of life of millions of people.’

5. Turn negatives into positives

Suppose a prospect says that her friends wouldn’t be interested because of scams such as Kubus. Turn this fear around: ‘Ms Jones, you feel that networking won’t work because of its poor public image. I understand your viewpoint. What the Kubus scam illustrated was the tremendous power of word-of- mouth association. Now harness that power in a marketing system that is completely legal and you have a winner. There are dozens of reliable, well-established companies like ours operating. We all use network marketing.’ In this way you can turn the idea of illegal scams and losses into legal schemes and profit.

6. Call in the expert

If things really get bogged down and you are making a presentation with your sponsor, turn to her for help. It’s the old idea that two heads are better than one. Let the sponsor handle it. Her personality and approach is different to yours and perhaps she can salvage the situation.

It will pay you to work out standard answers for common objections. Then, like a boxer throwing a counterpunch, you can answer any objection immediately and not be ‘floored’.

More about: Handling Networking Objections

• Sales Principles #3—The Objection, A Salesman's Best Friend
• Use Networking objections to develop your network
• The Art of Handling Dissent
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• Networked organizations: the importance of business partnerships Part 1
• Choose your team carefully, turn your team members on and keep them happy by taking great care of them.
• Dealing with the Dissenter
• Get Your Business off to a Quick Start (Week four)
• How to contact prospects
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