Overcoming objections: An exercise in futility?
Can there to more to it than that? I’ve personally found overcoming objections is one of the most useless, yet over rated skills a sales representative could ever learn. Here’s why… Objections are caused by a mis-communication prior to the objection being raised in the first place. The objection surfaced because your marketing wasn’t clear enough as to who would benefit the most from your product or service. Poor marketing is non specific about who your ideal target market is so you end up with more “suspects” instead of real prospects so you try to make up for it by being versed on handling objections. If your still bent on overcoming objections you are focusing your time, effort and other valuable resources in mastering the wrong skill. Instead of learning how to better handle objection by using better rebuttals from potential prospects why not invest your time on how to weed out the suspects earlier on in the sales cycle? For almost a decade in my network marketing career I went to every convention I could afford (and even some I couldn’t) looking for a way to make my prospects see how what I have the same why I do. I learned come backs to every objection a potential customer or business partner could possibly have.
When the prospect said no to trying my services that went like this: “Let me a ask you a question {insert name}, is it that you don’t want to help me out or is it that you really don’t want to save any money?” This was a catch 22 regardless of the answer based on the options I provided…pretty slick huh ;-) The bad news is that whole conversation was useless. By the time it gets to the point where you’re asking these types of questions the prospect obviously saw no value in your offer. I doesn’t even matter which way they decide to answer. Even when some people would get the service they looked for any reason to cancel. Trust me, I’ve heard the elaborate stories when I follow up to see why they canceled. But, You don't have to worry about overcoming objections; you don’t even have to get objections Here’s what you’ll find when you look just past the immediate problem of the actual objection… unclear, under defined and ineffective marketing processes.
If you answered NO to any of the above questions you are squandering resources when you focus on simply overcoming objections. The rascals with the objections are slipping past the filters in your marketing. Right now I know you are either shaking you head in disbelief or releasing a sigh of relief. You’ve probably been taught, like me, that rejection and objections are a natural part of the sales cycle and you need to embrace it as part of the process. Ever heard the saying, “Some will, some won’t so what… someone else is waiting”? Maybe you though you just really suck at salesmanship and that still may very well be true. I as aggressive as I am, I still sucked too. However, that no longer has to be your reality if you understand the basics and the true purpose of marketing. The purpose of your marketing is to “pre-sell” your prospects on why your products and/or services is a possible solution to their problem then point them to contact you (which shows a deeper level of desire) so they can experience the solutions by purchasing. To learn more about selling versus pre-selling and how it can help you eliminate overcoming objections from your network marketing sales cycle click here for a free ebook. To the top, What would you like to do next?
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Overcoming objections has been referred to as “one of the most essential things a field rep can learn”. The idea behind this quote is that the customer is really saying, "I am not sold with the facts and information you have thus far presented. Could you please give me more information, so that I might make a positive decision?"
I even taught the same lame, clichéd, largely ineffective used car salesmen scripts to my team week in and out. I actually thought some rebuttals were really witty and sassy. For example, one of my favorite overcoming objections was for customer acquisition. 
Do you have a well defined target market? Have you identified a “hungry” niche within that market? Do you clearly convey the benefits and advantages of this audience doing business with you? Are you properly qualifying your leads to identify their true needs, wants, desires and level of motivation before you offer your solution(s)?
