Why should you read Objections by Jeb Blount
Objections are a part of everyday life, while the term objections refers to prospects saying no during the sales process.
We are all involved in sales in one way or another, objections offers practical advice for overcoming the pit falls of being sales man with out having to be pushy or manipulative.
For me sales is about optimizing the experience, and product so much that the prospect buys with no resistance what so ever.
However there will always be a million reasons for objections,
Selling people on the idea deal that someone like me for example is educated, and wants to sell you a product based off of my knowledge and expertise opens up a rabbit hole all on to itself.
For example, peoples prejudices, are not objections, nor are their racial preferences, nor is gender or age. If you run into these kinds of people run like the plaque if you sell them anything you will regret it, no matter how good the product is they will find reasons to object.
During the 2016 election I worked in a affluent gym, and my clientele is always diverse, but a certain portion of my clientele wanted to cancel their training or train at specific times, because of their political beliefs, and they didn’t want to be seen taking instruction from someone like me.
This is verbatim what I was told, keep in mind at this time this group was riding on cloud 9. Its not my job to cater to these people, so I let them go.
I bring this up simply to say if you mistake objections, as the management of gym I was working for did, as overt or subtly prejudice, you will lose every time.
Know who you demographic is
I have a diverse clientele that I train, so on the surface, it appears that they are all vastly different, but they fall into one major category,
They want to change and they want that change to be optimized as much as possible. I specifically deal with the outliers, understanding duality, allows me to train my clients to their full potential.
So in terms of overcoming objections this is my demographic, everyone else I don’t even bother with prospecting to . You must apologetically have a niche market, and core audience.
Indecision
Most people even after they’ve received a world class presentation of what it is you have to offer will still be skeptical. It’s human nature, imagine what its like being a trainer, I inherently have to go in and root out by root and stem the misinformation people have about working out.
I have to explain that your metabolism,. and hormones are different as you age. So clingy to old workout programs you did in high school won’t serve you now. Or, for bodybuilders, sometimes less is more, or sometimes you’re not doing enough.
Everyone want to be right and arguing only makes people stick to their guns.
Disruption
Everyone says no for the same reasons across every industry:
I don’t have the time
I can do it myself or know someone who can do it for me
I don’t have the money
etc
I don’t have the time / I don’t have the money objection
All of the above, is fine, when people say they don’t have time don’t argue with them. When can disrupt their pattern of thinking. My response is :
“No one has time, but there is something you’re doing which we don’t have to talk about, that if you stopped doing you would have time.”
Ultimately most people feel Netflix, is a better use of their time, or drinking at the bar is a better use of their time. Or rushing home to stay up for another 6 hours and literally do nothing is a better use of their time,.
And I can’t Change that, and I don’t want to, Mindfulness, Health and Wealth, can only be achieved by prioritizing your goals and what matters.
I can do it myself
Athletes don’t train themselves, in fact most athletes sitting on the bench or the ones, who can’t be bothered to train or show up to practice on time, they are happy being mediocre, and having to worry about getting picked up by a new team each season.
Top athletes have trainers, yo can google Tim Grover or Gunnar Peterson, and see that top athletes, are willing to humble themselves, in order to elevate their game to the next level.
We all have friends that we can come to the gym with and train with, but when they flake, you won’t go to the gym and workout.
You will stay at home, or when they want to go out to shop, you will do the same.
Or when they want to talk during the workout and only do cardio, or work their favorite muscle groups and ignore your goals, only you will suffer.
At the end of the day if you can do it yourself, and you haven’t done so or used the resources, you say you have, then we need to determine what the true issue is.
Etc
Disruption is a double edge sword you don’t want to argue, but you do want to acknowledge, the common pitfall of what they would normally do .
And present you way, as it might not be the best route for you and you may have it figured out, but if I can be honest with you…
Again I am not a fan of overcoming objections, I will let what others consider an easy sale walk away before we have a verbal back and fourth.
Red herring’s
The read herring is something that causes you to lose focus, or an objection you didn’t prepare for, inherently most objections are the same or boil down into on of the ones mentioned earlier.
Two things you can do to limit red herring’s
Ask them to rephrase their statement, sometimes people will confidently say something, and if you ask them to rephrase it, because you’re not sure what they mean, they will dismiss the objection themselves or tell you their true objection.
Talk with others in your industry or google common objections, or outrageous objects, and write out or think about possible solutions and answers to those objections.
Something else to consider
The human brain fears change, and new things, maybe you have to present your topic or idea in a way that doesn’t threaten what they believe to be true.
Outside of that, people can measure what they will lose and not what they will gain, so you have to make benefits clear to them.
For example I speak in terms of abundance, I believe that :
You may lose friends, because your are on a healthy path, but you can regain them later down the line, if they are your true friends.
You will have to modify your eating, but moderation is key and what you will be able to eat, will be new and exciting and worth the swap.
Always let them know that you are only here to add value to their lives, nothing more and nothing less.
Miro commitments and motivational interviewing
While you are talking with your prospect about anything ask open end questions, to better understand what benefits that hope to get.
Ask close ended questions to see if you are on the same page, and tun answers from open ended questions, in to close questions, that they can answer.
What this means is when asked an open ended question, like:
open end question “What kinds of results are you looking forward to seeing?”
Lets say they say, they want to lose 10 lbs.
Close end question “Could you see yourself working with a trainer to accomplish this goal?
The purpose of this is to let them clarify not only to you but themselves as well what they want to do.
Most of the time people will voluntarily sit down and let you prospect to them even though they don’t have a clear vision of what they want.
We as humans are wired like that, and they only time we question their logic, is when we are the ones doing the prospecting, even though many of us are guilty of doing the same.
Final summary of Objections
The best thing you can do to become a better sales man is to read books on the subject, Objections by Jeb Blount is an good start.
He is the master of having conversational pitches, versus the typical hit the hammer with the nail style of pitching most of us do.
And what I mean by that is you see everyone as a nail and yourself as a hammer, and precede to hammer away.
You have to be willing to understand, your client and appeal to their senses.
Below is a list of other books I have read and review by Jeb Blount.
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