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Are You Creating Objections?

By: Larry Sugarman

1/1/2009

Traditional benefit statements might be in the way of a sale

Are You Creating Objections?Questioning. Listening. Handling objections. Every salesperson, even a beginner, knows that these are the Three Basic Sales Skills that must be mastered in order to be successful in your job. In fact, every sales-training class I ever attended or taught had, at its core, the continued development of these skills.

Here's a question: Which of these skills becomes essentially unnecessary if the other two are exercised consistently and correctly? Need a clue? It's the only one stated in two words.

It's surprising how many capable sales professionals still think of these skills in isolation. First, we question. Then, we listen. Finally, we handle objections. What we don't consider is that, if we effectively execute the skills of questioning and listening, we can stop creating objections.

By not fully questioning and listening, we hand our customers their objections on a silver platter

You read that right: Stop creating objections! That's a strange concept, isn't it? Why would any salesperson in his or her right mind create objections? By not fully understanding what it means to ask questions and to listen, that is exactly what we end up doing-- we, in effect, hand our customers their objections on a silver platter.

I learned about the idea of creating objections from Dr. Neil Rackam, a behavioral psychologist who did some groundbreaking research on the interactions between buyers and sellers that became the basis for his best-selling book, SPIN Selling (McGraw-Hill). I was involved with Rackam's research during my tenure with Xerox Computer Services, and I want to share with you a little of what I learned (you can learn more about his research and analysis through his book, which is available at any online bookstore).

Features Vs. Benefits

The problem begins, Rackam notes, when sales reps start talking about their product. Every good salesperson knows that you don't talk about a product's features ("these markers have caps that are the same color as the ink"), because we were taught that a litany of product attributes has minimal impact on the prospective buyer.

So a good salesperson talks about product benefits. ("These markers have caps that are the same color as the ink so that you can quickly and easily select the color you want to use.") Early sales training drilled into us the benefits approach to selling a product.

Rackam observed that the construction of the traditional benefits statement ("because of this... you can...") in fact, creates objections for the prospect. How? Traditional benefit statements make assumptions about what your prospect values. They assume that what you think is beneficial ("you can select the color you want"), your customer would also surely see as a good thing. And it's that assumption that opens a wide door for objections. ("I only use one color.")