How to destroy the objections of customers and make them buy from you?

What an awesome question. This is what I live for, and I love your energetic way of asking. 🙂

Per my experience in sales, I have found that there are five universal, common objections by customers to buying from you (or doing whatever you’re asking). I won’t say I destroy those objections, because it kind of implies I let them form first and then bust them down. What I recommend is more like nipping them in the bud. Let the customer start to bring them in, but circumvent and deflate them quickly and subtly, so it doesn’t seem like you are arguing. It’s a delicate act where you basically prove someone wrong while also agreeing with them. I honestly find it really fun, but that’s just me!

Anyway, after handling those objections, you’re much more likely to get a sale soon after. Let’s quickly cover each of these objections.

Objection 1: No Time/Too Busy

Objection 2: Seen it already

Objection 3: Not Interested

Objection 4: Yeah Right, this is a scam

Objection 5: I need time to think it over (Kind of overlaps with “It costs too much”)

I am sure you’ve come across each of these at different times, and maybe certain ones are more common in your industry. I have discussed the detailed solutions to these objections in my post: 5 Deep-Seated Customer Doubts That Kill Your Sales (And How to Erase Them). 

But put simply, the best way to defeat an objection is to accept it, but also show that it doesn’t matter. This is much more effective than trying to prove it wrong outright. You have to try and get to the heart of where that objection is coming from, in their case. Often, that simple act of showing that you care and understand their objection will dissolve it, right then and there.

As an example, one time I worked in a vitamin store. One customer that day was an older woman looking to buy a chronic joint pain supplement for her husband:

Customer: “I heard from my husband that this stuff doesn’t work. He looked it up online, he said.”

Me: “Well, we do hear stuff like that sometimes. Usually, it’s from people who had an especially serious inflammation problem, that they thought was chronic joint pain, but actually more serious and temporary. So even though it didn’t work, per say, they didn’t have the problem it’s meant to cure, to begin with. Do you think he might have been looking up a review from someone in that situation?”

(Now I’ve just introduced doubt in her husband’s authority on the subject because he could have just looked up a review by someone who was totally mistaken about the product’s uses. I have no way of knowing that! But it’s possible, and I know that people love to hear counterpoints to arguments that they lost earlier, which is what it sounded like from talking to her.)

Customer: “Oh, I’m don’t know (exasperated). I just know that if I bring this into the house, he’s gonna whine about how I got scammed, that it won’t work, and I’m a fool who worries too much.”

Me: “We men do get sensitive if our women appear concerned about us, sometimes. It might make us look too fragile.”

Customer: “Maybe, I wouldn’t know. I just don’t want to get the ‘I told you so.’ speech.”

Me: “I see. That must be difficult when you only want to help him.”

Customer: “It is.”

(She’s run out of stuff to say. This is basically my invitation to finally destroy, as you put it, the objection that this might not work, that it’s a scam.)

Me: “Well, the way it sounds to me, if you do get proved right, he’ll have to eat crow and admit he was too hasty and pessimistic when you were just trying to help. And on the off-chance that it really doesn’t work for him, well, that would be terrible, but it was still you trying your best to help him. I promise that if you say that, he’ll sit and calm down.”

Customer: “(Smiles cruelly) I really would like to see his face when something I bought finally works.”

Notice how in this process, I don’t use the traditional salesman replies that people might be taught to use, that there’s a money-back guarantee or the complicated details on why this stuff works for chronic joint pain. That’s all for later, at the counter, if she asks. Most people don’t. A guarantee and a bunch of science jargon don’t resolve her fears about being wrong and her husband looking down on her. But what I said does, and that’s why I got the sale.

In addition to considering the five objections, I would recommend you read topics on customer psychology. Even if it’s stuff you already know, refreshing it in your mind helps you access it at the moment more often. As a salesperson, one faces different customers with varied behaviors, but we’re all still human beings, and we’re quite a well-studied topic.

In conclusion, I handle customer objections by dealing in a patient manner. You should give value to the customer, and understand their concerns while making it apparent that you understand. Of course, my post will be of great help for some more concrete detail. But these tips should help customers run out of excuses to buy from you.

Please feel free to reply to me for more clarification.

Good Luck!

Thanks,

Cleo