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Your first reaction to an unpleasant situation often makes things worse. By recognizing your emotions and learning to ask the right kind of questions, you can overcome even the most troubling objections from prospects and clients.
“I am not sure that the cost justifies your service. I’ve always managed my own money,” says the potential client sitting in front of you.
With a single statement like this, your congeniality can become defensiveness. Your ego and instincts push you to defend your fee and justify your worth by questioning the viability of your prospective client’s current investments and pouring out instance after instance when you’ve helped other clients save and make money. With each successive story, the client becomes less interested. You push on, hoping that your miraculous ability will finally make this doubter understand your worth.
Left with nothing more to say, you stop and the client says, “It all sounds interesting, but I am not sure it’s for me. I’ve always managed my own money I am happy to keep doing it.”
The two of you shake hands and the potential client becomes a lost opportunity before you have the chance to explain that you do more than just “manage money.” You are left to wonder about what just happened.
The potential client, you may decide, presented you with an objection that you could not overcome.
Yet, looking at the surface of this interaction won't give you the full story. A set of emotions within you – defensiveness, anger, maybe others – produced your outward reaction. Becoming aware of these emotions and working with them is the key to changing how you deal with future objections.
You must first realize that the emotional flood we experience in response to opposition is natural and unpreventable. Because we can't prevent those emotions, learning to channel them into clarity of intentions and calm authenticity is the best option. With clarity and a genuine approach you naturally cultivate trust and long term relationships while still accomplishing the ultimate goal – closing the deal.
Accepting objections as opportunities
When a client presents you with an objection, they are taking the first step in building more understanding and trust. This may be hard to see, since by objecting the prospect is setting themselves in opposition, perhaps even questioning the worth of what you offer. Resist the temptation to take this personally and look more precisely into what oppositions can be.
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Opposing energies confronting one another, after all, is a formula for creation. For example, good leaders hold onto two opposing viewpoints at the same time, and they weigh opposing sides in tension until a course of action emerges. Likewise, the miracle of flight requires the turbulent interaction of two opposing energies – drag and thrust occurring at the same time.
Opposing energies confronting each other respectfully shine light on unexposed ideas and commonalities ripe for collaboration. When meeting with clients, learn to recognize any opposing energy or objections and use them to advance your goal. When your client expresses an objection, it is a gift; they are giving you an opposing energy to with which to fashion a solution. React with acceptance, endure the turbulence of opposition and a mutually agreeable way forward will emerge – maybe one you never would have come to on your own.
