How to Leverage Objections in Your Agency
Objections are everywhere. But few people are paying attention to them.
They hear them as a challenge they need to overcome. When in reality, an objection is an opportunity.
It’s a piece of information that tells you about your prospect and your offer. What do they care about? What are you not providing that they need?
There are so many benefits that come from understanding objections. But it’s a skill that has to be developed.
To learn how to leverage objections in your agency, you need to understand two things:
1. Every Question is an Objection
When someone asks a question, you have two options. You can take it at face value, or you can consider why they’re asking it.
Most people take the question for what it is. But this doesn’t lead to anything beneficial.
For example, let’s say you’re running a project for a client. If they ask, “How we looking on timeline?” They’re not asking because they want to know where the project is lined up; they want to know if the project willl launch as planned.
They have some worry or doubt that you’re falling off track and won’t be able to deliver as promised.
At face-value, you could say, “The project is one-day behind, but that’s not troublesome yet.”
Or you could, “We’re one-day behind on the project, but these are things we’re doing to ensure we can still launch on time.”
The latter puts them at ease.
When in a sales conversation, we need to think the same way.
The prospect is collecting information during the sales cycle, but if you can address WHY they need certain information, you can build trust and close the deal faster.
If they ask questions about the price, it’s because they’re worried they won’t see the return.
If they ask questions about the timeline, it’s because they have deadlines they’re trying to meet, whether self-induced, to hit calendar events, or because of their burn rate.
There are plenty of reasons, but you need to be curious and ask follow ups to get after the WHY.
To do that, you have to understand that every question is an objection.
2. Every Objection is an Opportunity
Next, you need to treat all all of those objections like blessings.
Every objection that comes across is a chance to tighten your offer and build trust.
Take the project timeline example from before. That’s a prime opportunity to build confidence in your client that you’re on top of everything. It helps them trust you more.
Additionally, it’s an opportunity for you to figure out how to add visibility to the project. What if the client didn’t need to ask for a timeline update because you’d already provided them the information and build the confidence ahead of them asking?
This is what we want to do with our offers.
When someone brings up a objection on a sales call, we need to document it.
When something comes up more than once, it’s a great opportunity to address it on your website, in your content, or with sales collateral ahead of the call.
For instance, if everyone asks how often you’ll meet with their team, that should become a bullet in the features section of your offer. Now they have the information ahead of the call and don’t need to spend the time asking.
This is how you shorten your sales cycle and get more qualified calls.
If you need to add an FAQ to your site, this is where you can provide these questions. Be warned though, most FAQs aren’t actually frequently asked questions, they’re questions the company wants you to ask. People see through that.
Just a personal belief, but if there are questions people frequently ask, you should probably address it in multiple places on your site to ensure they see it. Don’t save it for an FAQ section tucked away at the bottom of a page.
What to do with Objections?
I started ranting into some of this in the previous section, but now that you have a documented list of objections because you’re paying attention for them, you need to action them.
Prioritize your objection list by frequency and impact. You want to identify which come up the most often, but also which can influence a sale the most.
Then, create an addition to your offer that addresses that same objection.
This article gets into the difference between active and passive additions. It’s important to understand how both can influence your offer and bottom line.
For example, if a requirement for clients to work with you is that they have Google Analytics set up, some might have issues because it was never set up right.
You could offer a guide on how to set it up (passive) or do it for them (active). The latter will feel more valuable, but also requires more cost.
Right now, though, you’re just trying to find a fix for every objection worth solving in the sales process.
When you can do this, you’ll not only shorten your sales cycle, but your offer will convert significantly better because people will know it’s for them faster. You’ll have pre-addressed objections before they bring them up, making it appear as if you’ve thought of everything.
Embrace Objections
Take every opportunity you can to find the objections your audience has. Talk to customers. Talk to prospects. Talk to potential prospects.
Once you’ve identified the objections, remember, there’s an underlying reason why they’re asking. Find that and provide a solution for it. That’s guaranteed to help your offer.
If you want to talk through this strategy live, let’s jump on a call.