How to Overcome Sales Objections Without the Icky Feeling: 5 Tips That Work

"It's too expensive." "I don't have time." "It seems too complicated." If you've heard these before, this episode is for you.

Nicky gets tactical with her top five tips for overcoming sales objections without that icky, pushy feeling. She covers why every objection is simply a belief, the "defend or defeat" response most of us fall into, how to spot the objection patterns in your industry, the questions to ask early in discovery so objections surface before you present, and the LAER framework (Listen, Acknowledge, Explore, Respond) that keeps the conversation human.

Perfect for business owners, sales leaders and sales teams who want objection conversations to feel like genuine curiosity, not conflict.

Got an objection you'd love to workshop? Send Nicky a message or voice note on LinkedIn or email hello@nickymiklos.com

Take the free Smart Business Growth Audit at nickymiklos.com

Buzzsprout tags: sales objections, overcoming objections, sales training, sales techniques, sales coaching, business growth, sales leadership, discovery calls, sales conversations, LAER framework

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Music by Jules Miklos-Woodley

Transcript

Nicky (00:27)

Hello, you gorgeous human, and welcome to this week's episode of Smart Business Growth Podcast. It is wonderful to have you here. And I want to get a little bit tactical this week in terms of sales techniques. In particular, I'm getting a lot of requests for sales training around this topic, as well as it's coming up a lot in my one-on-one sales coaching sessions. And it's the question around how do I overcome objections without it feeling really icky, really salesy. What's a good technique to be able to move through objections in a way that feels a bit more comfortable for myself but also the other person? But I'm still doing it, right? We're still overcoming objections. And so I thought today what I would do is get a bit tactical in terms of this sales technique and share with you five tips, top five tips that I have to overcome objections without that icky feeling. Now there's a reason that it might feel icky from a human behavior point of view, and I'm going to cover that off in one of the tips as well.

But to start with, tip number one is I want you to remember or realize or think about the fact that an objection is simply a belief. It is a belief about something that you're putting forward to that person. And so when we think about an objection as a belief, all of a sudden it can help this become more of a human interaction as opposed to something I need to handle or something I need to kind of overcome, even though I talk about overcoming objections. You know, in the old school kind of sales trainings that maybe you've done or heard of, we talk about handling objections. We don't want to handle our potential clients and customers. We want to come at it from a human point of view. And so the first thing is to realize that this is simply a belief that they have. It's a belief that it's too expensive. It's a belief that it's too complicated, or it's a belief that they don't have time, or whatever that common objection is, or those objections that you get are. That is a belief that they have. And so instead of handling that, we need to think about from a human curiosity point of view, why do they have that belief? Let's get curious about that, instead of again handling it or trying to overcome it. We want to work that prospect or that client through the belief to see if there's an opportunity to get to the other side.

So tip number one is that all an objection is, is a belief. Okay. On a human to human level, that's a belief that they have. When we come at it from that mindset, it can change the feeling of the conversation. All of a sudden, we're not that icky pushy salesperson, okay?

Tip number two is understanding that, again, from a human behavior point of view, and interesting because we're kind of talking human behavior for the first two points. From a human behavior point of view, you, as the person that's having the conversation, the salesperson in this scenario, we tend to default into fight or flight. Because whether we rationally, consciously realize it or not, it can feel a little bit like conflict, or from a raw human behavior point of view, conflict can also feel like danger or we're not safe. Now that's kind of potentially not where you thought this conversation was going to go. But again, it's important to consider. Interesting. So if we tend to go into fight or flight mode, or in this context, I call it defend or defeat mode. Then you can understand what is your natural go to so that you can be aware of that and kind of be prepared for it in conversations. And I'm going to give you a framework as well to use. But first of all, we want to get curious. Do I defend or do I defeat?

Now, what I mean by that is typically we either defend or fight, so we will go in and share all the reasons why they're wrong. It's not too expensive because of XYZ. This product or service is actually the best in the industry because of XYZ. There's so many statistics usually that you can throw at people as to essentially saying why they're wrong. Now I want to connect this with the first tip that I gave you, that it's just a belief. They believe that this product isn't as good as maybe another one out there, for example. If we just go hard and fast as to all the reasons as to why we're the best, what we're subconsciously telling that person is that they're wrong and their beliefs are wrong. And we're gonna put them off, right? Like who wouldn't be put off by that? Now I am talking a little bit in extremes. You know, you might not rush in to say all the reasons, but you also might because you could be passionate, you could feel frustrated because you know the truth of what you can offer and they're just not saying it. So there might be behaviors that you identify that you lean into defend mode. Okay.

Now the other aspect to this is you might not do that. You might fall into defeat mode, in other words, the flight mode. And what that looks like is yeah, no problem, and you just really lean back and you don't go any further. You change the subject or if you're you know, we can look at overcoming objections even when we're talking about cold calls or cold contacts, which is something else I talk a lot about with sales teams and salespeople. You know, yep, no problem, too busy, I'll get off the phone. It's this defeat. It's this, I'm out of here. This feels awkward. I don't want to be pushy. I don't want to be that person. So yep, yep, you're right. Yep, no problem. Now that's not valuable either because you genuinely might have something on offer for them, but their beliefs are getting the way of seeing what you have on offer. So we don't want to defend and we don't want to defeat. And again, I'll give you a framework on how to make sure you don't do that. But first I want you to think about would I tend to defend or would I tend to defeat? Do I tend to fight or do I tend to flight? And when you can understand your own behavior, when we so tip number two in terms of defend or defeat. When we consider the fact that we're going up against an ingrained belief in somebody for some reason, why they have it, it's our job to find out. Then we then again the energy of the conversation starts to shift, and it's no longer that icky, pushy, salesy feeling.

Tip number three, before I give you the framework or a framework, is that chances are you get the same objection more than once. Now, I've been in this game for a long time. Well over 20 years now. And even when I'm running workshops or talking about this one-on-one, I'll ask, what are the most common objections that you get? And regardless of the industry, regardless of the product or service that is being sold, there are patterns. Now, the most common objections that I hear, regardless of industry, size of business, all of those things, products, what we're selling, is budget. It's too expensive, I don't have budget. It's about the money, right? So that's the number one most common objection that I hear. And then, second of all, is often about time. I don't have time, it's not the right time. And then there might be some different unique objections that you might get that are related to your industry. You know, if it's accounting services, media, financial, IT. It seems too complicated. I thought it would be too complex, you know, whatever it might be. There's going to be different objections for your particular industry, but there will be patterns that you will get repeatedly.

And so tip number three is to pause for a moment and think about what are your most common objections. Now, if you are a sales leader and you're listening or watching this, then this is something you can do with your team is ask them. You're going to have an idea, of course, but ask them what are the most common objections. Start to identify the patterns of what you're being told. And that's going to lean into the two really tactical tips I'm about to give you for number four and number five. But again, number one, we've got to remember it's simply a belief that they have. So let's get curious about where that belief has come from. Number two is be aware of your own behavior. Am I defending or am I defeating? And then number three, identify what those patterns are. What are the most common objections that you and your team get? Pick out the top three. You can do this exercise with all of them, but you know, just start with a couple. So now we've started to uncover the human behavior element. We've started to uncover the patterns and identify the patterns for your particular industry, product, or service.

So there's two different strategies that will really help you overcome those objections. The first one is to think about the type of questions that you're asking early on in the conversation to draw out that objection early on. Because again, if I think about old school sales training or techniques, when I first started it was seven-step process and at number six we're overcome objections, but only at number six, you know, and then we close the deal. Whereas in fact we are continually overcoming objections, or another way to look at that is working through and understanding the prospect or the client's beliefs way, way, way earlier on. And in fact, if you can draw it out even earlier on, if you can get them to tell you their objection early on, it will be way better because you can deal with it early on. And then when you're at the point of presenting the solution and then getting the yes, i.e., closing the sale, it should really be a much more streamlined conversation because you've already drawn it out.

Now remember in tip three, I asked you what are the common patterns? What are the objections you get? That is your clue to know what is the question that I need to ask in order to draw out that objection early on. So if you can ask your client early on, have you ever invested in [insert your service] before? Okay, so have you ever invested in accounting and advisory services? Have you ever invested in media advertising? Have you ever invested in outdoor advertising? Have you ever invested in outsourcing IT services? Whatever it might be. That's a great question to ask in every discovery call. Because if they say yes, okay, cool, we're going to then ask more probing questions around what worked for you, what didn't work for you, you know, and you can go deep around your questioning there. If they say no, they haven't, that is internally for me a little dance on the spot moment. Because when you ask them then a follow-up question, what stopped you? What stopped you from outsourcing XYZ or working with ABC? Whatever they answer next is probably going to be an objection that would have come up later. Again, it will be a belief. I always thought it would be too expensive, too complex. I didn't think I was a big enough business. I da da da whatever it might be. You've just drawn out what their objection or one of their objections could have been. And so right there in that moment, you can work through that objection. And I'll give you a framework in tip number five. So that's an example of a classic question, regardless of the patterns of the types of objections that you get, always ask in discovery.

Now, uncovering what the main objections are. So if it's about money and you know that you might not be the cheapest, the most cost-effective solution out there, so sometimes you get price objections. What's a question that you could ask early on to uncover what their expectation about price is? You know, think about that. So an example question could be: how much are you looking to invest in this? Again, if you've asked, have you invested in this before, and they've said yes, you can get an understanding of what they're looking to invest. Now I'm deliberately using the word invest. So think about subtleties of language, not spend, not cost. It's an investment. Other ways you can ask is, you know, how much are you looking at? What ballpark, what number are you looking at throwing at this? Now that might sound really relaxed language, throwing at this or ballpark. It depends on your industry. Again, you've got to match their language with the service that you're in or the industry that you're in. But see how if you ask a question about money early on, you can gauge an understanding of where they're at so that later on in the piece, they're not saying, my gosh, it's way more expensive than I thought it would be. Okay, cool.

Now, same goes, even if you've got a cost-effective solution. It's just that there's a different sell in a different angle. If it is an objection about how it works, like I know that a common objection for some businesses is around I just thought it would be too complex. So a question could be, what's your understanding around the process of working with a [fill in your services]? What is their perspective? Okay, so whatever objection came up, think what's a question that I can ask around that early on in the piece. If you've got a specific objection that you would like to question, please send me a message because I'd love to workshop that. Or send me a voice note on LinkedIn. I'd love to hear from you what is the objection that you get, and then what is the question you would ask to draw it out early on. So tip number four is be really strategic with the questions that you're asking that are targeted around the objection that you have so that you can ask that question early and you get an understanding of their perspective and where they're at in terms of that objection.

Okay, tip number five to close this out, the framework that I use. Now you can use this when you draw the objection out early on, or if you haven't drawn it out and you've presented the solution and an objection comes up, you can use this at any point. This is actually a really good framework as well for conflict resolution, negotiation. I've shared this with quality control or customer service where they're negotiating credits or returns and exchanges, you know, how to kind of keep the client happy but also give them a solution that's not necessarily a refund. So it's really applicable in so many different areas. And it's an acronym. We know how much we love an acronym. And the acronym is LAER. L-A-E-R. LAER.

So the L stands for listen. Of course, we need to listen to what the client prospect is saying. And usually that is being done pretty well. Hopefully it's being done well. Usually that is taken care of. The A stands for acknowledge. And the acknowledge is the bit that I would say is missing 99% of the time. The acknowledge is neutral, the acknowledge is not agreeing, but it's also not disagreeing. And I'm going to talk a little bit about that more in a moment. The E stands for explore. So we explore through asking another question after we've acknowledged. And then the R stands for respond. So typically people will listen and then respond. But what we want instead is to include the A and the E. We want to listen, we want to acknowledge, we then want to explore by asking another question before we respond. And you might actually rotate through the L, the A, the E. You ask a question through explore, then you listen again, you acknowledge, you explore. You might do that a few times before you respond. Sometimes you don't even need to respond because you're back in the sales conversation talking about their problems and your solutions. Sometimes you do want to respond, but it's not immediately. So it removes that you're listening and then telling them why they're wrong or defeating and running away and not having a conversation about it because it's too awkward.

The other benefit of L-A-E-R by having the A and the E before we respond is it allows the logical brain to catch up. It gives a pause, a momentary pause that allows the emotional fight or flight, defend or defeat to calm down, the logical brain to kick in, and then we're back into that being more present in the moment, in the conversation. Now, some of you listening, some of you watching will be thinking, yeah, I don't have a problem with this, that's great. I still want you to check in and think, am I acknowledging, am I exploring? And for others, you might get really nervous or really get that butt clench, icky feeling about overcoming objections, then this is absolutely still going to help you as well. Because the other benefit to this, apart from giving you a pause for your emotional response to relax and your logical brain to kick in, it also helps them feel heard.

Now I want to link this back to tip number one. Remember, it's a belief that they have. So by acknowledging what they've said, not agreeing, not disagreeing, a neutral acknowledgement, it actually allows them, whether they consciously realize it or not, they feel valid, they feel heard, they feel important because we're not rushing in again to tell them why they're wrong. And so there's a really good human impact around this. And think about it, if you're having a conversation with somebody and you're sharing a belief, which may be an objection, and someone acknowledges what you've said instead of trying to sell you, it does feel good, it feels better. And then what happens is we're more open to the conversation. We'll lean in a little bit more without even realizing it.

So let's talk about acknowledge. The way to acknowledge. It's not disagreeing, it's not agreeing. We want it to be neutral. Okay, so for example, one of my favorites is if there's a money objection, it's too expensive, whatever it might be, around money, you can say something like, absolutely, it needs to make financial sense for you. Now I say the word absolutely, you might not, you know, this is just a structure, you bring your own words to it. Course or you know whatever you want to put there, but the crux of that is it has to make financial sense for you. Of course it has to make financial sense for you. Now you can't argue with that, can you? I haven't said yes you're right, it is too expensive, or yes it's above your budget or whatever it is, but I also haven't said that it's not. I haven't agreed, I haven't disagreed, I've acknowledged. Well look, you know, it's important to me that it makes financial sense for you, it's important to me that the numbers make sense to you. Think about different ways you can say it. Now that's an acknowledgement. There's a pause and then we have the opportunity to think about what's a question that I can ask, explore, the E for explore, ask a question that then gets them back into a conversation. Now you can use this for yourself. You can create your own one for you know the money side of things, but I trust that you're seeing that the structure around this.

Now a question you can ask from there, if it's a bit of a surprise to you because you have it's later on in the conversation, you can bring it back to, you know, can I ask you a question? You use a question softener. So put a couple of words before the question. I wonder if you mind me asking. I'd love to know, you know, think about a question softener and then ask. When we talked about XYZ, you mentioned, you know, ABC, and ask a question around that. Then you listen, the acknowledge won't be as detailed, you know, maybe not verbal, maybe it's a nod, maybe it's non-verbal, and then we ask another question. And if you feel it's appropriate, maybe respond. But again, you might just get them talking about their problem. You know, it could even be something like, I may have misunderstood. Can I clarify? So really think about what could be that question that you ask. And it's sometimes hard to think about it hypothetically in this kind of scenario, but when you're in the moment, think about what they've already shared with you.

Now your acknowledge is always going to be neutral. It's not going to be agreeing. It's not going to be disagreeing. And usually it works if you sit somewhere in the middle with words like, Of course, I want you to feel comfortable about this decision. If you have heard that objection before, you can say something like, You're actually not the first person to mention this to me. Can I ask you? And then you go straight into the question. Okay. Only do that if that is legitimately something that you hear and you help people overcome. You know, it's tricky to come up with the hypotheticals when we're not having this conversation two-way, but I again trust that you understand the process around it. And I'm so happy for you to reach out to me with examples on LinkedIn, voice notes, messages, or direct message.

So the acknowledge, couple of tips around this. Don't use the word but afterwards. Of course it has to make financial sense for you, but go into the reasons, etc. What but does is it actually cancels out everything that you've said. So really practice with yourself or your team to put a pause in. Stop after the acknowledgement. And then go into the question. And "however", it is actually the same as but. They're different words and they have the same meaning. So don't use the word but, don't use the word however after acknowledgement. The acknowledgement can be short and sweet and we go straight into a question. So, what I'd love for you to practice out of the L-A-E-R component is the acknowledge and explore. A short acknowledgement with a quick question to follow on and keep them talking.

If we recap, tip number one for overcoming objections is remember it is simply a belief that they have. So let's not railroad them, but also let's stay and have a conversation, which is essentially tip number two: be aware of your own behavior in these scenarios. Do I defend or do I defeat? Tip number three, really get clear on what are the common objections that you get. Identify those patterns so that with tip number four, you can think about the question to ask early on to uncover if that objection is in fact going to come up. And then tip number five is to use the L-A-E-R framework. And most importantly, in that is acknowledge what they've said in a neutral way, not agreeing, not disagreeing. I appreciate what you're saying. I understand this is important to you. Think about those words that you can use to acknowledge in a neutral way. Then you ask a question following on from that and explore and get them to keep talking.

I hope that this is helpful. I trust this is helpful. Again, I'd love to hear from you if there's any questions that have arisen from this. And yeah, it's pretty topical at the moment. Lots of questions around this, and I'd love to hear from you. As always, with everything, take it lightly, have some fun with it. Do some, dare I say, role plays around this. Grab a colleague if you're a salesperson listening to this. Do this with your team if you're a sales leader, because this is important in terms of turning around those objections to be an authentic conversation of exploration, curiosity around where these beliefs are coming from. And in fact, if you can change that belief for them based on the conversation that you're having. I'll see you next time.