FrontLine Results : Business Coaching

5 ways to handle objections to sales!

When you hear objections from prospective clients, take heart because it's actually a good sign! It means that, although they could be interested, they still have some unanswered questions. The problem is that they sometimes don’t know what those questions are! So they say things like “You’re too expensive”, “I already have a supplier”, “Send me something in the post and I’ll think about it”, or even “I need to ask my boss”.

I’ve seen many business owners stopped in their tracks because they thought they were sure to get the order. They didn’t see the objection coming and now need to scramble to retrieve the situation.

If this has happened to you when you’ve got as far as meeting up with your prospect, you'll know it can be very frustrating. It also means that you’ve missed out a vital part of the preparation you should have done before the meeting.

You may not always encounter objections but you do need to be ready for them – just in case. Here are a few ideas to help you do this:

1. What are the most common objections you’ve come across so far in your business? Write them down. What other concerns might your prospective clients have? Write them down too.

2. Now note down your answers to each one, based on the benefits your products or services provide. Every business owner or sales person needs to do this exercise before they start making appointments to call. Keep your notes for future reference.

3. You can minimise objections and concerns by raising them yourself. For example, you can include your answers in your marketing materials and on your website.

4. During your initial conversations with a prospect, ask questions to find out what their concerns are, so you can address them straight away.

5. Check if anyone else needs to be part of the buying decision so they can be included from the beginning, and you can prepare answers to their questions too.

Don’t be caught out by objections, be ready for them!  What tips would you add?

What if they don’t like me?

I remember coaching a client some years ago when she was just starting her business.  We were working on getting the basics in place, including her new website.  But I noticed that every time there was work to be done on the website, it wouldn’t happen and my client would be full of apologies and excuses in our next call.

When I delved deeper, it turned out she felt very vulnerable knowing so many people would be able to read about her and her business.  I confess I hadn’t thought about it in those terms before – but it’s hardly surprising since a fear of rejection is one of the basic human fears which can stop us in our tracks.

I wonder how many people approach social networking with the same trepidation?

Soon after I started blogging, I received a long angry email from someone who decided one of my posts was a direct criticism of her.  The message ended with me being ‘struck off’ her mailing list.  I have to admit I was mortified to think this person ‘didn’t like me any more’.  Until I saw sense.

It was actually nothing to do with me, it was about the words I used and more importantly, the way this one person chose to interpret them.

One of the whole points of blogs, and Web 2.0 in general, is to be able to share information, thoughts and opinions – and we actively invite comments!  Whatever we write, someone, somewhere won’t agree with our words, just as we won’t agree with everything another person writes.  But it doesn’t mean they don’t like us or that we don’t like them.

By being prepared to be vulnerable we let people get to know us (as little or as much as we choose).  We are taking a small chance, but a necessary one if we’re to build successful business and personal relationships. 

Are You a Workaholic?

A workaholic is someone who is defined and obsessed by their work.  If you took their work away from them, they wouldn’t know what to do.  A workaholic uses their work to avoid the rest of their lives, most often relationships.  A workaholic is not a happy person because they are constantly in fear of losing the one thing in life they are successful at – their work.  While it is great to be passionate about what you do, it’s important that your work isn’t a way of avoiding living the rest of your life.

Overwork is different to workaholism.  Overwork is when you have too much to do at work and you have other interests and relationships outside of work but not enough time to spend on them.

However, being a workaholic or being overworked do have one thing in common – they both cause stress.  Stress can lead to physical and/or emotional health problems which in turn are going to lead to a drop in performance levels, and which can directly affect your company’s sales and profitability.

Keeping a healthy balance between work and the rest of your life means you and your employees will be more effective.  You will be able to be totally focused on getting those sales and delighting your customers during business hours and enjoy being with your family and friends outside of work.

Quick Check - Answer the following questions:

1.    I won’t delegate because no one can do the job to my standards.
2.    I find it difficult to relax.
3.    I often work late and/or at weekends.
4.    I have missed or cancelled arrangements with family or friends because of work, on several occasions.
5.    I feel most comfortable at work.

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions you need to take care that you are giving enough attention to the other important areas of your life.  The more ‘yeses’, the more urgent it is that you take action quickly.

Are you sitting comfortably?

There was a time when people believed comfort was a good thing.  They were happy to be ‘comfortably off’, to live in comfort, to feel ‘comfortable in their skin’.  I used to believe that too.  I strived for comfort, relished it and surrounded myself with loads of material ‘stuff’ that represented comfort to me.  And then .... gradually it dawned on me that, while I may be sitting comfortably, there was still something missing – quite a big something as it turned out ..... but that’s another story for another day.

You see, comfort can stop us from reaching for more fulfilling goals.  Our little internal voice asks questions like:  Why do you want to make yourself uncomfortable?  Why take risks that could endanger that comfort?  Why rock the boat?

If we listen to that internal voice, as I used to, we don’t take the risks.  We stay sitting comfortably yet with a nagging feeling that we’re missing out. 

It can take a life-changing experience to get us out of that comfortable chair, to give us the courage or determination to take those risks but when we do, that’s when the magic happens!  As soon as we take the first steps (or leaps) into unknown and uncertain territory, we realise it isn’t so scary after all and wonder what all the fuss was about.

You’ve probably found out by now that almost anything and everything worth having is just out of reach, which means you have to get out of that comfortable chair if you really want it. 

Are you still sitting comfortably?

Welcome!

Are you so busy with the day to day 'stuff' that it's hard for you to find the time and energy to work on developing your business?  So you get stuck.  You're doing OK, but you know you could be doing better.

If you've been in business for a year or so, you want to move up to the next level but are struggling to get there - you're in the right place!

(To read the rest of this welcome message please click on the link below.)

How do you communicate with your clients?

I was working with some clients recently, explaining how to get started with email marketing campaigns and introducing them to social networking.  Because I’m constantly immersed in these topics, it’s easy to forget that they may be completely new to many people!  A recent blog post from Seth Godin explains this well.

The meetings also reminded me of other useful business lessons which I’d like to share with you here.

• People like to receive information in different ways.  Some like to just have a broad outline, others prefer to know the smallest detail.  By adapting your presentation to suit them once you find out their preference, you will help them to learn.
• Keep your message simple.  If you try to appear too clever, use jargon and long words, especially in your marketing materials, you’ll intimidate and put off the very people you want to attract. 
• Don’t try to cover too many points in each meeting.  People need time to absorb, process and try out what they learn.  Too much at a time will simply lead to overwhelm and reluctance to continue.
• Establish expectations at the outset, and write them down.  I do this with my coaching clients and students.  You need to understand what people want to achieve or learn so you can pick up straight away if they have misunderstood the training content or coaching process.  You can also use those expectations to keep you on track during meetings or workshops and, of course, to check that you have delivered what they wanted.
• Don’t take what you know for granted.  Just because you know your products or services upside down and back to front, it doesn’t follow that everyone else does.  Your knowledge, expertise and experience are what make you special, and they are the reasons why people are prepared to pay you to either teach them or do the work for them. 

How will this information affect how you communicate with your clients?

My radio interview (Take II)

Yesterday the tables were turned on me by Debbie Mahler of Mice Training, Technology & Education, when she interviewed me for her new show 'Technical Tidbits'.

She asked me to put my business coaching hat on and what I would say to people who have, or are thinking of starting up an online business, especially in the current economic climate.

The show turned out pretty well and I thought you might like to listen to the recording (it's just under 30 minutes). Let me know what you think.

I tried posting this a few days ago and the Blog Talk Radio website immediately went down for maintenance - typical!  So trying again and hoping link is OK.

If you have, or want to have more of, an internet presence, you may be interested in a new service I've just launched called "The Online Business Roadmap". 

Mentor Monday

The following is a real challenge sent to me by a fellow business owner

“My biggest challenge is to get in more work so I need new clients or to get work from those I have worked with in the past.  This needs to be achieved with the minimum of expense!!”

These days marketing doesn’t have to cost very much.  You can use some very low-cost keep in touch tactics – like email newsletters, blog posts and podcasts which will keep your name in front of your prospective, existing & past clients. It’s also worth spending a bit on postage to send out some postcards with an attention-grabbing message. 

Take a look at your offering to see if you could package your products or services to be more affordable and attractive.  The key is to be creative!  Perhaps you could ask someone unrelated to your business for their ideas?

Technology culture shock!

Some of my coaching clients have been using PDAs, BlackBerrys and iPhones for a long time, and if you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know that I became the proud owner of a brand new BlackBerry Storm last Monday, when it was launched in the UK. 

After years of resisting mobile technology, it’s proving to be quite a culture shock, as you might imagine!  In fact, I liken my ‘upgrade’ as going from learning to drive in a pedal car and then getting into a Ferrari straight after passing the test!

I can now check & answer emails, browse the internet, keep a contact database and organise my time – all on one little handheld gadget.  Oh, and it’s a phone as well!  (I know there are even more applications, but these are enough for me to be getting on with just now!)

As I was working out how to use this new smart phone, it occurred to me that we expect our technology tools to do quite a lot for us.  We want them to store & organise records as well as remind us about meetings and deadlines.  Could we be in danger of relying on them too much?

Obviously I’m hoping that my BlackBerry, together with the new Laptop being delivered next week, are going to increase my efficiency & productivity.  But I’m not expecting them to replace the creativity and thinking processes that every  business owner needs to tap into.  For example, I can’t imagine the initial stages of planning a new project without good old fashioned ‘messy’ pen & paper!

This is a topic I’ll revisit as I get used to using my upgraded technology, either on this blog or on Savvy Marketers.  Please feel free to comment on your experiences with technology – have they helped your business or slowed you down?

What do you believe in?

This is an incredibly complex area of the psyche to be addressing in a blog post!  I’ll try and keep it very simple.

Beliefs are thoughts we treat as facts and our belief system is built up in incremental stages as we grow and develop.  What you believe in has a huge impact on what you achieve – in life and in business.  Naturally you believe what your parents tell you, your teachers, your friends and what you experience for yourself.  And of course, if it’s printed in a newspaper or shown on TV, it must be true! 

With so many outside influences come conflicting ‘facts’ and, if you pay heed to enough of them, it’s very easy to become confused as to what exactly you should believe in.

If you’ve been following the financial stories over the last couple of months, you’d be forgiven for believing that the world as we know it is about to end.  I’m not denying that stock markets and currencies around the world aren’t suffering, but just what are they suffering from?

My take on this (as a mere observer) is that the markets are believing in the worst case scenario the media has been headlining morning, noon and night.  So far it’s become a bit of a self-fulfilling prophesy unfortunately.

Beliefs are incredibly powerful, as if you needed reminding.  And, in the absence of cold hard facts, selecting what to believe in needs to be as painstakingly undertaken as negotiating your way across a multi-lane road junction with traffic light failure. 

What you choose to believe in will influence and shape your life and your business.  While believing something won’t always ‘make it so’, it will improve your motivation, energy and chances of success.

So, what do you believe in?