February 16, 2010

How to Overcome Objections

By Michael Port

Don’t feel bad, uncertain or get tunnel vision working to overcome sales objections, just eliminate them entirely. I know, I know… very funny, wise guy. But, it’s no joke. Despite what the bulk of the nearly 250,000 sales books out there say, objections don’t always follow an easy 1-2-3 overcome-me formula. Sure facts, figs and pointing out the bennies (benefits) are often going to help you make the sale, but if a prospect fundamentally objects to what you are offering it’s doubtful a 3-step plan is going to secure the sale.

So, what’s bigger, better and far more fun than overcoming objections? Eliminating them entirely. Why change a prospect’s mind, when you can change your product. Yeah, you heard me. Improve your product or service so you don’t get the objections in the first place. Novel, I tell you!

Now, unfortunately, many sales people will have their hands tied because they’re not in on the design or re-design of the products they are selling. But if you are an entrepreneur, you’re not only designing your product, you’re in charge of it. You’re the boss. You are in the unique position of being able to give customers exactly what they want. Let’s take a look at your product from the clients’ perspective. I just had to go through this very assessment.

www.BookedSolidU.com was launched on January 1^st. Booked Solid University is a business university and coaching program that offers everything you need to be a small business success. Based on my experience and certain tested (or so I thought) assumptions, I designed the program to give newer business owners exactly what they need:

1. Long-term commitment to learning and business mastery (12 months).
2. Content, answers, advice and all the information business owners need to succeed.
3. Live, interactive coaching for accountability and commitment making fulfillment.

People did enroll the first month, my most ideal type of big thinking clients, but far more people inquired and never took action. The 3 primary objections I heard were:

Objection 1: The enrollment fees are reasonable, but I don’t know if I can commit to a full 12 months.

(Read: financial and time commitment too long, creating fear.)

Objection 2: Even though all of the content seems like it’s just what I need to succeed, what if I take on too much, choose the wrong learning path or don’t have time to handle the workload.

(Read: too many options and choice of own learning path too big and idea, creating overwhelm.)

Objection 3: I just don’t know if I’ll get the personal coaching I need.

(Read: even though the best Book Yourself Solid Certified Coaches are available to personally coach, they either didn’t feel it was extensive enough or they felt my personal presence was missing.)

Notice anything about these two lists? Yeah, you’re right. They’re the same. The features I thought would be most helpful to my ideal clients, turned out to be what was most objectionable.

I could have done my best Zig Zigler to demonstrate why:

1. Making a long-term commitment to learning in action is so important to entrepreneurial success.

2. Designing your own customized curriculum is the most efficient, time effective and elegant way to get exactly what you need, at the right time.

3. Working with experts, other than me, brings a more expansive and diverse set of viewpoints, solutions and success strategies.

And believe me, at first, I tried. But, clients repeated these same objections and I remembered that we don’t always want to buy what we need. A better solution, a more elegant solution, one that eliminates friction during the sales cycle, would be to redesign my offering to fit exactly what my clients both need and want. Seems obvious but often it’s not what is done. Here’s what changed. We…

1. Eliminated the long-term commitment objection with a “pay as you go” plan and a full 30-day money back guarantee.

2. Created short-term and specifically prescribed coaching modules, each designed to help the client achieve one specific result, at a time. Overwhelm objection—gone!

3. Kept the Michael Port brand in tact and made my personal coaching more available and visible. Uncertain business results objection—gone!

And that’s not all that’s changed. Even the way that I present the entire concept of Booked Solid U has shifted because of these simple, yet fundamental changes. Check out the site to see what I mean.

Now, these 3 fixes alone might seem obvious and simple to you. But, believe me, when in the middle of a major product launch, with 1000′s of moving pieces and people, the solution was not so obvious and the overcome objection tunnel was getting longer and longer. Clients want easy. They need a simple system that focuses their time and attention on the simplest and most elegant solution. And, that’s what the new, and better, BSU is—easy.

When I started assessing Booked Solid U, I used the same 3-step process I’ve always used to fix nearly every problem in my business. Try it yourself.

3 Steps To Eliminate Objections Or Solve Any Other Problem

1. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Instead, ask yourself how you can reconfigure what you have and turn it into what you want (something that will create better results).

2. Don’t make big, sweeping changes. Instead, make the smallest possible changes to the design of the product that will produce the biggest possible results.

3. Don’t go it alone. Bring your clients, and every single member of your team into the redesign process at the earliest possible moment to produce the most elegant solution.

Of course, you and I both know it’s unlikely we will be able to eliminate all client objections. But ask yourself first, which objections can be eliminated with small product changes? Many times the biggest objections can be easily eliminated just by adjusting or reconfiguring your product. Now, you’ve got a conversation going without ever running into the big, pressing, unwieldy objections that throw clients into a stall pattern or, worse yet, entirely off track.

So, please, go to bookedsolidu.com and see if I’ve overcome your objections.

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3 Responses to “How to Overcome Objections”

1. bookedsolidu says:

   February 16, 2010 at 10:11 pm

   How to Overcome Objections http://bit.ly/diYnnp

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   • phbalanceca says:

     February 16, 2010 at 10:37 pm

     Thanks Michael RT @bookedsolidu: How to Overcome Objections http://bit.ly/diYnnp #in

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     Reply
2. michaelport says:

   February 16, 2010 at 10:11 pm

   How to Overcome Objections http://bit.ly/diYnnp

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   Reply

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