Professional Distributor - 36

GO SELL SOMETHING

Own the objection and earn more sales
Believe it or not, an objection can become one of your best sales tools.
"Those steel toe shoes are too hot in the summer."

BY ALAN SIPE
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Alan W. Sipe has spent the last 42
years in the basic hand tool industry
including positions as president of
KNIPEX Tools North America, senior
vice president of sales and marketing at Klein Tools, manager of special
markets at Stanley Tools and sales
manager at toolbox manufacturer
Waterloo Industries. Currently, Sipe
is the owner of Toolbox Sales and
Consulting, a company specializing
in sales strategy, structure, development and training. Sipe can be
reached at alansipe@gmail.com or
847-910-1063.

"That impact wrench is too heavy."
"That impact wrench is too light."
"That ratchet doesn't have enough teeth."
"That ratchet has too many teeth."
"The screen on that scan tool looks like it
might break."
Sometimes it seems like the objections during
your product presentations will never end, right?
In the March issue of Professional Distributor, we
wrote about selling new products to smaller customers first as a great way to get the bugs out of your
sales presentation. In doing this, you will also learn
the common and maybe not-so-common objections
voiced by your sales prospects concerning this particular product. Whether your prospect works in a
two-bay corner garage or in a 50-bay multi-brand
mega dealer, customers' concerns about your product
will be similar and maybe exactly the same. So let's
look at a way to keep those objections to a minimum,
and close more sales while you're at it.

EMBRACE THE OBJECTION
This is not as hard as it sounds. Simply build the
objections into your product pitch. This strategy
lets you control how and when objections are presented. If in the middle of your presentation your
prospect says, "That screen on your scan tool looks
like it might break pretty easily," you must stop your
presentation and respond with something like, "Oh
no, it is very strong."
No matter how you respond, you are on the
defense. However, if you build the objection into
your presentation you can answer the issue and satisfy what is in the prospect's mind before they even
ask the question. Better yet, you may be answering
the serious objection your prospect has in their mind
that they don't ask - a question which is causing
them to not buy your scan tool. People are funny:
some will simply not voice an objection, even if it
is a deal killer.
If you find the strength of the screen is a common objection, make a statement like this early on
in your presentation:
You: "I want you to notice how the screen is surrounded by this rubber bumper, and that the screen
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is set back in the case. Knowing that a mechanic
can break almost anything, this product's designers
did this to greatly reduce the potential for screen
damage, and if the screen should get broken it is
easily replaceable. That's a great feature isn't it?"
(This is a trail close; it's a time for you to be quiet
until the prospect answers.) By taking the offense
you have taken a likely objection and turned it into
a positive selling point.
Now let's look at some additional preemptive
ideas to handle common objections.
Imagine you are giving the presentation on a line
of steel toe shoes, and almost every time the prospect
has mentioned that they get hot in the summer.
This may or may not be true, but by inserting your
own response to this question before your prospect
mentions it, you then own it and can control how
it is handled.
You: "You know, Mr. Prospect, there are some
technicians who think steel toe shoes can get too
hot in the summer, and that is certainly something
to think about. I imagine that if you are spending
a lot of time in the sun the steel may absorb some
of the heat. But simply wearing thinner socks in
the summer can solve the problem, and you will
still get the protection of the steel toe. Face it: you
work with heavy and slippery objects which have
a tendency to fall. I think you will agree that the
steel protection is a lot better than a week or two
off work with a broken foot?"
Here's another one to try:
You: "It is interesting that some technicians
think this impact wrench is too light. Company
XYZ really did its homework on this point. Working with your hands all day is hard work, so by
developing the impact to be a little lighter, but with
all the torque you will ever need, this makes your
job a little easier... which I think you'll agree is a
nice feature, isn't it?"
On the flip-side, that impact wrench might
feel... heavy.
You: "It's interesting that some technicians think
this impact wrench is too heavy. Company XYZ
really did its homework on this point and found
that by making the impact a little heavier, they could
reduce the vibration and kickback, which will make

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