Overcoming Objections in the New Year

January 2017

 

meeting with clients

It’s a new year, you have created a new set of goals and you are ready to tackle the all-so-familiar “objections” that are keeping your clients from saying ‘yes’ to the investments they need.   From simply trying to gain a discovery meeting to closing

There are two forms of Objections based on the CAPS Skill Model: a sale, there needs to be a happy medium of push and pull from both the advisor and the client. This doesn't have to be a challenge when you have the right tools. 

    1. Easy to answer – is one based on a misunderstanding or lack of information.
    2. Difficult to Answer – is when an issue has risen because of an actual deficiency in your product compared to a competitor’s product.
      We can however use the three way CAPS™ Skill Model, Overcoming Objections to ethically persuade the client in the right direction:

          - Rephrase the objection as a question Over Coming Objection
          - Listen and Evaluate the Prospect's attitude 
          - Easy - Answer directly only using Proof if necessary
            Difficult – Introduce compensating benefits

When you encounter a difficult objection, the facts cannot be changed but the sale does not have to be lost. By evaluating a specific objection and determining the proper response you can save the sale and gain more information from your procrastinating client.

For example, when a prospect raises a difficult-to-answer objection, you should acknowledge his statement without offering agreement. If you reword the statement as a question it will clarify your understanding and slow down the exchange so you’ll have more time to prepare your response. “Then you feel…. is that right?” In other situations, when a client needs more proof, answer directly by introducing compensating benefits.

Whereas, an easy-to-answer objection can be cleared up by clarifying the misunderstanding or providing additional information as you follow the CAPS™ Skill Model.

Benefits of using the CAPS™ Model

  1. Helps soften the feelings of resistance and allows you to share responsibility for the “misunderstanding”
  2. When the matter is clarified, or additional benefits are cited, to compensate for a deficiency, the objection often ceases to be an obstacle to the sale or the next step in your sales process.
  3. You can summarize the benefits that have been accepted after the previous close and, if you have buying signal, you can close again.

Carefully listening and evaluating your clients concerns and questions throughout your conversations positions you to avoid and overcome most objections.  Active and emphatic listening helps you adopt a frame of mind in which all objections are perceived as an incomplete communication or a question.

To get to the next level of production in 2015:

  • Identify at least one objection at each step in your advice process that derailed your efforts in 2014.
  • If the objection is “difficult”, make a list of compensating benefits that may appeal to many of your prospects or clients.
  • Practice using CAPS™ skills to guide the conversation to avoid or overcome the objections.  

“The will to win is useless without the will to prepare.”  Bobby Knight