Prospectors’ Guide To Objection Handling – Part II – Conditioned Responses

Prospectors’ Guide To Objection Handling – Part II – Conditioned Responses:from The Pipeline by admin


In the first post of this series, I talked about the importance of context when it comes to objections, and understanding objections to begin with.  We looked at aspect of context, now let’s look at nature of objections in order to make it easier to manage, handle and leverage them for more engagement.
Understanding that prospects are more rejecting the interruption than you specifically, now let’s look at how they deal with those interruption, the nature of the objection.  In most instances it is very much a conditioned response, they need to react to something effectively, in this case getting rid of us sellers, they find a way that is effective a majority of the time, say 80%, and once they do, they use it without much thought.  Much the way we swat a fly, stop at red lights, look up at a loud noise, all without much thought or effort, it is a conditioned response in reaction to a specific occurrence.
Just like when I set out with my wife to buy a new washer, had the specifics thought out, it was just down to picking the retailer.  As we were walking in to Sears, talking with my wife about one thing or another, when we were “interrupted” by a very nice rep who asked “May I help you?”  guess what I and 90% of people who posed that question said?  That’s right, “Just looking”, a conditioned response.  Five minutes later, having finished our chat and getting down to business, I looked around, no one in immediate sight, I looked at my wife and complained about the lack of service; even though not five minute before there was a very nice rep offering to help us, and I blew them off without any thought or effort, by saying that I was just looking – a conditioned response.  Which is exactly what happens when we call a potential prospect unexpectedly, action reaction.  Now consider that I went Sears looking for a washer, yet I dismissed the rep; I ask you is it possible that the prospects we call are as accurate in their response?
Again it comes down not to avoiding rejection, but how we handle it.  Here is what I mean, let’s roll back the film, same store, same wife, same me, same clerk, she again asks the question and I give the same conditioned response, but this time she offers up “well if you tell me what you are looking for, I would be happy to show you”.  Fifteen minutes and a few questions later, I walked out with a washer worth $800, where I had intended to spend only $500.
By handling my objection in a direct, confident and pre-planned way, the clerk was able to take an objection, a rejection, and turn it into a conversation.  Further, was I used up my “conditioned response”, I was left to actually responding to her question directly rather than leaving it to reflex.  Which is what you want to do with your prospects, let them use their conditioned, deal with it, get past the reflex, and begin dealing with the real sales process.  Once they have used the conditioned response, subsequent responses will be more real and genuine, maybe not any more positive, but real, the start of a conversation.
Here is some more good news, 80% of the time they will use the same conditioned response, it comes in one of five common objections, that you will from here on think of as five common conditioned responses, in no specific order:

• Status Quo
• Lack Of Interest
• No Time
• Bad Experience
• Wants to Know More First

Knowing that as you master dealing with each of these, you will have the ability to deal with and take away 80% of the objections you face, and move closer to a real sales conversation.
Next, the basics of taking away these objections, starting with Status Quo.
What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto