We’re going to now pivot to handling objections. I’m going to do this over several videos. But in this first video I want to introduce the concept of questions, concerns and objections. You kind of think they’re the same thing and sometimes they might be the same thing. Sometimes an objection comes out as a question. Sometimes a question comes out as a concern or a question can sound like an objection but it’s really only a question.

What’s the difference? There is a big difference. A question, a concern and an objection are an indication of the customer’s mindset.

Questions

When customers ask questions and it doesn’t matter what questions they ask, whether it’s about you, the salesperson, your product, your service, your company, how many years you’ve been doing this, how many customers do you have, do you have any references, what’s your warranty, what’s your return policy, those questions are called buying signals. When people ask questions, they’re expressing to you a very strong level of interest. They’re interested enough to try to find out more.

If you go back to customer psychology, what they’re doing in their mind is that they really want to buy what you have, but they’re not ready to jump in. They have to check off – does it have a good warranty, yes, does it have a return policy, yes, does it come in red, yes, can I cancel my order at any time, yes, can I upgrade the order, how many clients does this guy have, does this company have any experience. They’re checking off mental checkboxes that allow them to say yes.

I love people that have a lot of questions. The more questions they ask, the happier I am. Until they check off all the checkboxes, they’re not quite ready to say yes. Some people will say yes and then continue to ask questions, but that’s okay. You’ll understand how to handle those people in a minute. Questions are great. That’s a buying signal. You’re doing really well if people ask you a lot of questions.

Concerns

The second level of psychology is a concern. “It sounds good, but I’m concerned about this or this or this. It sounds good, but I don’t really know a lot about your company.” Remember that also could have been a question. “I’ve never heard of your company. Tell me a little bit more about it.”

When they ask it in the form of a question, it’s not as negative. It’s I’m curious and I need to know more. When it’s expressed as a concern, “Well, it sounds good, but I’m not sure I really know anything about your company yet. I’m concerned that your company might be a little too small. I’m concerned that you may not have enough experience. I’m concerned that your company may be too big and I’m going to get lost in the shuffle.” Those are called concerns and they’re slightly different than questions.

What you do to handle a concern is you simply say, “You know, that’s a great question,” and you take their concern and you treat it just as you would treat a question. In general, you’re going to treat questions and concerns the same way. They really are one category of thing. Do understand there’s a subtle difference in the mindset of the customer. In one case they’re ready to buy, they just want to check off all their questions. In the other case, they like it, but they have a few concerns that have to be addressed.

Objections

The third level and the most negative are objections. Objections are just clear reasons why we’re not going to move forward. Objections are usually stated as, “This really sounds good, but it’s not for us.” “Why would you say it’s not for you?” “Because of this, this, this.” They’re not going to do business with you.

From the customer’s point of view, when they’re giving you an objection, they’re giving you a reason that they’re not moving forward. From their mindset, that’s a no and that’s a final no. In a few videos from now, I’m going to show you how to handle objections. We’re going to turn their finality statement into just an opening dialog and we’re going to keep talking. We’re not going to accept their finality statement. Just for now I want to lay the groundwork.

Comparison

Questions are a buying sign. That means they’re ready to buy, they just have these certain checkboxes. Check, check, check. Yes, it’s this. Yes, it comes in red. Yes, it can be delivered in a week. Yes, they have a lot of experience. They have a lot of other customers. Check, check, check. Questions are great. That’s a buying sign. Concerns are very similar to questions, but they’re worded in a way, “It sounds good, but here’s what I’m concerned about.” Objections are, “This doesn’t sound good. This is not something we’re going to be able to use.”

Now, in essence, they’re all the same thing. They just have to do with mostly the mindset of the customer when they say it, but more importantly sometimes they have to do with personality. Some people will give you an objection and they really meant to ask a question or it’s a concern. Some people will ask questions, and you don’t realize it, but it really is an objection.

I don’t want you to get too confused, but just understand questions are great, concerns are great, objections need very specific methods on how to handle them. We’re going to talk about objection handling techniques probably until we’re blue in the face here in the next couple of videos. But I wanted to lay this groundwork and explain to you so you start to understand the difference between questions, concerns and objections. We’ll get into a lot more of this in the next video.