Sales start with being rejected

Chapter 8 Responding to Customer Rejection——Success Begins with the Customer Saying "No" (3)
"No business today but that's okay, I can't be everyone's business. I wanted you to buy it because our product fits your needs and you choose not to buy it. I'm so sad Didn't explain well enough to make it good. If you can point out my mistakes and my incompetence as a salesperson, it will be very helpful for me next time when I visit other customers Big help."

Chances are you'll get an answer like this:

"It's not your fault, we didn't want to buy it because..."

At this point they will tell the real reason.Then you clap your hands or snap your fingers and say:
"Omg! I almost screwed it up! No wonder you didn't say it until now! If I had thought in your shoes, I would never have done something like this. How could I have made such a mistake ?”

You quickly open your briefcase, answer his refusal, and ask him to change his mind.

Be prepared to be rejected by customers
Being prepared to handle rejection is a ground rule for salespeople to follow in overcoming customer rejection.

Before the salesperson walks out the door of the company, he will list the various objections that the customer may raise, and then consider a perfect answer.If you are prepared in advance, you can be prepared to deal with the rejection of customers calmly; if you are not prepared in advance, you may be at a loss and be at a loss; or you may not be able to give customers a satisfactory answer to persuade them.

A successful salesperson must make two preparations before the sales visit: one is to make psychological preparations to deal with customer rejections, and the other is to make strategic preparations for the content of rejections.

be friends with rejection

In the face of increasingly fierce competition, sales have become more and more difficult, and customers have become more and more picky.The whole sale is like a football match that has reached a fever pitch, and the salesperson's "attack" has been rejected by customers countless times.But when doing sales, you must face being rejected by customers.No matter how successful a salesperson is, it is inevitable that they will be rejected by customers.How do you maintain sales in the face of rejection?Will you lose your nerve?Will your interest disappear?Will you be crushed here and now?Or does it just fuel greater determination in you?Does it lift you up in the face of opposition, build up your courage, or calm you down?Thin-skinned, emotionally vulnerable salespeople tend to get discouraged at the first rejection and setback.Giving customers the opportunity to say "no" is unfortunate, but don't let a single "no" get you down.Rejection often hurts a salesperson's confidence and self-esteem.But as a salesman, you must learn to be friends with customers' rejection, and regard rejection as your good friend.

It's a story we've heard since childhood: Where is the treasure often hidden?Of course it is the most difficult place to find, and most of them are guarded by monsters or something.The same goes for sales, you have to know that behind the great difficulties, there are great gains, and what you are facing is only rejections from customers, there are no monsters.And among the people who reject you, some of them will become your friends, and the person who may reject you the most will become your "noble person" in the end.

If the customer refuses, it means that he is a little interested in your product; the more interested the customer is, the more serious he will think about it, and the more likely he will refuse.If he is indifferent to your suggestions and does not express the slightest idea, it often means that the customer has no desire to buy.

The important thing is that a mature salesperson does not regard rejection as an obstacle to closing, but treats rejection as a friend.This is an important concept in sales—the customer who says no is your friend.Indeed, if the customer's reason for refusal has not been answered satisfactorily by you, he will not buy from you.The customer's rejection may seem to prevent you from closing the deal, but if you can properly solve the customer's problems to his satisfaction, then the next step is to decide to buy-the deal.

There is a salesperson who sells daily necessities for a company.One day, he walked into a small shop to introduce and show the company's products to the owner, but the other party did not respond and treated him indifferently.The salesman was not discouraged at all, and he took the initiative to open all the samples to sell to the shopkeeper.He believes that with his hard work and sales skills, he will surely convince shopkeepers to buy his products.However, unexpectedly, the shopkeeper became furious, drove him out of the shop with a broom, and threatened: "If I see you again, I will break your legs."

Faced with this situation, he was not angry and emotional, and determined to find out why this person was so angry.Therefore, he inquired many ways to understand the truth of the matter. It turned out that the products in the store could not be sold, resulting in a backlog of products and occupying a lot of funds.The owner is worried about how to deal with it.After understanding these situations, he cleared up various channels and re-arranged so that a big customer bought the owner's inventory at cost price.Needless to say, he was warmly welcomed by the owner.

As you can see, the salesman overcame his setbacks, and he succeeded.Of course, the salesperson should understand that the customer's rejection cannot be easily resolved.However, the way you deal with setbacks in sales can have a big impact on your future relationship with him.For example, if, according to the results of the negotiation, you think that you cannot make a deal with him for a while, you should try to open the door to renegotiation in the future, so as to have the opportunity to discuss these differences again.Therefore, always be prepared to encounter setbacks.If you still want to win in the end, then when you encounter setbacks that you cannot overcome for the time being, you should "retreat honorably" without showing any displeasure.

Since the customer who made the rejection is our friend, we should have the courage to face the customer's rejection.This is a realistic problem before every salesperson, especially a newcomer.Rejection is an instinctive reaction of the customer to the salesperson.In fact, every salesperson is also a customer in life, and has the experience of others selling products to you, and the experience of you rejecting others.But often when we are rejected by others in sales, we forget that we have also rejected others.Many friends become very frustrated after being rejected by customers several times, and they don't even have the courage to take a step forward.At this time, should you think about it: When others sell to you, why do you reject others?When encountering rejection from customers, please remember: this is a test for you. If you stick to your position and show no fear, the rejection of others will reveal the best side of your nature.Whenever you are rejected by others, think of people like Napoleon and Grant, heroes who rose from opposition and rejection.

Strategic preparation for customer rejection

The salesperson's strategic preparation should include the following aspects:

First, fully understand your own products, prices, trading conditions and sales policies of the company, especially the performance, advantages and disadvantages, usage and maintenance methods of the products you sell, and you must be familiar with them.Failure to do this is a salesperson's negligence.

Second, understand the market dynamics, master the market conditions of similar products, the situation of competitors in the same industry, and the supply and demand trends of the products you sell.Because customers will compare your products with those of your competitors, you have to figure out how to explain them to him.

Third, you must understand the personal situation of the client and the business situation of the transaction party, and think about what reasons they may raise based on your own practical experience.Simulate answering these questions.In this regard, the preparation of standard responses is a better method.The specific procedure is:

Step [-]: Write down the rejections of customers you encounter every day;
Step [-]: Carry out classification and statistics, and arrange the order according to the number of times each rejection occurs, and the one with the highest frequency of occurrence is ranked first;

Step [-]: Prepare appropriate responses through group discussion, and organize them into articles;
The fourth step: everyone should memorize;

Step [-]: Let the experienced salesperson act as the customer, and everyone takes turns to practice the standard response;

Step [-]: Revise and improve the deficiencies found during the practice through discussion;
Step Seven: Re-practice the revised responses and finalize them for future use.It is best to print it as a booklet and distribute it to everyone for reading at any time, so that it can be used freely and blurted out.

The scope of customer rejection is very wide. Generally speaking, you should understand and master the content that may be involved in customer rejection.Of course, it is impossible for you to predict every rejection from customers, but if you do it with your heart, you can still think of it nine times out of ten.Take your time, save some answers, and keep them handy.

For example: Ryoji Okujo, who has been the No.16 salesman of Nissan for 1 years, has prepared 100 items of pros and cons in order to sell a car.

When the other party does not want to buy a car, he lists more than 100 disadvantages of not owning a car to persuade him, for example:

(1) What should I do if the child has a fever in the middle of the night and the ambulance does not come?
(2) Do you want your child to look enviously at the neighbor's car?

(3) The family cannot travel by car together. Does the problem lie with the head of the family?
(4) Don't you care about the inconvenience of daily shopping because you don't have a car?

Here are the pros and cons of buying a car:
(1) In case of an emergency in the middle of the night, the child can drive himself to the hospital.

(2) You can imagine the joyful expression of the child - he no longer has to envy the neighbor's car
(3) Next summer, your whole family can enjoy a car trip.

(4) You can go to the supermarket for shopping by car, where the products are complete, fresh, and the price is cheap, which can save a lot of household expenses.

When to Handle Rejection

Through the study of thousands of salesmen in the United States, it is found that the chances of serious objections from customers encountered by excellent salesmen are only 1 times that of poor salesmen.What is the reason?

The survey found that excellent salesmen can not only understand the reasons for rejection put forward by customers, but also give a relatively satisfactory answer, and can choose the right time to reply.And salespeople who know when to deal with customer rejections will achieve greater results.

Before we talk about how to seize the right moment to deal with customer rejections, we must first talk about how to find out the real meaning behind customer rejections.This has been mentioned in the section "Methods of identifying customer rejections", and I will add a little more below.

After the client rejects, of course you have to reply.But you have to resist the urge to talk and don't rush to answer.You only have one brain after all, and sometimes when you're trying to rush to an answer, you miss what the customer is saying, and you risk losing information that will help you close the sale later in the sale.This is not to say that you ignore the customer's rejection, but to emphasize that you must be methodical and calm.Don't rush to answer and don't interrupt your buyer.Such as:

Customer: The function of this copier seems to be slightly inferior to that of others.

Salesperson: This copier is our latest product. It has the function of zooming in and out. There are three buttons to adjust the shade. It can print 15 sheets per minute. The copying quality is very clear...

Customer: It’s not fast to print 15 sheets per minute. The copying speed of other companies can reach 20 sheets per minute. There are six scales to adjust the shade. It doesn’t seem to be so difficult to operate. The quality of the copy is much clearer than yours...

You see, this salesperson tried to deal with a rejection and ended up in a whole lot of trouble.

That's because he didn't try to figure out what the rejection was all about.What if you could try to figure out what the rejection was about, and not rush to deal with the client's objection?

Customer: The function of this copier seems to be slightly inferior to that of others.

Salesperson: May I ask which copier do you think this function is worse than?

The customer's answer may be that he has encountered a XX brand copier, which has six scales and can adjust the intensity of the copy, so he feels that your copier seems to be poor.

Just one more question, the only rejection you need to deal with is one, which can be easily handled.

Therefore, before dealing with customer rejection, please try to figure out what the rejection is all about.After figuring out what the rejection is all about, you need to seize the right moment to deal with the client's rejection.

Pre-emptively deal with rejection
Preventing problems before they happen is the best way to eliminate customer rejection.If the salesperson perceives that the customer will make some kind of rejection, it is best to raise it and give an explanation before the customer raises it. This will enable the salesperson to take the initiative and pre-emptively strike, thereby avoiding failure by correcting the customer's view or refuting the customer's opinion. cause unhappiness.

It is entirely possible for the salesperson to figure out the reason for the customer's rejection in advance and deal with it first, because the occurrence of customer rejection has a certain regularity.For example, when a salesperson talks about the advantages of a product, the customer is likely to think about the problem from the worst side.Sometimes customers do not raise any objections, but their facial expressions, actions, and the words and tone of the conversation may reveal something. The salesperson is aware of this change and can answer it first.

In the face of all kinds of customers, experienced salesmen will soon know what questions customers may ask. At this time, they can follow their own thinking and good techniques, ask questions that they care about at the right time, and take the initiative to express their concerns. So a potential reason not to buy, and then that reason can be refuted.This will make customers feel that you are sincere and straightforward, and you have nothing to hide.for example:
Salesperson: "It's not about price, is it? You see we're on par with everyone else, and probably beat anyone."

Customer: "It's not the price. Your price is fine."

Salesperson: "Is there a problem with system compatibility?"

Customer: "No, I don't think so."

Salesperson: "So in terms of configuration, service, or warranty?"

Customer: "No, none of these seem to be a problem."

Salesperson: "So you think there is a problem with our company's credibility and reliability?"

Of course, in doing this, you take a certain risk, because the potential reasons you cite for not buying may be ones that the customer has never thought of before.Therefore, if you do not have enough experience to accurately judge what the customer really thinks, it is inappropriate to preemptively deal with the customer's rejection, because this has violated the principle of "trying to figure out what is going on with the rejection" before handling the customer's rejection. in principle.

Deal with it immediately after rejection
Typically, unsolicited objections from customers should be answered and explained immediately.Questions and answers, this is a normal conversation.Otherwise, customers will be unhappy or doubt you and your product because they are not being respected and given timely feedback.

However, answering right away does not mean that you have to answer in a hurry.It's okay to relax and show that you're not overwhelmed by his questions.Pausing for a moment can give you a chance to consider the appropriate way to answer a question - although sometimes a client asks a general question, you can answer it immediately without rushing it, it is best to weigh it in your head first.This pause is important so that the client will pay more attention to your answer.

Generally speaking, you'd better deal with customer rejections immediately when faced with the following situations;
(1) When the customer's refusal is an important matter of his concern;

(2) When you have to deal with the instructions before you can continue to sell;
(3) When the customer can request the order immediately after you handle the rejection.

Withhold processing after rejection
Withholding of processing after refusal includes the following:
1.delay answering

Some refusals, if answered immediately, will destroy the sales plan and affect your explanation of the main problem.For example, you can postpone the answer for a period of time for the irrelevant rejection raised by the customer at the beginning of the negotiation when you obviously do not understand the relevant situation.You can say, "I see what you mean, and you'll see what's going on later."

If you really can't give a satisfactory answer to the customer's refusal, you shouldn't force yourself to answer immediately, but you should temporarily put the refusal on hold and tell the customer frankly the reason why you can't answer.

For example, for some professional and technical questions raised by customers, you can answer them after consulting relevant experts, or you can wait for the information to be verified before replying to the other party next time.Doing so can make customers who have doubts in their hearts feel that you are not talking about it and dealing with him casually.

Of course, if you can become an expert in this field yourself, you will be fine.

If you don’t want to cause displeasure or even resentment because you answer a certain question in front of the client, you don’t have to answer it right away, and explain it when the time is right.But don't let him feel that you can't explain it, so he will think that this product is indeed defective.

2.no answer

If the customer asks some questions that have nothing to do with negotiating business, or is actually some very false excuses or self-expressive questions, or asks about your evaluation and opinion of competitors, then you don't have to answer.For the information that the company needs to keep confidential, it should bypass and not give a positive answer, or explain it tactfully and apologize.

Transform customer rejection attitudes
Dare to speak first to customers

(End of this chapter)