We dread them, yet they're inevitable: our customers' objections!

So rather than seeing them as obstacles, some salespeople see them as real opportunities to better understand their customers' needs and enhance the value of their offer.

How can you respond to them as effectively as possible?

Here are a few tips on how to make your teams more effective in handling customer objections, a key stage in a successful sales cycle.

Several methods exist to deal effectively with objections, one of the most widely recognized being the CRAC method (Clarify - Reformulate - Argue - Control).

By training your sales teams in this method, they'll be better equipped to respond to objections and turn them into business opportunities.

The first crucial step in responding to an objection is to ask as many questions as possible to fully understand the obstacles expressed by the customer: whether they stem from a misunderstanding or a bad experience, the response will be different.

Sample questions:

It's also important to reformulate the customers’ objections in order to reassure them that we've understood their concerns and issues. This allows us to position ourselves as market experts and offer a solution tailored to the customer's specific problem.

Example of sentence structure:

This is the time to defend your offer and present its advantages and added value. You need to highlight how your solution specifically solves the needs expressed by the customer.

To reinforce the credibility of your offer, it's important to present concrete examples of satisfied customers, such as testimonials or case studies that demonstrate the success of your product or service.

Your sales reps can here apply methods such as APB (Advantage - Proof - Benefit) or CAB (Characteristic - Advantage - Benefit).

Before considering the objection dealt with, it's important to check that we've answered the problem raised by the customer and that we've succeeded in reassuring him.

It's also an opportunity to check that the customer has all the information he needs to make his decision.

Sample questions:

In addition to following the four steps of this method, to deal with objections in the best possible way, your sales teams will need to practice active listening and demonstrate empathy and perseverance. Be careful, however, that they don’t insist too much, and know when to stop to preserve a good relationship with the customer.

In order to be as comfortable as possible when dealing with customers, the best way to handle objections is to have practiced beforehand.

We therefore advise you to organize training sessions dedicated to handling the most frequent objections that impact the most your business. Our AI Insights feature helps you to identify them quickly:

Not receiving your AI Insights analysis? Find out how to receive it here.

Once you've prepared the content of your coaching session with AI Insights, think about a dynamic format for the session.

For example, you could take a ball (yes, a ball!) and form a circle with your team. The idea: one salesperson throws the ball to another, evoking an objection. The latter then catches the ball and responds, then throws the ball with the same or another objection. And so on.

This will enable them to get used to responding to objections without being caught short by a customer.

You can also organize a coaching session by sharing the best responses to objections made by your sales reps during real customer meetings, illustrated with Modjo snippets.

And why not also rely on peer learning, for example by organizing a challenge to reward the employee who has shared the most objections over a given period?

As you can see, the most important thing is to prepare your sales teams by providing them with as much information as possible to respond effectively to your customers' objections.

They'll feel more at ease in the field when dealing with them, and will be better able to secure their deals.