1. Sales Process • Preapproach • Approach the customer • Determining Needs • Presenting the Product • Handling Questions & Objections • Closing the Sale • Suggestion Selling • Reassuring & Follow-Up

2. Handling Objections • Objections are concerns, hesitations, doubts, or other honest reasons a customer has for not making a purchase • Objections should be viewed as positive because they give you an opportunity to present more information to the customer • Excuses are insincere reasons for not buying or not seeing the salesperson • Customers often use excuses to conceal real objections • Always try to differentiate between objections and excuses so that you can address the real issues

3. Handling Objections • Analyze your presentation in advance, and anticipate possible objections • Incorporate anticipated objections into your presentation • Most common objections: need, product, source, price, and time • Need Objections: occur when customer has a conflict between wanting something but not truly needing it. • “I really like this sweater, but it doesn’t match anything I own.” • Product Objections: are based on the product itself. Concerns about size, fit, style, etc • “I’m not sure this dress is appropriate for work.”

4. Handling Objections • Source Objections: occur because of negative past experience with the firm or brand • “The last time I purchased from your firm, the order was three weeks late.” • Price Objections: based on the price. • Common with high-quality goods • “That’s more than I wanted to spend.” • Time Objections: a hesitation to buy immediately • Could be excuses

5. Handling Objections • There are four basic steps to handling objections from customers: • Listen carefully • Acknowledge the customer’s objections • Restate the objections • Answer the objections

6. Handling Objections • Specialized methods for handling objections: • Boomerang –return the objection to the customer in as a selling point • Ex.- Customer: “This ski jacket is so lightweight. It can’t possibly keep me warm.” Salesperson: “The jacket is so lightweight because of an insulation material called Thinsulate, which will keep you warmer than fiberfill.” • Question – ask the customer questions to learn more about their objection • Ex: Customer: “I don’t think my sister will like it.” Salesperson: “Why don’t you think she’ll like it?”

7. Handling Objections • Superior Point – acknowledge objections as valid and offset them with other features and benefits that are superior • Ex: Customer: “You’re prices are higher than other clothing stores.” You respond: “That’s true, but we offer the highest quality material and fabrics.” • Denial – answer objection with proof and accurate information • Ex: Customer: “I think that this shirt will shrink.” You respond “Actually it won’t because the fabric is made of 50% cotton and 50% polyester

8. Handling Objections • Demonstration – answer objection by illustrating the features. “Seeing is believing” • Ex: “I can’t believe that food won’t stick to the beaters.” You respond “Let me demonstrate for you.” • Third Party – use a previous customer who can offer testimonial about the product • Ex: “I can’t imagine that this will save me $1000 in my dry cleaning bills.” you respond “You know Ms. Smith, I had a customer say the same thing last year and now he praises the machine.”