RAB Insights

RAB Research Archive

It's time to put the FUN in fundamentals



Far too often we make presentations to clients without practicing delivering them in advance. It’s the same for practicing addressing objections. Next sales meeting, do a practice drill. One person stands and addresses each objection as fellow salespeople throw them out one at a time.

Pointers for the role-play:
-- Someone throws out an objection like: “Nobody listens to radio anymore,” “I am putting all my budget into digital,” “Our budget is already spent,” etc. My guess is you won’t have a hard time coming up with plenty of objections.
-- The person addressing objections responds. Don’t flinch, remain calm, maintain eye contact, and deliver a response that satisfies the concern.

Role-play example:
-- "Client" – Nobody listens to the radio anymore
-- Salesperson – It can certainly seem that way with all the general interest news talking about digital, satellite, and smartphones. The fact is radio is listened to by 92 percent of every man, woman, and teenager every week according to Nielsen Audio ratings.

Pointers for real life:
-- Maintain eye contact
-- Smile to reduce stress for yourself and the “client”
-- Use some word or phrase at the beginning of your response to give yourself time to mentally form a question. My favorite phrase is: “That’s interesting.” It gives me a second or two to think of a question that relates. Questions do two things: Help uncover the true meaning of the objection and get the client talking, which helps bring down “the wall” that clients put up when we ask for approval on our proposal.
-- Respond with a similar response to what you practiced in the sales meeting and relate it and your recommendation to the client objectives you uncovered during the Client Needs Analysis.
-- Ask again for the order

Source: John Potter, RAB