How to use objections to build trust and get new clients

Author: Rodney Daut

In today’s post I will show you a counter-intuitive way to answer objections that builds trust and make a person want to work with you.

But first, I’d like to recap what we’ve been through over the last few days.

In the previous three posts, we discussed how to let people know what you do in such a way that they start talking about their problems … the trust-building effect of good listening … and the three questions that increase a person’s willingness to work with you.

The last question was …

“Is there anything that might make you hesitate to work with me?”

This question gets the person to reveal why they might not work with you.

Before I tell you how to handle these objections, I think it’s important to know how to think about objections.

Imagine the following scenario.

Two couples show up to an open house.

The couple that shows up first, let’s the agent show them through all the bedrooms, the backyard, the kitchen etc.  The first couple doesn’t ask any questions.  After some time, they say “Thanks for letting us see the house.”  And they leave.

The second couple comes to the house and lets the agent show them through the rooms too.  But after they’ve had the tour, they start asking questions.

“What’s this neighborhood like at night?”

“How are the schools?”

“When was the last time the roof was replaced? I don’t like how it looks.   A house my friend bought needed to have the roof replaced a few years after she bought it and it cost thousands to fix.”

Which couple seems most interested in the house?

Couple Number One or Couple Number Two?

Couple Number Two is the most interested.  They asked questions about the house.  Questions you would only ask if you were seriously considering living in it.

If you don’t care, there is no reason to ask.

I bring this up because some people who are peppered with questions and objections about their service, have concluded that the person is not interested.

I’m sure you can see now that this is far from the truth.

In fact, objections show the person is interested.  They want to know more.  And they trust you to answer their questions.

I say this so that you can see the positive value of objections.

You might even smile when you are given an objection because the person is actually revealing to you what it takes for them to say yes.

That’s why we ask for an objection before asking for a sale.

How do you best handle the objection?

So you’ve asked “Is there anything that might make you hesitate to work with me?”

And when you get the answer, do you then launch into a brilliant argument that shows them the errors in their thinking?

You might have guessed that the answer is no.

So what do you do?

Instead, you tell them why it might make sense for a person to have that objection.

They’ll often nod their head. (They’re thinking “Yeah, this person gets me.”)

Then … and only then … do you answer the objection.

But …

You do it in a way that honors their objection.

You NEVER, EVER make the person WRONG.

To show you how to do this, I’ll give you a few examples of how Anne handles the two most common objections she gets.

Objection #1: That kind of stuff doesn’t work

“I’ve done so many of these New-Age programs and none of them has worked.”

Here’s how Anne answers:

This is something that bothers me about a lot of New-Age programs. For example, I really like Wayne Dyer and have read most of his books. When he promoted them, I always assumed that he was trotting out the one person whose life was changed by his book. Very few people’s lives are transformed by books. I notice that these people give you and me testimonials to look at. I enjoy testimonials, but they don’t carry a lot of weight with me. I like there to be science behind the things that I do and, if The Lefkoe Method wasn’t evidence-based, I wouldn’t be a practitioner. We have three good pieces of University research that say that the method eliminates the target behaviors studied and that the changes are long-lasting.

Notice, how she agreed with the person’s objection.  She then elaborates on it.  And finally, she addresses the person’s concern in a very respectful manner using evidence.

Objection #2: The “price objection.”

A person might say “Two-hundred dollars is a lot of money.”

Here’s how Anne responds.

Yes, $200 is a lot of money. Let me put it in context. When I was 43 years old I became very depressed and I went for conventional therapy. It was excellent and I simply haven’t been depressed in the 27 years since. It took 18 months, involved about 80 sessions and at the modest rates back then ($125 a session), it cost $10,000.

I had a client with depression back in 2006. It took six sessions and $1200 to resolve her depression. I am still in communication with her and she has been through some very difficult things in her life — a bankruptcy because her husband used too much leverage in the real estate market … and an experience of her son visiting Grandma in the Middle East when the Israelis started bombing. He was so close to one explosion that he was knocked over by the air concussion. She did not get depressed under either of the circumstances.  Working with other depressed clients has also taken about six sessions.

Again, notice that Anne starts out by agreeing with her potential client.  Then she tells a story to make her point about the value of sessions vs. the value of the therapy she had done previously.  

She shows quite effectively that the therapy she had done was far more expensive in two different ways.  It cost more money and it cost a LOT more time.

Most people don’t want to spend years solving a problem, they’d like a solution in a matter of months.  So this way of handling the objection works well.

Stories are a great way to communicate a point especially stories with details.  But the story would not work very well if she didn’t precede it with a sentence that let her future-client know she took her views seriously.

Anne’s first word in response to the objection is “yes.”

In fact, you really can’t go wrong with making your first word “yes.”  As it can proceed pretty much anything that you need to say to honor your prospect’s objection.

“I don’t know, why haven’t I heard of your method before?”

“Yes, you haven’t heard of us.  Most people haven’t.  In fact, most people can’t name the top three forms of therapy …”

“What happens if it doesn’t work for me?”

“Yes, I can understand the concern about it not working for you.  In my experience most people respond well to The Lefkoe Method.  However, when it doesn’t it’s typically pretty obvious early on that it’s not working. And if that’s the case, I will encourage you to find another approach that will work for you.”