Why you do this session / potential triggers
As a manager, you should be able to show sales reps how to handle objections and get them to practise, practise, practise.
Reps are wary of “objection handling” from the misconception that it’s an aggressive or adversarial thing, and you need to change that. They often fall into the trap of improvising, and you need to watch out for that leading to the rep, company or product being misrepresented.
You might get feedback from the team that there’s a particular objection they are all struggling to handle. You might spot them being caught out when you listen to sales calls, or you could simply make a plan to run sessions regularly to keep everyone’s confidence up.
This guide and the notes template is based on you having a centralised list of common objections for the team, and how you handle them.
What you need to prepare as a manager
You should be prepared to discuss what triggered the session with some specific examples, even if you keep them in private notes and don’t share them with the rep until the session itself.
What the rep needs to prepare
You can use the template itself to help the rep prepare.
They should come to the session highlighting any new objections they’ve come across or with real examples of where they may be struggling. They can also bring examples of where they’ve handled things well for you to consider adding to the shared list for everyone to use.
What you’ll cover
Here’s some guidance for each talking point in the notes template:
What triggered the need for this session
Discuss why you wanted to have the session. If you didn’t share this beforehand, you can add a note here to refer back to later.
Rep input:
- Issues with objections currently documented in the shared list:
- For each issue/objection they’ve noted, discuss the context and other potential solutions – maybe using a role play.
- After reviewing a few issues, step back to consider if there’s something that you could change that would address a root cause – like demo skills training or a product marketing session.
- New objections that need added to the shared list:
- For each new objection, talk about where it’s coming up and how you might handle it.
- Consider if any of the new objections should be added to your shared list.
How can the rep develop based on this?
To make the session valuable for the rep, there should be some action for them to take to make an improvement based on what they’ve learned. This section of the notes is a reminder to add those as actions so you can follow up later.
Some examples here might be:
“Add new objections to the central list”
or
“work with marketing team to craft a one-pager on feature x that is causing confusion”
What next?
Remember to share the notes and actions once you’re done.
Based on how the session went, you might want to update the rep profile with an update or a change in their skills profile.