When I do sales training with professional roofing contractors, it’s not uncommon to find that the majority of salespeople are looking for me to give them a silver-tongued response to help them overcome their most common sales objections.

Whether it be price objections, think-about objections, or the “shop around” objections, these are the roadblocks that ultimately get in the way of contractors closing the deal.   

Now as much as you might hope I’d use this article to give you my first, best choice to answer all of these objections,

I think it’s much more important to focus on the sales process. I say this because the sales process the recipe designed to eliminate all objections—other than price or time.   

Whether you follow the six-step I teach or one of the many others being taught, the entire goal of that process is to get the prospect to come to the conclusion that they’d have to be crazy to choose anyone other than you for the project.

If successful, you increase the perceived value of doing business with you and give the prospect something powerful to consider when they’re trying to determine if you’re worth the extra cost. 

The process I teach is designed to help you gain the four commitments necessary for you to close the sale.     

When we teach the process we encourage salespeople to ask commitment questions after the company story and product presentation stages to gain the commitments necessary to ask a trial close question that tees up our proposal.   

So let’s assume after the product presentation, we ask a commitment question and the prospect tells you they’re happy with their product choices. 

We follow with a trial–close question asking: “Great! So, usually at this point, our customers tell us we’re comfortable with your company, we love your product and if you can make this fit into our budget we’d like to schedule the work. Is that where we stand?” 

If they say “no” we shouldn’t give them the price until we understand the reasons for their negative response.

If they say “yes” it now comes down to you dropping your price and then asking them to get on your schedule. 

Now if they tell you they want to “think about it” you can reset the trial-close question you just asked, then find out exactly what it is they need to think about. 

I’d suggest you say the following: “Mr. Prospect, earlier in our discussion you told me that you were comfortable with our company, loved our product and the only thing standing in our way is the affordability. So is it the deposit, the monthly payment, or the total that’s getting in our way?” 

Price and “shop around” objections can also be answered using the sales process but you’re going to need to come to my seminar at the International Roofing Expo on Tuesday, Aug. 10 at 7:45 a.m.

It’s called, "Mastering the Fundamentals Of The Sales Process" and I’ll show you how to use the process to position you as the contractor of choice and eliminate the objections that get in the way.

Happy Selling!