Rebuttals: Do They Help Or Hurt Your Sales?

(picking up from another thread on a sensitive area that may be of widespead interest). To simply state from my experience, I've found rebuttals to hinder my sales and, indirectly, led to a system I've used to fantastic success.

Originally Posted by Wonderboy (picking up from another thread on a sensitive area that may be of widespead interest). To simply state from my experience, I've found rebuttals to hinder my sales and, indirectly, led to a system I've used to fantastic success.

Please give an example of a rebuttal.

Originally Posted by Jolly Roger Please give an example of a rebuttal.

Check my definition of a rebuttal from the prior thread in response to BossMan.

Originally Posted by Wonderboy Check my definition of a rebuttal from the prior thread in response to BossMan.

I found the thread. Do you use rebuttals to change minds?

I dunno I am skeptical of anyone who is in selling and doesn't use rebuttals.

Most prospects are going to have questions and concerns that need to be addressed before they buy.

For instance, I sell a vacation package over the phone on a one call close. It is an inbound call atmosphere. Prospects were mailed a Direct Mail Certificate , which gives all the terms and conditions of the offer other than the price. We even let the prospect know it is one call per household, and advise them to call with their traveling companion.


The main objections I receive fall into 2 categories:

Credibility or Affordability.

To be considered very good at vacation Sales, a person should close about 20% of the people they talk to.

For instance, people will say let me call you back. Which is just a stall tactic or way for them to say no. Some will say they really did need to think about it. So I did an experiment, after using all the rebuttals I could think of I would set up a call back with the prospect for 72 hours later. Guss What? Out of 120 call backs, it resulted in only 2 sales. So obviously buyers are liars.

At the end of the call, people have all the facts and information regarding the product that they are ever going to have. If they don't make a positive decision then, it is not going to have happen ever.

In my job, if we didn't use rebutalls everyone would go home broke.

Originally Posted by MattyB I dunno I am skeptical of anyone who is in selling and doesn't use rebuttals. Most prospects are going to have questions and concerns that need to be addressed before they buy.

I'm skeptical, too, MattyB!

Salespeople who don't have the assertiveness quality (a quality of highly successful salespeople) that allows them to address sensitive issues and discuss them openly with their prospects suffer from "fear of handling objections." I am not in favor of aggressiveness in selling, but assertiveness is essential.

Smart salespeople want to hear objections so they can be dealt with. Fearful salespeople hope objections never rear their head, but when they do, they rationalize that they need to move on to a different prospect because the first prospect "didn't have what they were offering" instead of dealing with the prospect's objection head-on.

But addressing issues and discussing them openly is exactly what prospects need. Not every customer will buy, but many will, because they've reached a point of being comfortable with the purchase and therefore proceed with it.

Originally Posted by Wonderboy (picking up from another thread on a sensitive area that may be of widespead interest). To simply state from my experience, I've found rebuttals to hinder my sales and, indirectly, led to a system I've used to fantastic success.

What field of sales is your experience in Wonderboy?

Originally Posted by Skip Anderson I'm skeptical, too, MattyB! Smart salespeople want to hear objections so they can be dealt with. Fearful salespeople hope objections never rear their head, but when they do, they rationalize that they need to move on to a different prospect because the first prospect "didn't have what they were offering" instead of dealing with the prospect's objection head-on. But addressing issues and discussing them openly is exactly what prospects need. Not every customer will buy, but many will, because they've reached a point of being comfortable with the purchase and therefore proceed with it.

Couldn't agree with this more.

With a rebuttal you'll discover a customers fears and what they really need. At that point, you're able to address the issue and hopefully create a happy customer: which is a buying customer.

Originally Posted by Houston What field of sales is your experience in Wonderboy?

Carpet cleaning phone rep, newspaper telemarketing (on subscriptions), customer service rep on cable services are my main ones Houston.

Why not beat the prospect to the punch? Look, it's extremely rare that a prospect doesn't have some sort of skepticism about your product. So what I used to do when I was out in the field was talk about my products flaws (every product has them), incorporate them into my sales presentation and overcome them.

It worked like a charm too, because the prospect isn't expecting you to say anything negative about your own product. Heck, nobody does that. And when you use this technique, you gain a whole new measure of credibility with the prospect - at least I did.

Dale King