This blog is all about is the way you’re selling actually triggering off objections or at the very least, creating more objections than you should be experiencing. To explain this, let me tell you a really simple story, but it’s very powerful if you think about it. You’ll start to notice this everywhere that you start to buy things, and hopefully start to notice it in your own sales process.

I was over at a really great hotel. Had fantastic service during our meeting, and we had coffees and teas and that sort of stuff on the way through. I went up to pay the bill, and I said, “Oh, can I please pay the bill?” The lady behind the counter said, “Sure. How would you like to pay?” And I said, “A credit card’s fine.” She said, “That’s going to attract a 1.5% fee. Is that okay?” She literally said it that way. I said, “Yeah, sure,” but it actually took the edge off the service experience and made me think, “Why should I be paying 1.5%? How much is this actually costing them?”

She could have handled it so much more professionally. Obviously, if she was trained and coached by her boss, who needs to take responsibility for this, but let me just talk about three things that could have been changed.

1. Syntax

The first thing is just the syntax, the order in which that conversation happened. I walk up and I say, “Hey, I’d like to pay the bill.” Now, she could have said, “Certainly, would you prefer to pay by cash or by savings, because that’s 1.5% less, or is a credit card fine?” If she had said that first, I would have said, oh, yeah, a credit card’s fine, and the 1.5% wouldn’t have been a problem. So, if she had just changed the order of the conversation a little bit, she could have handled it much more professionally and taken the edge out of that.

2. Language

The second is her language, “There’s a 1.5% fee, are you okay with that?” On the other hand, if she changed her language as I said before, maybe said, “Sure, there’s just a 1.5% fee with that for using the credit card. Is that fine?” Now, maybe you can come up with even better language, and in fact, you probably would if you worked it over time, but the bottom line is the language she was using was not the best language. If she said just 1.5% or only 1.5%, it would’ve taken the edge off the number.

3. Tone

The third thing is the tone of the voice, and it’s fascinating. Right now, I’m doing a lot of research and a lot of personal work in relation to my voice, because I’m definitely nowhere near 100% happy with my voice. It started with my goal to start singing this year, but now it’s going way deeper. I’m going, “Wow, I’ve got so much to learn about this thing called my voice,” which is actually a huge part of what I do and selling. So, her tone was really apologetic. It was almost like, “Oh, I’m really sorry. There’s a 1.5% fee. Is that okay?” Now, if she had changed to a tone to be more supportive, or more empathetic, or maybe more friendly—”Sure, there’s a 1.5% fee with that. Is that okay?” If she’d just changed her tone, that part of my brain that goes, “Oh, I don’t like that,” wouldn’t have triggered off, and I’d be more likely to support her in the 1.5% fee.

This might sound really small, but it never ceases to amaze me how many objections are actually being created through the way that we sell rather than are occurring because the customer was going to object. So, just think about that. Is the syntax in terms of the order in which you present information the most effective way? Is the language that you’re using the most effective language? Is the tone of the voice in which you’re responding to, or in fact, just having the general conversation, actually supporting the customer moving through the sales process rather than stopping and objecting?

Have a think about that. Really powerful stuff and very, very important. Hard to do on yourself, but if you start to notice it when you go out and buy other products, you’ll really start to see it, and that should trigger off your brain to go, “I can probably do this better myself.” Remember, sales is meant to be fun, and I’m really hoping you’ll join us at either the Conversion Conference in—probably in your town pretty soon—but in Auckland just after I’m doing this blog. If you can’t make that, there’s a fantastic webinar happening next month, so make sure you check that out, too.