Ryan Dohrn tells Deb from Orlando that objection handling is a skill requiring deliberate practice, not improvisation. He recommends creating flashcards with common objections and responses, then using the Feel, Felt, Found framework with story-based replies instead of flat statistics to connect emotionally with prospects.
What's going on, friends and fans? Ryan Dohrn here answering your listener questions sent in to ryan@ryandohrn.com. Keep those questions coming and don't forget to subscribe down below. All right, Deb from Orlando. Hey Deb, thanks for this next question sent in. Say Ryan, that's what it says. Say Ryan. Ryan, um, I am new at this job but not new to sales. Having trouble handling objections. There's just so many. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Deb from Orlando. So, Deb, you may not want to hear this, and a lot of people don't want to hear it, but maybe you do because you're asking for help. You're going to need to practice this out. Remember, I've said this many times, amateurs wing it, professionals practice. Okay, you want to be a pro? You got to practice. Now, think about this, um, the Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Scottie Shuffler, any of these professional golfers, they could beat most of us with their putter. Yet they still hit thousands of golf balls a year because professionals practice and amateurs kind of wing it. So what I'd encourage you to do is grab 10 index cards. On the front of those index cards, write the objections that you're getting on a very regular basis. Then on the back of the index card, write out what you believe is the best answer. Now maybe you would work with your business coach or sales coach, maybe you work with another colleague, your sales manager, whatever, to come up the best reply on the back. Now remember, in handling objections, one of the worst things you can do is just answer objections flatly back with statistics. It's just pretty boring and it's kind of flat. What I like to use is a good old-fashioned sales philosophy of feel, felt, found. So when someone gives me an objection, I'm gonna say, you know, I understand exactly how you feel. This particular client felt the same way. Feel, felt, found. And what they found out after working with us is these three or four things. Try not to answer objections with statistics because in an emotional world, people don't want a statistical answer. It kind of bums them out. They'd rather use that feel felt found and mention another client you're working with that that used you or your software or your media or whatever to overcome an obstacle or overcome that objection. So I don't know who came up with feel felt found. I feel like it's a Dale Carnegie or Zig Ziglar thing, Brian Tracy thing or whatever. I'll give props. Whoever needs to be given props, old school or not, it just works. So a couple things for you, Deb from Florida: don't answer with statistics, have good success stories, use Feel, Felt, Found, come up with your objection handling postcards or flashcards, whatever you want to call them, and then practice it out. I think a lot of us just really don't want to practice. What's interesting is everybody wants to win the race, but not many people actually want to do the practice. required to win the race. Now, Deb, I'm not saying that's you. You might be a different person. I'm just speaking the truth to all the sales peeps that are out there and out there in Sales Nation. I know that it's a lot of work to answer objections. It's a lot of time consumption and dedication to practicing, but in the end, no matter what you practice at, the more you practice, I mean, typically the luckier you get. I mean, that's just kind of how it is. All right, keep those questions coming to ryan@ryandohrn.com. Love to come to your office, pump up and motivate your sales team, or speak at your national sales conference. I'm doing it all the time around the country and around the world. Reach out to me, let's get on the calendar. Find out more over at ryandohrn.com. Never forget, friends, if sales was easy, everybody'd be doing it, and they're not. We're not crazy. This is a great career. It'll feed your family for a lifetime. All right, we'll see you next week.
