How to Overcome these 8 Frequent Sales Objections
If you want to write a good copy, you need to address those 8 common sales objections.
Answering sales objections is the very standard way to build your sales pitch.
However, when writing a copy, you're not in front of your prospect.
So you need to anticipate and answer all the objections he might have... upfront.
But contrary to a live sales pitch where you adapt your speech to the person you're talking to, you need to make sure to address all of your persona's objections in your copy.
So how to find and most of all not forget any objection your prospect might have?
How to then answer accordingly to each of those?
That's what we're gonna see next.
Objections depend on those 3 factors
You won't find this information anywhere else on the Internet.
It is the result of a very personal reflection that led me to create the following framework.
Basically, I've noticed that the objections you need to address in your copy depends on those 3 factors:
- The level of awareness of your audience
- The price of your offer
- Your business niche
Let me explain.
Factor #1: The Level of Awareness
You need to be clear if your audience is either cold, warm or hot. If it is cold, it means they have never heard about you, and may not be aware of the problem they have. They don't know the solutions for this problem either.
They will need some pedagogy to make them believe the problem they have is important and that they need to fix it now. They also need elements that demonstrate your authority and why you're a viable solution to their problem since they don't know you yet.
On the contrary, if it's a hot audience, they already know you and are aware of your solution. At this point the sales objections might be more about the price itself or if it is gonna work for them.
The colder the audience, the more objections you have to answer.
Factor #2: The Price
If you sell a product at $10 you won't have to answer as many objections than for a product at $1000.
The more expensive, the more demonstration of value you need to bring. You need to have more proof that it is actually the best option they have out-there to solve their problem. You also need to tell them how good the after-sales service is (which you can avoid for a cheaper product). You probably need to add more money back guarantees for a more expensive offer.
The more expensive the offer is, the more objections you have to answer.
Factor #3: The Niche
You must understand that every market is different. And therefore you need to adapt your sales pitch to each of them.
Let's do an example to be more clear.
Offer: Buy this luxury oak table for $699 only this week.
Specific objections:
- What are the dimensions? It might not fit in my kitchen.
- Where the oak is coming from? I really care about my impact on the planet.
You see how this simple offer requires you to tackle 2 very specific objections. And you will lose so many sales by forgetting to.
Let's do a last example to make sure you grasped this concept.
Offer: Buy my tea-based method to lose 15 pounds in 28 days.
Specific objections:
- I don't like tea.
- What if I stop drinking tea. Will I gain back all the pounds I've just lost?
As you can see, the kind of objections you need to address are very different depending on your niche. That's what makes the great difference between ok copywriters and great ones.
But luckily for you, a lot of objections you need to answer are common to all niches.
That's what we'll see in the next section.
8 examples of common sales objections
I've selected the 8 most common sales objections every copy has to address—whatever the niche.
To be a bit more practical, I will illustrate those objections with real world examples from diabetesfreedom.org (no affiliation, it is purely for the sake of the exercise).
1. Why should I give you my attention?
There are tons of distractions all over the Internet and people are fighting to get our attention. So you must give your reader a very good reason to stay and read your sales letter.
With this kind of dramatic headline, we have a very good reason to stay and read.
The copywriter hooked us by directly telling a story in the middle of the action so our natural curiosity forces us to continue to read to know what happens next.
Among other reasons that make us stay on a page:
- Curiosity
- Entertainment
- Oddness
- Greediness
What's in it for me?
That's the next question we ask once we gave our attention.
Why should I listen to you? What's in it for me?
Here the copywriter qualifies the lead:
If you're not diabetic then this page is not for you. However if you are, then this page will change your life since I'm gonna tell you how to reverse your diabetes.
The reader has now a very good reason to stay: maybe he found the solution to one of his most important problems, that may even cause his death...
Who are you?
Then comes the classic question: who the hell are you?
It is a very classic presentation, but yet very effective to relate and connect to his story. Note how precise he was with names, age, career and location. The more precise you are, the more details, the more people are inclined to believe you.
Why should I trust you?
Here again the copywriter has done a great job answering the objection. A classic pattern is to use the "Reluctant Hero" strategy to justify why you are sharing this. Here the copywriter says that he can't stay quiet or it could cost lives, which is a pretty understandable reason.
Here we also tackle the objection: Are you doing all this to make money?
This is too expensive.
Here again the copywriter is doing a great job by contrasting the $3,000 that a treatment usually costs and the $37 his solution costs. The contrast helps put the price into perspective and present the offer as irresistible.
Why should I buy now?
To answer this objection you need to add either scarcity or urgency. Since scarcity is not relevant for a digital product, the author has decided to add free bonuses for people that order now (of course they'll have the same bonuses tomorrow). Also there is no real need to insist on the urgency since it's obvious the sooner you reverse your diabetes, the better.
How are you different from your competitor?
It is important to justify how different from your competitors you are. Here the copywriter is saying that the treatment does not involve medication, diet or exercise which all other treatments are using.
Are you really better than your competitor?
Different is good. Better is great.
Here the copywriter is throwing a stone in the pond by staying that everyone else is wrong. That sugar is not the real cause of diabetes.
Bonus: The Q&A
A great way to tackle specific objections is to do a Q&A section at the end of your copy.
Conclusion
You should have learned a lot if you were not familiar with sales objections already.
As you've seen through the Diabetes Freedom example, a good copy covers those 8 common sales objections... and many more specific!
To identify the right objections you need to tackle, you can use my 3 factors framework:
- Awareness
- Niche
- Price
A+
Vlad Kowsky