There’s a fundamental truth about clients and customers that most business owners don’t take the time to understand, and their marketing suffers as a result.

Are you making the same mistake?

It’s this: assuming your target market wants what you’re selling.

The humility of entrepreneurship

However proud you are of what you do, it’s time for a reality check.

Your ideal client probably didn’t wake up this morning thinking about your business. Much higher on their list of priorities will have been breakfast, the school run, why the bathroom tap is leaking, whether Auntie Nora’s still poorly.

As an entrepreneur, your business is your whole world. To others, not so much. So stay humble, and take a step back.

If you hope to sell, let’s say, pension planning to your dream customer, they first need to be aware of you and your business.

Once your perfect prospect knows who you are and what you do, you can turn your attention to making a sale. The trick is choosing how best to do that.

“Objection handling”, a marketing must-do

Any business owner worth their salt knows a good way to promote their service or product, but there’s another, superior option.

The good way? Showcase the benefits your product or service provides – how it’ll help people gain or achieve the things they want, and avoid or eliminate the things they don’t.

The better way? Help the customer overcome their objections.

Remember: no one wants to buy from you, at least not at first. You’ll never hear “Take my money!” before “Well, yeah, I suppose… but what about… ?”

By anticipating your clients’ gripes and complaints up front, you make it that much harder for them to say no to your offer. Leave their doubts unaddressed, and you’re letting sale after sale slip through your greasy fingertips.

Now, every service or product comes with its own unique set of potential objections, but there are some that apply no matter what you sell. Handle these, and you’re three-quarters of the way there.

3 of the most common objections and how to obliterate them

“This won’t work for someone like me.”

How should you tell prospective clients that your product or service delivers proven results for people in the same circumstances as them?

You shouldn’t. You should show them.

Let your previous customers’ words do the selling for you. Any half-decent psychologist will say it’s hard to argue with social proof, and as a business owner, there are ways you can use this to your advantage.

On your website, video testimonials from satisfied customers are best. There’s no substitute for seeing someone wax rhapsodic about a service or product in real time.

(Cynics will say customer videos are scripted, or the participants have been paid. Mature, level-headed readers like yourself know the truth.)

Embedded reviews from sites like Google or VouchedFor work well too, and have the added bonus of a star rating which lends a subtly impressive touch. In printed materials, written testimonials are a perfect alternative, but try to include pictures of the clients in question to boost credibility.

Let’s continue.

“I can get the same results on my own.”

The problem you face as a business owner isn’t just that no one WANTS to buy from you. It’s that no one wants to buy from YOU.

Because after all, who are you? What can customers get from you that they can’t from competitors or, worse, from teaching themselves on Google?

The answer should be obvious. But you need to make it obvious.

So if you have an industry accreditation or affiliation, get that logo on your marketing literature or website pronto. It’s well-established that displays of authority help to build trust, and marketing-wise there are few greater examples than a big shiny badge.

Any relevant qualifications are worth sharing too, especially when a prospect’s objection is that they could answer their query online without your help. Unless that armchair critic is willing to sit the same exams as you, you’ll always have wisdom they don’t – and that’s worth paying for.

Also, don’t forget that even if you’re relatively new to your particular game, you’re still more experienced than someone who doesn’t do it seven days a week. So say that loud and proud, but remember your goal is to persuade, not proclaim.

Take pension planning as an example. Which of these statements is the most persuasive?

• “I’ve got more than 15 years’ experience in pension planning.”
• “I’ve got more than 15 years’ experience in pension planning, which has given me in-depth knowledge of the market that I’ll use to secure the deal that’s right for you.”

Here’s the point: not only does no one want to buy from you, they also don’t care what you do. They only care what you can do for them, which brings us to our last objection.

“It costs way too much.”

Like it or not, money is always on your clients’ minds. And they’ll only fork out their hard-earned cash if they think it’s worth their while, which leaves you just a few choices.

Option one: publish your fees in full, giving customers’ instant confidence in you and your offering. Just know that if you’re selling a service rather than a product, the fees alone aren’t enough; you also need to explain what people get for their money.

Option two: hide the fees (for now) and highlight the advantages instead. Of course, at some point you’ll have to tell people how much to pay you. But you can draw them in first by discussing how your service or product will transform or enrich or complete their lives.

And there are some other ways to handle the “expensiveness” objection that you might recognise.

“It costs way too much”? That’s not what all the happy customers in these testimonials and reviews and videos seem to think.

“It costs way too much”? Well, cheaper alternatives don’t match the standards set by this highly qualified, accredited, and experienced professional.

Objection handling isn’t a one-time task. It’s a toolkit you should return to whenever the sales curve starts to flatten or you’re launching something fresh.

You can’t change the fact that no one wants to buy from you. But with the right tactics, you can convince them to do it anyway.

An easier way to sell more

You’re now armed with all the know-how you need to quash your customers’ protests and hang-ups. But there’s one objection we haven’t handled yet.

Yours. And it’s this:

“I’ve not got time.”

As a busy and successful business owner, your biggest obstacle is finding a spare moment to sort out your marketing. So let us do it instead.

Start by emailing hi@theyardstickagency.co.uk or calling 0115 8965 300. We’ll get to know your company and your customers, then help you promote your offering with affordable, unobtrusive services that hundreds like you already benefit from and recommend.

Now how can you object to that?