Objection Handling Part 3: Related Stories & the Power of Storytelling

Handle any objection with these amazing tips!

In Part 3 of our Objection Handling series, we unravel the power of storytelling in sales. Through humorous anecdotes and relatable examples, we'll show you how to shift the focus from price to value and build authentic connections with your customers. 

Here's what you'll discover:

• The surprising impact of storytelling in overcoming price objections - like the tale of Bob, his family lunches, and an overpriced air fryer!
• Why rattling off product features falls flat and how to focus on genuine benefits instead.
• Techniques to showcase your strengths with integrity - without resorting to negative selling against competitors.
• The psychological comfort of relatable stories and how sharing real-life success examples can ease customer doubts.
• Creative ways to break the ice in virtual training sessions using personal storytelling to foster trust and engagement.

Packed with laughs, insights and actionable tips, this episode will transform the way you handle objections and enhance your sales technique. Listen now for a fresh perspective on sales storytelling!

Explore resources, insights, and tools tailored to support your team's success and strategic growth at realitytraining.com.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:01

so wonderful sunday lunch coming up. You are the proud owner of the lundgren 295, so, uh, am I taking?

Speaker 2 0:08

yeah, sorry 295 for this, yeah, yeah, yeah, this lundgren air fries 295 quid. Yeah, would you like to buy it? No, no, no, that's, that's way too expensive well, hang on a minute.

Speaker 1 0:19

I mean, it's got so many features. I've gone through loads that can help you, but there's also a salmon feature. No, no, no, you press this little fish on.

Speaker 3 0:25

Help you.

Speaker 1 0:26

There's also a salmon feature. No, no, no. You press this little fish on the thing and you can put a salmon in there and you can have air fried salmon.

Speaker 2 0:32

Look, I've got friends who've got 70 pound air fryers from Aldi, which are absolutely fantastic. Why am I going to spend two there's?

Speaker 1 0:39

another button. It actually shows you the illustration of French fries and you just put the French fries in there and it cooks the French fries, so you could have the salmon with the I don't eat French fries.

Speaker 2 0:50

Look, I appreciate you trying to keep going, but I'm not going to spend that sort of money on an air fryer. I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 0:55

There's an automatic clean-up button.

Speaker 2 0:57

You press that. They've all got that. They've all got that okay.

Speaker 1 1:06

So let's just Black? No, no, thanks very much. We'll kind of match a stereo in your house if you had one from the 80s, Do you have?

Speaker 2 1:20

any black ash furniture. Hello and welcome to the Reality of Sales training. This is part three of our objection handling series, and this is presented by Bob Morrell and Jeremy.

Speaker 1 1:36

Blake. So how good was I in my methodology of handling your objections. So we didn't have check with partner. No we didn't have my skill in handling a sort of long form objection, empathizing, getting permission, all of that. I just sort of then bundled in additional features that may or may not have any relevance to his desired potential usage of the Lundgren.

Speaker 2 1:58

Well, it's a really good example for listeners of trying to owe the sell, because, once you get to that point where the price is being questioned, you're not handling the objection by trying to point out new features that you haven't talked about before, because that feels like you're trying to push the product or service onto the customer, whereas, as we saw in the first part of this series, when we did a permission-based objection handling, you've got to remind them of why this is the right product for them, not why it's a good product overall, or try and load up on features that may or may not be of interest to that person. You've got to go back to it, and that's a great example of why you should do that. Now, in the second episode we looked at, I need to check with my partner, which, as we know, is kind of a stall, or they don't really want to do that, they just want to delay the decision. We're now going to give you something which is so useful, and it's not just useful for rejection handling. It is useful for selling across the board.

Speaker 2 3:00

Humanity, we have always been storytellers, so a really good nerdy fact for you as a species, humans have only been writing anything down for about 6,000 years. Okay, so if you think that for 200,000 years, virtually, we were hunter-gatherers, nobody wrote anything. We just ate whatever we caught and took things from the trees, or roots or nuts or what have you, we had very healthy lifestyle and we'd sit around the fire in the evening. And what would we do? There's no television, there's no Netflix, there's no cinema, there's no internet. There's nothing to entertain us. So of course, we would tell stories, and that's why, as a species, we love a story. We've got great imaginations, we can engage with stories that mean something to us, and it's only, as I say, in the last 6 000 years we bothered to start writing things down, and for a long time we didn't even write stories down. We wrote down very boring numbers of bushels of corn and things like that. So really, the idea of writing things down is quite new, but storytelling is as old as we are.

Speaker 1 4:10

Now you make an important point. We all love a story, but not everyone can tell a story. Now we know that actors can tell stories and they like. Well, most can. Some might require a script and you might require a script.

Speaker 1 4:26

Salesperson listening to this but we would say part of your job description isn't just to be a features, advantages and benefits man or woman, it's the ability to tell a story. Now, there's a number of ways of doing this and we're going to give you a few ways of doing this, and I think what might be fun is I'm going to create the story based on the Lundgren and based on an imagined conversation that I had about Bob and his wife and Sunday lunches or whatever his situation may be.

Speaker 2 4:53

The only other thing I was going to say on this is it's a very good point. Some people can't tell stories. If you've ever been in a pub and someone's telling jokes and you go, I've got a good one, and then you totally balls up the telling of that joke, so you miss the punchline or you say something too soon or you give something away early doors. If you've ever done that, it's because A you haven't practiced it before, so you're telling it for the first time. So that's a good note. But also, you may not be the kind of person who is naturally good at telling stories and you may also need to practice that. So that's a good reference point. So, jay, let's think about how we use stories. So, bob, 295.

Speaker 1 5:37

And I mean look, it is Wednesday. You mentioned, you've got these strapping lads of yours. Wednesday uh, you mentioned, you've got these strapping lads of yours is the sunday lunch in your home, a lungren sunday lunch this sunday at 295 I've got to say that's such a good close.

Speaker 2 5:55

As an aside, I must come out and say that is such an amazing close. Anybody listening to this write that down. Jeremy is using an assumption. It's so assumptive, yeah, that I'm placing that product in my house and I'm using it this sunday in this house. Now that is incredible. If you learn anything from this podcast well, thank you very much. Start to envision the person using it that might have been enough for you.

Speaker 1 6:24

Actually mightn't it.

Speaker 2 6:25

I would have bought at that and now that. But so if I were you, for the purposes of this exercise you might want to use a slightly more straightforward clay.

Speaker 1 6:32

So 295 pounds. As you know, a leading model on the market.

Speaker 2 6:36

Yeah.

Speaker 1 6:36

You know, backed up by years of you know, brilliant acting in Rocky four and many more and in Rocky IV and many more, and now he has this amazing air fryer. Are you a proud new owner?

Speaker 2 6:45

Well, look, I really appreciate you taking me through it and I think it's a fantastic product. That just my brain's now saying to me. I just wonder if I can get this for a bit less online. That's what I'm currently thinking.

Speaker 1 6:57

Okay, well, I first of all want to say I can completely understand how you feel. We live in a marketplace that, since pandemic, there's the rush to can I get this online? Other people have felt exactly as you have, and in fact, I want to talk about someone in particular who I sold a Lundgren to only three days ago Janice her name is actually, and Janice immediately says the same to me and what she felt was that I must be able to go off and get this online at a different rate. What she found was she could get it online, but it had an additional delivery charge, and the interesting thing that Lundgren's decided to do is this model only is in retailers.

Speaker 1 7:38

There is a much smaller, very basic model that you can buy online, but it's not what we've been talking about today. So what she found was, yes, she could actually slash £86 off the price, but it wasn't a like-for-like comparison. The other thing that I must share with you is other people feel, like you do, not only about the price, but do I really need to make this change? What our buyers have found is that it halves the time for them to cook the sunday lunch, so you have less time preparing, less time cooking and, in a sense, more time eating and chatting, which means you could even walk the dog before you cook the lunch, you could have more time discussing, and just makes the whole thing quite literally half the time okay.

Speaker 2 8:24

Okay, that's fine, screw it, I'll take it. Okay, you've earned the sale for the sale for the sale.

The Power of Storytelling in Sales

Speaker 2 8:29

Now I'm so glad we've done this role play, because jeremy on the fly is something to behold. Now I want you to go back on this recording and listen to the language he's using there. Okay, he's using a related story of someone who felt the same. Now, it's a simple technique. It's called feel, felt, found. I understand how you feel. Other people have felt like you, but what they have found is it's a really simple technique and you tell a related story that brings that situation to life. Now let's be clear on one thing you could tell a related story that brings that situation to life. Now, let's be clear on one thing you could tell a story like that in a negative way. So someone thinks, oh, I'm going to go to a competitor.

Speaker 2 9:12

I understand how you feel. Other people felt that way, but other people found that the competitors were awful for these reasons. Now, that's a negative way to sell. Some people do it and we've got to acknowledge it as a technique. However, it is much stronger and has more integrity. If you say, I understand your fear. Other people have felt that way. What they found is what's better about us? Are these things here? Because your job is not to anti-sell the competitor, it's to make sure the customer understands why you are the best people to buy from. So that's a really good distinction.

Speaker 2 9:45

Now, some of the stuff that Jeremy's using there, of course, adapt the language to suit you. Think about how you might say it, think about how you might change it to suit, and you must also accept that some people are going to listen to that £86 and think, well, I don't mind a more basic version and save £86. I can spend that on my Christmas dinner. So they may make that choice. But it's high integrity and I want to come back to this thing If somebody earns the sale with high integrity, you feel good about it, they feel good about it, it's a win win and there's something very, very good about both sides understanding that and walking away feeling they've both done very well.

Speaker 2 10:31

And there it is. I mean, the thing about an air fryer, of course, is that there is a saving inherent within the buying of it. You're not having an oven on for two hours, you're having it on for a much lower amount of time. It's saving you energy, so that's a great thing. Sometimes you won't have that kind of thing to fall back on. Sometimes it's purely what are the features that are relevant to this customer that we can go back on?

Speaker 1 10:57

The other thing is people like, people like them I think there is an awful acronym called plu or something. People like us. So if I've talked to bob, found out about his boys, found out about his lifestyle yeah, you know this sort of brighton-esque form of living that he's enjoying um, you know, bonfires, all sorts. Yeah, I'm able to then say well, actually interesting that you that you're talking about other people like you have felt the same way.

Speaker 1 11:26

That immediately makes him relax, going good, I'm not a pioneer and then I'm able to say it's interesting that they have found in their lifestyle also with teenage boys or young men in the house. So that's what you're trying to. You're trying to go back now. I remember when we did a huge amount of men in the house. So that's what you're trying to. You're trying to go back now. I remember when we did a huge amount of work in the you'll help me with the years when were we doing all this? Travel agent?

Speaker 2 11:46

work, oh god, I mean right the way through, yeah, but when we were doing all the massive stuff where we were doing all the road shows 2016 2017.

Speaker 1 11:55

That was the kind of core time, yeah so what we were encouraging travel agents to do is, if they discovered that it was, for example, your classic family and there was a six-year-old daughter, a 10-year-old son and one of the sons was interested in football and they thought that this holiday was too much, you would say, well, what another one? Use real stories. What another one has found is that by having a Spanish coach for his football holiday in the clubs, he's able to go back to school and talk about his Spanish coach. I've had people write me letters about the clubs. You're trying to find an affinity, a connection that isn't about features and advantages, because you've tried that and it's not worked, which is why you're now going into this element of storytelling. You're trying to relax someone, someone and it's also showing, because they're all in the past tense.

Speaker 1 12:42

Well, the first one is and I understand how you feel you, I understand you but the other is felt. Others have felt this and they've got over this. Other people have found this and it's no longer an objection for them. The one thing I want to say now is you've got to gather the real story. So if you had a real conversation with someone about the Lundgren, you'd quickly note actually changed her mind, it was half the time for Sunday lunch really impressed her. And then you'd write her name down and that's your story about time saving. And she had two grown up kids, so I'm going to use that. You're trying to mirror it back.

Speaker 3 13:17

Reality Training was created in 2001 by Bob and Jeremy, both actors who met at drama school. Reality delivers training that is effective, memorable and entertaining, with a touch of theatricality to bring it to life. We now have a company of trainers and actors who you can utilise to create change programmes across your business. Please contact us via realitytrainingcom.

Speaker 2 13:48

Now this is a great thing to do in your teams is to share these stories. I spoke to somebody yesterday. They thought it was too expensive. They thought they could get cheaper online. They thought they could get it elsewhere for less. They thought they needed to shop around, whatever those objections are. And then you say, well, they ended up buying from us and the reason was and you explain that reason and then you're arming your team with lots of stories. They can say I'm saying, hey, phil, other people have felt that way. What they found is and they can tell that story now for anybody who's new, who hasn't sold much those are the stories that they need, because it's a very relaxed way of handling that objection. And I also want to come back to something else jeremy said, which is so important.

Speaker 2 14:29

of course, most of us are not early adopters no an early adopter would have paid 500, 600, 600, 700 pounds for the Lundgren when it first came out at full whack, because they want it regardless of the cost. When the first iPhone came out, people didn't care what it cost. They wanted to have it. To be the early adopter. Most of us are not like that. Most of us want the price to come down a bit and for the product to improve a bit so that we get the best value for us, and that's the majority of people. That's where you're going to sell most. The more stories that you can get that illustrate that. People like me who are buying at this point, then I think, yeah, that's me, I'm going to do that.

Speaker 1 15:11

A couple of things that have stuck with me over the years. I remember once you went to buy a fan because you had a hot office and the bloke selling the fans he said there's a range of fans and you didn't know really where to start. You could have gone to the border. He said well, I want to tell you a little thing. See, I have this one at home and my dog goes up to it and he puts his face up to the fan and he just loves it to wash over him.

Speaker 1 15:40

Bob having a dog just goes brilliant, I'll get that one. That's a tiny story. It's hardly a story, it's just an indication of a story. When it's hot, the dog doesn't have to leave his office where he has his fan the fan is on, the dog stays with him and he cools his face on it. I mean, that's enough.

Speaker 2 15:52

Well, this brings me on to another thing, and I'm glad you mentioned that. I think we may do a separate podcast on this, but I remember some of the best interviews I've ever had were when they were extremely relaxed and I was simply telling stories. So how do we know that you could do this job?

Speaker 2 16:09

Those sorts of questions you go. Well, let me give you an example. You say I remember once I need to just tell a story, and if you're any good at telling that story, they can see you, they can make that connection. Think, well, if he's good at that there, he could do it here. All of that comes to life for the person that you're sitting in front of Now. I would say for any interview, and I think we will do a podcast on this because it would be great to give some examples of that.

Speaker 2 16:32

If you could tell stories that illustrate why you're good at stuff, that's it. Because some people, as we know, can't do that. They sit down and they go. Well, I think I'll be good at it.

Sales Training Through Storytelling and Connections

Speaker 1 16:42

They just don't know they can't articulate it. Interesting just on that, and we'll give a little teaser now. Jenny, one of our trainers has been doing a lot of assessing. She says that to break the ice, she sends everyone away from their Zooms teams and says go and find a single item in your home and tell us about why it's so important to you. And some people who go and grab.

Speaker 1 17:02

I mean some people hold their cats up to the screen and whatever, but some people who grab a sort of interesting item or a book or a locket or whatever it might be, and they tell a good story. Already the scorers are going. She's bloody good, they're already writing it down. People who go yeah, I really like it. Auras are going. She's bloody good, you know they're already writing it down.

Speaker 2 17:21

People are going. Yeah, I really like it. Okay Interesting. Okay, I'm going to need to challenge you right now. Have you got anything? On your desk in front of you that you can put your hand on. That is important to you, Wow that's really hard.

Speaker 1 17:29

Yeah, go on then.

Speaker 2 17:31

I mean, it's not the best.

Speaker 1 17:31

There's only two of them left, that hopper, hopper postcards. So I always have art postcards with me that's lovely. Yeah, they're not my two favorites, but I've been sending it to people over the years um.

Speaker 2 17:46

I always have art postcards or book postcards I mean, that is in no way, in no way, in any way middle class. Is it? It just isn't, is it?

Speaker 1 17:55

because if I go to a gallery and there's a little, set of what I do. I suppose sometimes, when I'm very businessy, I look at the art and go good, good, there's art in the world.

Speaker 2 18:05

Well, funny, you should say. I've got a few things in front of me. They're tied to my desk recently.

Speaker 1 18:09

These are two things that are the same, so these from this distance they look like something very else which I can't mention. Over the no, no, they no, they're little. Got it got, it got it, little pilgrims. Nice.

Speaker 2 18:20

Two of these for the two caminos that I've walked, and they're sitting on my desk looking at me. And I've also got this.

Speaker 1 18:26

That was your first avowed intent, of course, wasn't it To be one To be a pilgrim.

Speaker 3 18:32

Now this is another thing which I will show.

Speaker 2 18:34

This is a multicolored stone painted by my dear friend Elise, who lives in Ireland. I've had that on my desk now for years.

Speaker 1 18:43

What are they called? Again, they have a name a nageua or something, something like that.

Speaker 2 18:46

But it's a beautiful thing, and I look at that every day and again. It reminds you that there is something else in the world. So that's great, and we've really come off topic here.

Speaker 1 19:03

Well, I'm going to come back onto topic for one more story, haven't we? We told story. I'm going to give you one more thing. Do you remember again, this is no longer in our training. We used to do an exercise called shopping channel. Oh yes, yes, bob, you knew a girl, didn't you? Who was?

Speaker 3 19:11

a presenter, a woman.

Speaker 1 19:11

That's right that's right, qvc. Yeah, and she was an actress and she did this as well, yeah yeah, her name is katherine hunt, I believe.

Speaker 2 19:19

Yes, that's right, catherine.

Speaker 1 19:19

Huntley. Also Jyoti Patel, who works with reality training over the years she's done it yeah. She's done. Specialist food stuff Jyoti's now in New. York. What they have to do is they don't even know what the objection is. They're given a product, they go off and research it. Then they have to create scenarios, they say, and my favorite one is sometimes I just watch it to see if the presenters are any good.

Speaker 2 19:42

Yeah.

Speaker 1 19:46

And they're selling jewelry or a necklace or a top, and there's a particular woman on it is QVC. She says I don't know if like me you find yourself on a Saturday evening and you just don't know what to wear.

Speaker 2 19:57

Brilliant.

Speaker 1 20:05

And wouldn't it be nice to have a top that kind of was universal and you could dress it up or you could dress it down. But have a look at this the way the line of the neck is cut and it's white, so it goes with anything. So you're sitting there as a woman watching she's going. Yeah, I am like her. I often yeah day night.

Speaker 2 20:13

Don't think I've got it's a very good story or you think I'd like to be like her. I'd like to have that dilemma.

Speaker 1 20:19

So, if I bought that product.

Speaker 2 20:21

maybe I'll be like her and my dilemma is removed.

Speaker 1 20:24

Yeah, it's excellent. Do you remember the story of my brother years ago? He bought garden furniture, so my brother always irons in front of the TV.

Speaker 2 20:33

Yep.

Speaker 1 20:33

And he went through a period of time where he must have been doing well at work because he was buying stuff off shopping channels and he was ironing one day and they were doing a garden furniture thing and the guy said and you know what he's, the guy, he's the sort of is he a liverpudlian guy?

Speaker 1 20:49

I think oh yeah yeah you know, him, he goes, and I don't know. There's something you're going to love about this, this furniture. Right, you don't have to do what so many people up and down the country have to do with their teak. They've got to put that away. You've got to. You've got to get it undercover, this stuff. It's made of a particular material. You can just leave it in the garden all year round. Brilliant, my brother. The iron goes and he just looks at it and he goes. The hassle of stacking chairs trying to take legs off to fit into a shed.

Speaker 1 21:22

So that was the little story. I don't know if you're like me. What he's saying is I don't know if you're like me. You're a lazy bee and you can't be asked to deconstruct your garden furniture. And I, of course, fell foul. I bought a watch.

Speaker 2 21:35

Oh, I got to tell this. So this, I mean, Jeremy's got a history with watches and we won't go into that now.

Speaker 3 21:41

The I mean Jeremy's got a history with watches, and we won't go into that now.

Speaker 2 21:43

I have actually. Yeah, the first thing is this he's owned so many watches he hardly ever wears one, so I think we've learned a lesson, a big lesson, there, anyway. So one day he's sitting down watching the telly it's a QVC zone, it is yeah, and this immense, immense watch appears on the screen. Okay, it's digital, it's analog, it's got loads of buttons, it's got all the different things you can fiddle around with the top. It's got a huge chunky metal bracelet on. It's immense and it's made by a company called Pod.

Speaker 2 22:17

Okay, now you're listening to this listeners You're thinking who the hell are pod, and any of us would think the same, and Jeremy was probably thinking the same too, until he was thinking that right until they said if you know sport, you'll know pod.

Speaker 2 22:34

Right Now, that is total BS. Okay, Because I've never seen pod associated with anything to do with sport. I never even heard of them. But Jeremy went hmm, I know sport, let's have a look at that. A few days later, in the post arrives this thing three times the size of an ice hockey puck, if you know what that's like a sort of big black thing, a massive watch. It dragged the side of him down for about three days before he realized he couldn't wear it, and it's still lying around in your office I've got it in the cupboard.

Speaker 1 23:06

Yeah, isn't that a clever story that is a story if you know sport, you'll know pod. I thought what the adoption of the watch will fill me with sporting knowledge. It's extraordinary the salesperson is always the sucker to be sold to now I want to.

Speaker 2 23:22

That comes back to one other thing. So again, it's all about language and we talk about this a lot on these podcasts. Listening to these stories, you might think, well, I wouldn't say it like that, or I couldn't say it like that or I wouldn't use that expression. You need to adapt these things to suit you, because you don't know what's going to make people buy. You know, I'm sure the guy selling that watch didn't think that anyone would go oh, I know sport and want to buy his pod watch. Okay, but it worked. And you might think, well, I can't say that sounds dreadful. How do you know how the custom's going to react? So that gives you a great proof that you need to adjust and change and change up your language and come up with new stories all the time so they sound original, so it sounds like you just thought of them. Oh, I understand how you feel. I had a lady who felt like that yesterday, so you'll tell as if you're telling it originally with a nice tone I must just tell you one that was incredibly clever.

Speaker 1 24:15

So martha, my middle daughter, um, finished her a levels in june. July mum, her mum and I were in lisbon in easter and she rings us up going can you get me a cigar for mr turl, head of science, as a leaving present? I don't know if I told you this. I think I told you the other day. You told me you got a cigar. Yeah, so we go to this fumidor and there's this very interesting russian woman who's now living in lisbon and she asked who's it for and I think, wow, that's even even to be interested. Who is it? You know?

Speaker 1 24:46

and then she says well, we have some Cubans but we also have um cigars from the Dominican Republic, who's. You said it's a leave-in, so your daughter's technically buying it. And we go well, yeah, but we're buying it. She said but really she is, isn't she? I mean, went um sort of she said, well, I think she should spend it on a Dominican Republic cigar. That is less money. So the teacher believes she's bought it. How clever is that.

Speaker 3 25:11

So if she was.

Speaker 1 25:12

To buy a top Cuban it's outside an 18-year-old girl's price range. If she buys him the Dom Rep cigar, it's more within it. So that was just a lovely way of doing that.

Speaker 2 25:22

Right listeners, prep cigar. It's more within it, so that was just a lovely way of doing that, right listeners, good, right, well, listen, good luck with storytelling. I think a little note for you all is to collect related stories and practice telling them, and there's loads online as well, actually. Um, if you, you know, if you look around, you'll be able to find them as well. But in the meantime, we will be back soon with more the reality of sales trainings and we'd like to thank you for listening to this series, which we hope is going to help you transform any objections you get into.

Speaker 1 25:49

Well, you've got three parts to send to a pal who struggles with objections.

Speaker 2 25:54

Cheers for listening absolutely thanks a lot. Bye, thank you.