Financial Advisor Training: Overcoming 3 Common Sales Objections [Scripts]

Most of the advisors I know are fairly confident people. 

They’re well-trained, highly-educated, and believe in the products and services they sell.

Whether it’s a cold call, virtual meeting, or a quick chat with a prospect, most advisors are excited about the opportunity to convert a lead into a sale.

But if there’s one thing that I consistently see SINK an advisor’s chances of capitalizing on these opportunities, it’s objections.

Time and time again, I see objections absolutely PARALYZE otherwise skilled salespeople. 

It’s a shame…

Because objections are ultimately opportunities. 

When handled properly, they can open the door to strong and healthy relationships with clients.

And there’s nobody in our industry who is better equipped to discuss this topic than sales expert, coach, and author, Lloyd Lofton.

Lloyd has been in the industry since 1977 and he’s known as one of the thought leaders of overcoming sales objections.

I recently invited Lloyd as a guest on the weekly Virtual Advisor Power Hour and what follows are my biggest takeaways from that discussion.

Understanding Common Sales Objections

If you want to understand objection handling and how to overcome common sales objections that plague us in the insurance and financial services space, it starts with understanding objections.

That may sound like pretty simple and straightforward advice, but you’d be amazed by how many advisors don’t understand objections in the first place.

As advisors, we face the same objections day after day after day…yet we don’t take the time to come up with coherent rebuttals that address these issues head-on and provide a sensible way forward for the prospect.

As Lloyd explains it, there are only four categories of objections:

1. No money
2. No need
3. No hurry
4. No confidence

Every single objection you’ll ever receive will fall into one of these categories.

If you understand each of these categories and develop reliable rebuttals for handling the most common sales objections you face, you’ll no longer find yourself stumped on sales calls.

3 Common Sales Objections Advisors Must Overcome

In this article, I want to relay some of the top rebuttals to three common sales objections that I’m confident you face on a weekly basis.

Common Sales Objection #1: “I need to think about this”

The only rebuttal to this objection is to avoid it in the first place.

Once someone presents this objection, it’s hard to steer them in any direction other than “thinking about it.”

To avoid this response, you have to understand why it comes up in the first place.

It comes up because of a primary mistake that we all make: We give them something to think about.

Here’s an analogy: Suppose you’re sick and you go to Doctor A. You explain your symptoms and Doctor A writes you three different prescriptions, explains what each does, and then asks you to fill the one you think will be best at your pharmacy.

Then you go to Doctor B and explain your symptoms. He quickly diagnoses the problem and prescribes a specific medicine. He tells you to go fill it and that you’ll begin feeling much better within three days.

Which doctor do you have more confidence in? 

Most of us are way more confident in Doctor B, because he diagnosed the problem and prescribed a solution for us. We don’t have to think about it.

The problem is that, as advisors, most of us are Doctor A, when we should strive to be more like Doctor B.

As Lloyd says, “We are relationship-ignorant and masters of product knowledge. We think our job is to disseminate product knowledge, when it’s really to build a relationship.”

Don’t give them something to think about.

People catch emotion, they don’t catch logic.

The reason we try to sell on logic is that we don’t trust our ability to build relationships. We need to become more emotionally in-tune with prospects and clients.

If you want a more direct approach, you can try this script that Lloyd likes to use when coaching his clients:

When you use this script, you make it impossible (or at least uncomfortable) for the prospect to fall back on the lazy “I need to think about it line.”

Common Sales Objection #2: “I want my accountant to look this over”

This may sound like a rebuttal, but it’s actually one of the best referrals that you can get.

This person has come down the sales funnel with you and they want to align their accountant with you. 

This is good news!

Your Response: “That’s exactly right. I wish all of my clients were as smart as you. Let’s schedule a call together…” 

You can’t lose something you don’t have. The accountant has to sign off on it. 

Approach the accountant as someone who has input that you value. If you can get the accountant to recommend even part of the program you’re submitting, you now have an ally for all of his clients. 

Don’t see this as an objection. See it as an opportunity.

If you really want to up your game, you can implement the “Circle of Influence Strategy.”

With this strategy you preemptively get ahead of these situations by calling a meeting with everyone.

Step 1: Give the prospect a templated letter that requests the assistance of all parties involved. (Mention in the templated letter that each party will be billed for their time, which virtually guarantees that they’ll show up.) And tell them what you’ll be discussing.

Step 2: Lead a meeting discussing the topic at hand. (This gives you an opportunity to lead a meeting with very important people who have the ability to serve as referrals down the road.)

Step 3: Get sign-off/approval and follow-up with each member of the meeting afterwards as an opportunity to build your network. 

Common Sales Objection #3: “I haven’t had time to read the documents you sent over”

This is an objection that you probably deal with on a weekly basis.

You have a meeting with the prospect.

The prospect requests documents to review with his spouse.

Then he hits you with the “I haven’t had time to read them yet” line…

And truth be told, this is another situation where the best rebuttal is to prevent it from happening (much like in common sales objection #1).

The problem isn’t that he hasn’t read the documents – it’s that you sent him the documents in the first place.

Think about it like this…

Imagine you let your friendly neighbor come into your office and you quickly trained her on a whole life police. 

Then you gave her a name and told her to go to the house so that she could explain it to the prospect. 

After she returned to the office, you’d call up the prospect and make the sale.

Would you do this? 

(Any licensed advisor or highly-trained salesperson should say NO!)

Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened in the scenario above (where you gave the prospect documents). You gave important and complex information to an unlicensed individual and let him explain it to his spouse. 

In reality, YOU should be the one explaining these documents. YOU are the licensed pro.

Instead, you’re taking an uneducated person, sending him information he doesn’t fully understand, and asking him to explain the information logically to his wife. 

Remember that decisions are made on emotion. You’re sending in your worst salesperson.

If you absolutely must send paperwork, do it with an intentional email strategy: 

Send a separate email for each question the prospect/client has:

• Detailed explanation of how we’re going to accomplish Question #1 (with a Zoom link)
• Detailed explanation of how we’re going to accomplish Question #2 (with a Zoom link)
• Etc.

In other words, you’re sending the documents with the expectation that YOU will be the one explaining them to his spouse (together of course).

Most prospects will agree to this. And while there’s nothing stopping them from talking to their spouse and not scheduling a Zoom meeting, you’re at least providing yourself a good “in” to be involved in the conversation.

Want Rebuttals to 2 MORE Common Sales Objections?

When you have the right tools, overcoming sales objections actually becomes pretty fun. 

It’s essentially a high-stakes game of showing the prospect why their objection doesn’t hold water. (Not to be manipulative, but to give them the best chance of being successful.)

And when I recently spoke with Lloyd, he had a LOT more where those came from. 

Want to uncover two more rebuttals to common sales objections – including the classic “I already have an advisor” retort?

Tell me where to send them and I’ll rush over a PDF with two more rebuttals that are guaranteed to supercharge your results.

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