how to hammer objections, with data

Summary

a friend asked me how I handle a specific sales objection. I realized I’m actually bad at the psychological emotional side of objection handling. but I sell things, and I’ve had hundreds of sales conversations that never felt like sales. here’s how.

1. I’d be like most of you. if you asked whether I like sales, no. but selling only feels icky when you’re trying to sell something to someone who doesn’t need it. when the fit is right and you’re asking the right questions, it doesn’t feel like a sale at all. it feels like helping.

2. so how do I sell without psychology tricks. 95% of how I market and sell has always been through data. when I started in fitness I collected data like there was an auditor coming to verify program outcomes. surveys, averages, before and after numbers across hundreds of athletes. I probably went too far. it made every future launch a layup.

3. at PT Biz, B2B, we track number of new patients, evals, revenue. so the customers know they’re getting better and we know it too. we can slice the data a thousand ways for marketing. nobody can come at you and tell you your business sucks when you have the receipts.

4. you don’t need to track everything. pick one to three metrics your customers actually care about. how quickly do people get out of pain. how long do results last. what percentage hit their goal by week N. simple, specific, defensible.

5. side benefit. data gives you confidence in what you sell. when you actually know you’re helping, the conviction shows. customers feel it. the team feels it. objections stop being a conversation. collect the data. build better humans. try harder.

Transcript

i’m bad at the psychology of selling

The most impactful business is the business that genuinely improves another human, a better human business. And to grow a business like this, you have to continually improve yourself. This podcast is a documentation of that thesis, scaling businesses and also personal growth. My goal is for you to shortcut this journey.

So if you’re ready to try hard, subscribe, if you like what you’re hearing, please share and enjoy. So I was having a conversation with a friend recently and he was talking about objections he was getting from clients and asking for advice, you know, what, how would you handle this objection? What would you do?

And then I realized I actually suck at objection handling from this like psychological, emotional standpoint of selling. It’s never been my strong suit, but nonetheless, I sell things have, I’ve had hundreds of sales conversations that I never even felt like they were sales conversations. And to be honest, I would be like most of the people listening to this, where if you asked me if I liked sales, I would say, no, I hate selling.

But that really only comes into context if you feel like you’re selling something to somebody who doesn’t need what you have to sell. That makes you feel icky. If you are coming from a place of genuine curiosity, you’re asking the right questions, you’re making sure what you have is the right fit for that person.

selling is fine when the fit is right

It doesn’t feel like selling anymore. And so going back to my friend’s question and me sucking at the psychological and emotional side of selling, how do I still sell things? Like what do I do? And I realized 95% of the way I market and sell has always been through data. And so I want to urge you today in this podcast to start thinking about ways you can collect data as I kind of just give some examples.

But when I first started in the fitness industry, I was collecting data almost as if there was going to be an auditor to come and check the results of my programs. The level of detail that I got from people, the post-program surveys I would send out and how much data I would pour through, average out, all these kind of things, it was quite crazy.

To be honest, I’m really glad that I did it, but I probably went a little bit overboard. I probably could have been focusing a little bit more of my time somewhere else in the business and making that better, but hey, we all like to do what we like to do. And so at the end of these programs, like I said, I have these long surveys, but then I could tell future people thinking about the program, hey, people’s average mile time decreased by this much, they lost this much weight on average, they gained this many pounds in the back squat because they’re very performance-based program.

I would have all this data to stand on, and I could even be like, hey, this was with a hundred different athletes varying of different ages, sexes, race, all these different kind of things. And I would collect it almost like I was doing the scientific experiment, and then the next iteration, I found it easier to sell people into the next time I launched a program because that’s all the stuff I would put on the sales page.

data is how i actually sell

I would have all this data about what our program could do and how many people it’s helped and all those things. And I eventually did learn how to focus a little bit more on the psychological side of things, but I almost never do that without data as well because people are trying to solve some other problem than run a mile faster.

They want to be able to be fit to be with their grandkids and play with their grandkids when they’re older and all those kind of more emotional things, and those are all great reasons. You have to understand those from your customer base. There’s always this other reason, but I like to have that emotional reason paired with a lot of data.

So that’s how I’ve handled basically every objection is we just collect as much data as we possibly can because then no one can come at you and tell you that you’re doing things wrong or that your business sucks or whatever. And then even on the individual level, you can show your customers that they’re getting better.

Like at PT Biz, it’s B2B, we’re helping other businesses, so we’re tracking all sorts of stuff. Number of new patients, evals, revenue, so we know that they’re actually getting better and they know that they’re actually getting better. Then we can slice that data in a thousand different ways and use it for marketing purposes and just prove like, hey, we are the best.

what to track in fitness and at pt biz

And that’s what I’ve done in fitness. That’s what I’ve done in business, everywhere. And so what I want you to start thinking about is what data could you collect? What data could you start collecting? And I wouldn’t go overboard like I did. I would pick one to three metrics and start really seeing if you can already, if you have a huge customer base, start pulling data on that.

Or if you’re not collecting any data, start collecting it. I work with a lot of physical therapists. How quickly are people getting better? How long-term are their results? Whatever you think people would be interested in. What percentage of people are reporting feeling like they’re out of pain by X days into the program?

And then for fitness, on average, people see results in how much time? Just start collecting as much objective and even subjective data from your people as possible. Because if you want to handle objections, it’s easier for you to do that from a place of data to where you just are starting to feel more and more confident.

When you first start this process, or maybe you’re not very comfortable with selling, you might feel like in that position I was talking about where you’re trying to sell something to somebody who doesn’t truly need it, which is the worst place to be as a business owner. You might absolutely feel convicted about what you sell.

one to three metrics is enough

But that comes with experience and that comes with time. You might not feel that way day one and that’s okay. But if you start collecting data, not only will it help you market and sell, it’s going to give you so much confidence in what you sell because you know, and you have the data to back it up, that you are helping people.

You are building better humans. Once you know that, your confidence will just go out to your team, it’ll go out to your customers. People will want to work with you. We’re getting a little mushy here, but ultimately this is the place you want to be. You want to have the confidence that you know you are building better humans and you have the data to back it up.

So if you want to crush objections to where it’s not even a conversation, people know you’re the best and you know that you’re the best, collect data, build better humans in the process.