"Excuse me? These cost how much?" "But my insurance only covers $125, so I can't afford those." "Oh, my...so expensive, I think I will have to wait before I can afford new glasses, can you just use my old frame with new lenses—or vice versa?"
Objections are part of the process, whether we are asking patients to consider new ideas and concepts or lenses and frames. It simply happens. And patients can object at any time or at any moment. Perhaps you know of a patient who recently walked in the door and proclaimed "You're not selling me a new pair of glasses, these got me in the door, and they'll get me out!"
This series of three articles will teach you the main reasons why patients object, how to recognize what kind of objection you are dealing with, and how to respond to it—with success.
First, what is an objection, and why does it occur? When a patient objects, they are stopping the conversation or sales process because they feel out of control of the buying process or they are afraid of buying. And, as with human nature, if we feel out of control, we exercise what little control we do have by objecting or put the brakes on. When a patient does this, they regain control of the process and feel empowered. There is a law in sales—people buy with emotion and justify with logic. If your patient is not feeling emotionally in control or good about the situation, they will not make the leap to buy. They simply cannot logically justify what they are feeling. Second, objections typically fall into three large buckets: 1) mismatch of patient need to the solution offered, 2) fear and 3) lack of understanding.
Many opticians and sales professionals have become gun shy when presenting a complete eyewear solution and appropriate costs to a patient. No one likes to hear "no" and few of us like to deal with the idea of "convincing" someone to buy a pair of glasses or contacts. In reality, the seeds of objection were planted long before you asked for the order.
Look for Part Two of this series to learn about a simple sales process for selling eyewear.
Michael Karlsrud, M.Ed., is the principle consultant of The Karlsrud Company, a leading training and development company serving organizations throughout the United States. He also is CEO of K-Calls, a contact center that provides communication solutions to the optical industry's suppliers and doctors. You can hear Michael as the host of The Vision Council's On The Road Sales Coach, or read articles in LabAdvisor magazine and The 20/20 Opticians Handbook.
