Will People Trust Your Copy If You Ignore Their Objections?

Even in a beautiful language like French, “no” still hurts.

But objections are a simple fact of the business life. They’re like octopus tentacles — everyone has at least eight of them.

Of course this is perfectly natural. Most potential customers are primed NOT to spend money and stiff-arm sales copy.

And the reasons why they may object are just as numerous:

• They don’t like to make decisions.
• They hate change.
• They are busy.
• They don’t have the buying power (and don’t want to admit it).
• They are afraid.
• They didn’t sleep much last night.

Learning how to counter objections is a priority for copywriters.

The best way to do that is to simply come out and acknowledge the objection. The conventional advice is to use the Feel-Felt-Found formula: “I know how you feel. This one guy felt the same way. Here’s what he found out.”

But make sure you get the real objection.

Often people will object for one reason — to cover up for the real reason. It’s a red herring. With extra digging and through calculated questions, copywriters can surface the real objection and adjust the copy.

For example, if you discover a prospect is playing hardball simply because he was up all night with his sick child, acknowledge it and say something like, “Totally understand. Why don’t we re-schedule at a better time.”

That gesture will go a long way to building trust.

You can read other articles in this series:

• A Simple Way to Get People to Believe Your Big Claim
• What the End of the World Can Teach Us about Being Specific
• How to Be More Successful When You Ask a Favor
• Want to Sweep Away Skepticism? Demonstrate Your Product

P.S. Want a daily, but small, dose of essential web writing advice? Then check out my new podcast Rough Draft.

This article originally appeared as part of this Salesforce article (which I am told by a source close to the company is their most socially popular post).