6/20/2024-“Buyer, I object to your stupid objection.”

Can you turn a "no" into a "yes"? Can you dig through a brick wall with a plastic spoon and find gold?

Changing a buyer’s mind and influencing a favorable decision for you is an art form.

No seller on the planet has mastered objection handling (OH), but the good news is you don’t have to master it. You merely have to understand and use a few basic techniques that reduce the importance of the objection in the mind of the buyer.

Today, work on a messaging exercise that will help you shrink the size of the buyer’s objections. If you have a script written down in your notebook, you have a better chance of executing your OH strategy when talking with the customer.

List the objections you hear often about your offering. Next, create your solution (or solutions) that can open the door to finding common ground with your buyers.

Your answers won’t be perfect – and they’ll require customization for different scenarios and clients – but at least you’ve begun work on a messaging script that will help you respond when the wall goes up.

Successful objection handling includes equal doses of technique, instinct, and courage.

First, you must proactively surface objections on every customer interaction. That’s the technique part.

Plus, it would be best if you honed your instinct of recognizing the optimal time to address the issues. Sometimes, prospects hint at issues that represent objections, so don’t brush them under the rug; take them head-on.

And yes, it’s appreciated that for many, asking direct questions that yield potential conflict and problems is hard…and feels counterintuitive. But you know your offering isn’t perfect, and your prospects will, over time, develop objections as they get to know you better. Those are merely the laws of nature at work. Don’t ignore reality; summon the courage to shine a light on issues you know are seedlings of objections.

Start with the technique you can control: surface objections proactively…on EVERY sales meeting.

Many folks think objections and obstacles are the same… for a good reason. The dictionary definitions for both are close:

Objection: "An expression or feeling of disapproval or opposition."

Obstacle: "A thing that blocks one’s way or prevents or hinders progress."

Either way, ya gotta navigate your way around ’em…just like the dogs and cats must do in this creative animal obstacle course.