Objections are slithery little devils, and every time you meet with a customer, you must assume they got some!

The good news is most objections don’t have to be eliminated; they only have to be shrunk. Buyers will still buy your product or service even when it’s imperfect.

One of the keys to becoming a solid objection handler is knowing how to keep issues from growing into objections. When doubts and misperceptions about your offering increase significantly, your chances of successfully handling them decrease. This means you must constantly seek out what issues are floating around in your customer’s heads.

The TOP 10% know their biggest competition doesn’t come from another vendor but from the calendar. Time is the biggest enemy of professional sellers. When taking 104 weekend days out of the year and another month or so for vacations and holidays, you have approximately 227 calendar days to make your number. It’s simple math: those who expertly manage the sales cycle consistently hit their numbers.

Managing the sales cycle means moving an account through your process and getting to either "yes" or "no" as fast as possible. Some buyers require many months to decide, but no matter what you sell, the same gravitational laws apply: move the customer as quickly through the process as possible and avoid time traps.

The reason sellers get strung out by buyers is they don’t ask the hard questions… mainly about the issues and misperceptions that can decay into objections. Everything’s great at the beginning of the sales process, and then as you move together down the path with your prospect, opinions, and perceptions are formed about everything and anything. Every part of your offering is getting hyper-analyzed and micro-judged.

But objections aren’t scary monsters; they’re just issues. Objections aren’t owned by buyers; they’re rented. Your job is to kick ’em out onto the street, out of the minds of your buyers. But know that other objections can move into your customer’s heads. You work in a dynamic industry hawking an offering with many moving parts…and customers’ situations change by the minute too. This is all the more reason to obsessively check for objections and issues at every turn and with every customer representing a decision.

Today, create objection surfacing questions. Those are the types used by the TOP 10% who know that to close a high percentage of their pipeline, they must deal with objections proactively.

Here’s a freebie for ‘ya, "So, tell me about any current issues you feel might prevent us from working together?"

Write at least two variations of that sample question. First, you’ll feel more comfortable asking the question when it’s in your voice. Second, if the question isn’t scripted, you won’t summon the courage to ask it when sitting in front of a customer.

It takes courage – and prep – to establish the habit of asking your customers about the objections floating around in their minds.

Today you need to practice your objection-surfacing questions. It is normal at the start to feel sheepish, asking questions that might yield disagreement or resistance, but you must do it. Here’s some motivation: have you ever heard a buyer say, "Hey, ya know what my biggest objection is about giving you my money…?" It’s doubtful you’ve ever heard that.

Here is another surfacing question to study; you can compare this to what you created yesterday. "What are the top discussion points we have to get resolved before we go further?" If you notice, that question is not aggressive; it’s merely a matter-of-fact question that will garner some truth. The word "objection" isn’t even mentioned.

How about this one: "Tell me more about what you’re trying to work through about our offering? No doubt you have concerns about XYZ…so, tell me what you’re thinking?" Yes, it’s an example of a bundled or double-question, but it’s designed to give the buyer time to think a bit. And they’re both open-ended questions designed to get the buyer to share.

The TOP 10% make it a habit to ask objection-surfacing questions on every sales call. To help you grove this new muscle, practice saying these questions aloud and work them into your next customer interaction!