Quiz: Which Objection Can't Be Overcome?

Scenario: You're selling a product that a prospect truly needs. However, this prospect is a "difficult sell" and keeps surfacing objections. No problem; you're handling them all like a true sales pro. Suddenly, the prospect comes up with an objection that stops you in your tracks. You close your briefcase, thank the prospect, and leave... without making the sale. And as you leave, you know you did the right thing because if you stayed, you'd just be wasting your time.

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Almost every time a customer says "no" (regardless of how that "no" is expressed), the customer is actually surfacing an objection, which it's possible to overcome. Most objections are initially vague, often varieties of "I want to think it over." In these cases, you must delve into the customer's thinking to discover the real objection, so that you can come up with an appropriate response. For example:

Customer: "I want to think it over."
Salesperson: "That's fine... obviously you wouldn't take the time if you weren't serious, right?"
Customer: "I guess not."
Salesperson: "Just to clarify my thinking, what is it that you need to think about? Is it the quality of service?"
Customer: "Not really."
Salesperson: " Tell me, could it be the money?"
Customer: "Yes."

Usually, when you trace down these vague objections to their source, it's a matter of money. More specifically, it's a matter of spending priorities. For example, if there's no budget, that means that whatever IS being bought is considered more important than what you're offering.

The same is true even when a company can't get credit. Unless the company is literally about to fold up shop, the real problem is that you haven't established that the value of your offering is greater than the other items on which money is going to actually been spent.

Therefore, all but ONE of the objections in the list are signals that you've either got some more positioning to do or that you haven't adequately described your value proposition. The one objection that says "game over" is:

I will never buy from you.

Here's why. This isn't so much an objection as a statement of intent. It's personal, and it's definite, so you're probably not going to be able to get around it. For whatever reason, this prospect has decided that you are not worth doing business with.

Needless to say, it would probably make sense to ask why the prospect believes this. There's always a chance that it's just masking another weaker objection (e.g. "because we'll probably never have money for that.) But if the prospect is serious and is making a true statement, I think you have to go with the flow and let this one drop.

Readers: Do you agree? I'm well aware there is a philosophy in sales that says that ANY objection can be overcome, as long as the customer actually needs what you're selling. If you believe that, please explain how you'd overcome that objection. Because it seems pretty much like a deal-killer to me.

(BTW, the conversation script about clarifying an objection came from a conversation I had a few years back with legendary sales trainer Tom Hopkins.)

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