Handling Objections

...what to do when they say “NO”

© David Masover www.davidmasover.com

 Handling Objections
...what to do when they say “NO”

Table of Contents

I! Introduction

II! Handling Predictable, Prospecting Objections

III! Handling Objections About Your Offer

IV! Conclusion

© David Masover www.davidmasover.com

 Handling Objections
...what to do when they say “NO”

I! Introduction

[My style is] the art of fighting without fighting

- Bruce Lee, Enter the Dragon

The two parts of the sales process that strike the most fear into salespeople are
prospecting and handling objections. (If you would like to read a free e-book about
prospecting, click here). In this eBook, we will discuss strategies for handling a variety of
objections in a variety of ways.

In the first part, we will address predictable objections. The kind that often come up when
prospecting, or trying to set up a meeting or a conversation - especially that first meeting
with a new prospect. This is a particularly sensitive issue. The objections themselves are
rather predictable, and you will find here a list of the most common prospecting objections
and suggestions for how to approach them. We will also explore a universal objection
handling technique - kind of a silver bullet - that you can use with most any prospecting
objection. Use it to get past almost any objection and on to your sales conversation with
the prospect.

In the second part of this eBook, we will address the less predictable but higher stakes
objections that come up after you make your offer or submit your proposal to the
prospective client. These objections call for a less standardized approach. Rather, these
objections require a philosophical framework from within which you can address the
objection, and work to come to a common understanding with the prospect that will
ultimately lead you closer to a successful deal.

Before we start, a few words about techniques. You should assume that most prospects
know all of the old sales tricks and techniques. When you use obvious and blatant tricks
and techniques, you seem like an amateur, and no-one will take you seriously or want to
work with you. However, to be on the losing side of an objection means that your deal is
probably dead, so some advanced planning to prepare for them is just common sense.

So where does that leave us with respect to “techniques”? When objections come up, you
have to do something, and to do something that you have planned and prepared for
makes a lot of sense - that sounds like using techniques - so what should we do?

In the section on prospecting objections, we focus a lot on what looks like techniques -
“say this” kind of stuff. Prospecting objections are often knee jerk reactions by people
wanting to protect their time. These objections simply need to be moved past in order to
close the mini-sale within a sale called “getting the meeting”.

So techniques - or at least categories of responses that we have considered in advance -

are sometimes useful, as long as they don’t look, sound or feel like techniques to the

© David Masover www.davidmasover.com

 Handling Objections
...what to do when they say “NO”

prospect. This will take some practice on your part, but this eBook will show you what to
practice, and how to execute your objection handling techniques with grace and style.

That said, the best way to avoid objections is to not get them in the first place. The quote
from Bruce Lee that leads off this section exemplifies this idea.

For those who didn’t see the classic Bruce Lee movie Enter the Dragon, the character
played by Mr. Lee is challenged to a fight while on a boat. He tells his provocateur that
there is not enough room for a proper fight on the boat, and that they should go to a
nearby island for the “demonstration”. The provocateur gets into the rowboat, presumably
to go to the island, but Mr. Lee does not follow, rather he lets out the lead line of the
rowboat and has it pulled to the final destination, thus avoiding the confrontation.

In this eBook, we will discuss how to handle objections, and even go over what might be
called techniques to help you do so. There are times that you will need them. Ultimately
however, the best way to handle objections is to prevent them from coming in the first
place, which we will touch on in both sections and in the conclusion.

© David Masover www.davidmasover.com

 Handling Objections
...what to do when they say “NO”

II! Prospecting Objections

A prospecting objection is the specific objection that you get when you are trying to set a
meeting with a new (or existing) prospective client, and they want to tell you - one way or
the other - no, I don’t want to meet you at the time you suggest or at all. Rather than
simply saying that, they may offer what we call a prospecting objection.

Over the course of several years of sales trainings, I have run an exercise to start the
training section on prospecting objections. In the exercise, I ask the participants to list
every prospecting objection that they have ever heard or could ever imagine. The first five
or six always come easily, the next five or six are a little harder to get, if they come out at
all. At the end, we have a list of prospecting objections written on a white board or a tablet.

Then I hand out a pre-printed list of objections, prepared before the training. In all the
times that I have run the exercise, there has only been one time that there was something
that the class came up with that was not on the pre-printed list, and that was a very
industry specific objection.

When I hand out the list, I ask the group - what was the point of this exercise? Why have
the group list out objections if I have already written them on the list?

The point of the exercise is to show that that everything that the group came up with was
predictable. Everything they came up with, I had already written down. As such, we can
reasonably assume that most if not all of the prospecting objections we may get are also
predictable, and accordingly, we should be able to prepare for them.

Listed below are the 13 prospecting objections that are on my list, and below each one a
suggestion for approaching or responding to each one. You may use this approach, or
come up with your own - it is up to you. There are no magic words, and the words in each
suggestion are not the point. The point is that you should prepare to hear these objections,
and be prepared to say something - in your own words - to get past it and to continue
pursuing the goal of getting into a sales conversation with the prospect. For more
information about getting to this point in the first place, please click here for my free eBook
on prospecting.

After we address the objections on this list, we will show a universal objection handling
technique, then address the idea that the best prospecting objection handling technique is
to not have any objections at all, and how to do that. In section II, we will address
objections that come up after you present your offer or proposal.

© David Masover www.davidmasover.com

 Handling Objections
...what to do when they say “NO”

Handling Predictable Objections

Here is the list of 13 predictable prospecting objections and a suggested way to handle
each one. Remember, you don’t have to like or use these suggestions, but do come up
with a way that you are comfortable responding to each of these predictable prospecting
objections, because chances are, if you are prospecting, you will probably hear and need
to address some or all of these before you know it.

NOTE: This list is adapted from an apppendix in the book Mastering Your Sales Process
by David Masover, available from Amazon. There are some refernces in the text below that
refer to other parts of the book, which is why some of the text below might read a bit funny
in the context of this eBook. This format was chosen to reflect the original context of the
writing.

These are listed in no particular order.

Common prospecting objection: I don’t have time to talk to you.

Suggested response:

“I understand, but if you did have time, would (the reason for your call) be of interest to
you?”

COMMENTS: This is a very, very common prospecting objection. The goal of our response
is to neutralize their immediate issue (no time) and to try to test for interest in the absence
of a time restraint. If the answer remains negative, then it is time to move on. If there is
interest outside of the time constraint, then seek to find another time when the prospective
client can meet or speak with you.

Common prospecting objection: Send me something.

Suggested response:

“I would be happy to, but we have a lot of different materials. Can I ask you a few
questions to help me choose the right information to send to you?”

COMMENTS: Starting out by agreeing to their request, you will disarm them. But by
working to clarify what information you should send, you are clarifying their specific needs.
If they respond, “Just send me anything about your company,” then they are probably just
trying to get you off the phone. If, on the other hand, you are able to discuss your various
product lines or specific solutions with them, then you are qualifying them and getting
information to help you set up the meeting. If the conversation starts to become too
detailed, then offer to bring the materials by their office, so you can show them the options
and answer any questions. Guess what? You got your meeting!

© David Masover www.davidmasover.com

 Handling Objections
...what to do when they say “NO”

Common prospecting objection: We are working with someone else.

Suggested response:

“Yes, I would expect that. The reason that I am calling now is to show you what we are
doing that may be different, and may in fact compliment what you are already doing. If we
can meet for about 20 minutes in your office, I can show you what you may need to know
about our solution to be able to decide if it fits into what you are already doing now. Are
you available Friday at 2:00?”

COMMENTS: Most people who are good prospects for you already have a vendor for what
you sell. The worst thing you can do is talk badly about their current vendor, talk too
strongly about your product, or worst of all, ask, “Are you happy with your current vendor?”
That question is insulting to the client. If they were not happy, they would not be using
them. Remember our core philosophy that if your client is not using your product or service
it is because they don’t know all that there is to know about it. Your job is to help them
understand that, and taking the approach above to this VERY common objection will get
the client to start thinking that there may be more available in the category you offer than
what he gets from his current vendor, and that meeting with you, if nothing else, is a way to
learn more about it.

Common prospecting objection: We don’t have that in the budget.

Suggested response:

“If you did have that in the budget, would you want to move forward with it?”

COMMENTS: If you are talking to a decision maker, and they want something, they can
usually manipulate the budget to get it. The value of asking this question is that it leads
you to another objection, which you can address. For example, the client may say
something like, “No, our CEO has had a bad experience with this kind of a thing in the
past.” Now you are past the budget question and onto another objection to address
(actually two, you should also ask about the decision maker here!). If they answer “yes” to
the budget question, meaning that if it was in the budget they would buy it, then you can
start talking about either how to get it into the next budget before that budget is written,
financing options or what other budget this might be able to fit into that might have cash for
something like what you are selling.

Common prospecting objection: I am not the decision maker.

Suggested response:

“Thanks for letting me know that. Can you tell me who I should be speaking to about this
(and can you transfer me?)”

© David Masover www.davidmasover.com

 Handling Objections
...what to do when they say “NO”

COMMENTS: This is a no-brainer, but it is important that you get the proper name, title,
and phone number, and ask that you be transferred. Many company telephone systems
indicate which calls come from outside and which come from inside of the company; a call
that is transferred internally is more likely to be answered than one that comes from
outside. Once you get to the decision maker, start again with the SCORE (Sales
Conversation Request) call script, but your reason becomes that you talked to this other
person in the company (use their name), and they suggested that the person you are
talking to now is the right person to talk to about your offering.

[NOTE: You can learn more about and how to develop your own SCORE call script in our
free e-book about prospecting]

Common prospecting objection: We do that internally.

Suggested response:

“Yes, a lot of companies that I work with now had been doing this internally when we first
spoke, but over time, they came to realize that we bring a broader experience set, more
focused diagnostic tools, greater accountability, and ultimately improved performance at a
lower cost than their internal solution. If we can meet for about 20 minutes, I can show you
some of the specific areas in which we help clients make improvements above and beyond
those possible with their internal resources alone. Are you available Friday at 2:00?”

COMMENTS: Sometimes your toughest competition will come from inside the company;
however, you have an obvious asset. The fact that your company works with a large
number of client companies gives you an experience base and a set of tools to solve
problems that is almost certainly more robust than those of your prospective client. Find a
way to demonstrate the benefits to the client of harnessing your wide breadth of
experience, and get an opportunity to show these benefits in a concise and compelling
way. That should get you a first meeting. People want to know what they are missing.
When you get the chance, don’t offend the current crew doing the work, but help them to
see how working with you will get better results faster, and you may win.

Common prospecting objection: This is not a good time for us.

Suggested response:

“If it were a good time, would you want to move forward?”

COMMENTS: Here again we try to isolate the objection. If it is a matter of timing, and at
some other time they would want to move forward, your discussion becomes about “when”
not “if.” It is important to understand in this case WHY it is not a good time now. Then get a
date to call back when the time is better for a reason you understand and agree on with
the client. Be sure to flush out any other issues that may need to be addressed, so that
you don’t need to fight them when the time in the future comes. If the “now is not a good

© David Masover www.davidmasover.com

 Handling Objections
...what to do when they say “NO”

time” objection comes up for a few follow up calls in a row, consider the fact that it may
NEVER be a good time, and suggest this to the client. What do you have to lose - other
than your own valuable time?

Common prospecting objection: Your prices are too high.

Suggested response:

“Can you help me understand what pricing you are comparing us to?”

COMMENTS: If a prospective client brings up the price objection at the time you are trying
to set a first meeting, there is some information that has not yet been exchanged. At this
time, you have not talked about product and pricing, but your prospective client is making
assumptions. You need to understand why they feel the way they do about your prices so
that you can address those concerns.

The end of the “compared to what?” discussion will be most successful if you can look
forward into your sales process and recognize that you will need to do a needs analysis.
As such, you may say to your prospective client something like:

“We offer a lot of solutions for a variety of issues, and there are different costs associated
with each specific approach. Why don’t we meet for about 30 minutes in your office and
talk about the details of your requirements. That will allow me to estimate the pricing, and
to show you how the value we add to your project justifies the prices we charge. Are you
available next Friday at 2:00?”

Common prospecting objection: We’re not interested.

Suggested response:

“That’s funny, some of my best clients said the same thing at this stage of the
conversation, but once they learned how we can help them, they became interested, and
started benefiting from the results of our system. Would you allow me 20 minutes in your
office, perhaps this Friday at 2:00, to show you how we changed so many minds in such a
short time?”

COMMENTS: Like the “price is too high” objection, this objection implies that the
prospective client thinks they know more than they might really know about you and your
offering. Your job is not to get flustered by this, but to try to point out this fact, in a soft way,
and to suggest that with a little more information, the prospective client might be like many
of your best clients today, and come to see the value of your offering. The only cost is a
20-minute meeting to get the information—and guess what—you got your meeting.

© David Masover www.davidmasover.com

 Handling Objections
...what to do when they say “NO”

Common prospecting objection: We don’t have confidence in your company.

Suggested response:

“Oh! That’s not something we hear very often at all. Could you please tell me what it is
about our company that causes you some concern?

COMMENTS: You’ll never get past this until you ask. Most likely, there was a previous
sales effort where the price was too high, the salesperson did a bad job, or the delivery
went badly. You will need to convince the client that things are different now, and that you
take full responsibility for the results. Offer to meet with the client to understand his
concerns more fully about how things went wrong in the past. By showing that you are
truly interested in understanding the problem, and assuring them that it won’t happen
again, you may mitigate the confidence problem. You’ll still have all of the other objections
to address, but you got your meeting, and addressing past issues can be considered part
of either mutual qualification or needs analysis. Either way, you are now into the sales
process, which is the goal of the prospecting step. You have succeeded; now see what
you can do with it.

By the way, try to sound sincere in your surprise at the start of this response. A heavy sigh
may signal to the prospect that you hear this a lot; that is not going to work in your favor!

Common prospecting objection: I need to think about it.

Suggested response:

“I’m not sure what issues you want to consider, but what might make sense is for us to
meet for about 20 minutes to flesh out your concerns together. Are you available Friday at
2:00?”

COMMENTS: This objection can be a killer after the proposal is written, unless you handle
it right. The best way to handle it in response to the proposal is the same way to handle it
as a prospecting objection. The philosophy behind an effective response to this objection
is that whatever the issues are, it makes more sense to address them together now, than
to have the prospect think about the issues alone, and later. Suggest this in the right way,
and you will probably either get your meeting, or you will find out the main thing that the
prospective client is thinking about, in which case you can address that.

Common prospecting objection: We never had good results with that before.

Suggested response:

“Oh, that’s not something we hear very often at all. Could you please tell me what kind of
issues you have experienced in the past with this kind of an approach?

© David Masover www.davidmasover.com

 Handling Objections
...what to do when they say “NO”

COMMENTS: As you can see from the suggested response, the approach here is the
same as the “confidence” objection. Until you understand what the prospective client is
concerned about specifically, you can’t address it. Chances are VERY good that whatever
you assume to be the root of that statement is different from what the prospective client is
talking about, so clear it up. You will uncover either more objections to answer, or some
areas to clarify. The best result is to show understanding and help the prospective client
realize that things are different now, and that you can either demonstrate these differences
in a meeting, or meet to understand the problems better. Either way, you get your meeting,
and are in the process working toward qualification, needs analysis, solutions, and closing.

Common prospecting objection: The “Industry Specific” objection

Suggested response: No suggestion

COMMENTS: In your industry, country, or culture, there will be some things that are not
addressed here. You probably know what they are, or will discover them soon enough.
Like the 12 objections listed above, by knowing what they are in advance, and addressing
them with the idea that your goal is to validate the objection by isolating it, clarify to the
client that your solution is a good one, and if they seem qualified, get the meeting, even if
the stated reason for the meeting is to further address the objection. If they invite you in,
you are moving toward a sale.

Last words about predictable, prospecting objections

Always remember that you are an expert trying to help your prospective client solve
problems. If they don’t see that right away, then it is your job to help them do so. Work to
get past objections gracefully and with an eye toward helping the client see how helpful
you can be for them. Don’t fight to get appointments. Simply help prospective clients move
past pre-conceived notions and the general inclination not to add anything new to their
calendars. Do this by helping them to see you as a professional, and your product as a
benefit to them and to their organization. Following this philosophy, as well as the
suggestions in this section and in this book (Mastering Your Sales Process), will go a long
way toward getting you there.

Feel, Felt, Found - The Prospecting Objection “Silver Bullet”

To finish off our section on predictable, prospecting objections, let’s look at a universal
objection handling technique called Feel, Felt Found. I first learned about this technique in
a book by Stephan Schiffman called Cold Calling Techniques: That Really Work. Here is
how it works:

When you get a prospecting objection - or any objection from a customer, follow these
three steps in your response:

© David Masover www.davidmasover.com

 Handling Objections
...what to do when they say “NO”

FEEL: “I can understand how you would feel that way.”

Saying this let’s the prospect know that not only did you hear and accept what they had to
say, but that it makes sense. You have empathy, and what you say next will be based on
the fact that while you do understand the way that they feel, there is something else that
you want to add....

FELT: “Many of my best customer felt the same way....”

By saying this before you conclude with “found”, you are signaling that not only do you
understand the concern, but you have heard it before, and addressed it so successfully
that those with whom you addressed it are among your best customers. The implication is
that by getting past this objection, your prospect may also be convinced to work with you,
so it is worth it for them to stay in the conversation.

FOUND: “...until they found out how we could help them / do it better / save them money /
etc.”

The idea to get across here is that the only reason that the customer feels the way that
they do is that they don’t have all of the information - they need to find something out.
Others who did so became some of your best customers, that is the logic and the not-so-
subtly implied message behind this technique. Remember, your goal in prospecting is to
get the meeting, and the Feel, Felt, Found technique leads you right to that conclusion.
After making your “found” statement, which should of course point to what it is that needs
to be found out in your specific case, ask for the meeting.

CLOSE: “Why don’t we meet for about 30 minutes next Tuesday at 4:00 and I can show
you....”

A few thoughts about the Feel, Felt, Found.

First of all, use your own words. See the objection list above for two examples of how to
use this without always using the words feel, felt and found. The common objections “We
do that internally” and “We’re not interested” both use variations on Feel, Felt, Found using
other words. The important point is the format and the structure. Be sure to use all three
parts, but don’t feel that you need to use the exact words.

Second, even if you do change up the words, don’t use this too many times. The Feel,
Felt, Found technique can be made to sound quite natural once or twice, but if you keep
repeating the pattern, you prospective customer will pick up on it and see that you are
using a “technique” and probably not feel too good about that. So like the silver bullet that
can kill the werewolf (or is that the vampire?!?), use Feel, Felt, Found with care.

© David Masover www.davidmasover.com

 Handling Objections
...what to do when they say “NO”

Avoiding Prospecting Objections

Much of this section has been adapted from the book Mastering Your Sales Process by
David Masover. Both the relevant sections in the original book and this section of this
eBook are designed to help you address objections when they arise, but wouldn’t it be
better to just avoid objections in the first place (and to fast track your way to a closed sale).

How can you do that?

Objections in general come up when you don’t have the full confidence of the prospect at
the time when you need to ask them to do something. Objections tend to come up when
you ask for a meeting for the first time (prospecting objections - addressed above) or when
you ask for the order (proposal objections - addressed below).

In the case of prospecting objections, you can minimize them by:

• Having a proper self image as a salesperson (to project confidence)

• Targeting the right leads
• Approaching those leads professionally, and
• Having the right reason to call your prospects in the first place

When you get to the point of asking for a meeting, this work that you have done to set it up
properly will have a great impact on your request. If you set it up properly, then asking for
and getting your meeting is not hard. If you don’t, you will face resistance in the form of
objections.

In the previous section above on prospecting objections, we have looked at how to handle
those objections when they come up. Please refer to the book Mastering Your Sales
Process by David Masover for more information about the other parts of the sales process
that - together - will help lead you do greater sales success.

Now let’s look at the objections that come up after you have presented your offer.

© David Masover www.davidmasover.com

 Handling Objections
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III! Objections to your offer

Even when we work to avoid them, objections do come, so we might as well prepare for
them.

In this section, we will consider what to do about objections that come after you have
delivered your proposal, quotation or offer. Categories of consideration are:

• Prepare for anticipated objections

• Use techniques
• Handle the objection by confirming it
• Handle the objection by quarantining it
• Eliminate objections by definition

Prepare for anticipated objections

Much like in the section above on prospecting objections, some proposal objections will be
predictable. As you prepare your offer, think about what might come up in the prospects
mind as a reason not to move forward. Common examples include:

• We can’t afford it
• I need to ask my boss / the committee / my wife / my fortune teller / etc.
• It is just not a priority for us now
• We’re not convinced that it solves the problem for us adequately
• We’re not sure that you can deliver everything that you have described in the
proposal

You should note here that almost all of these issues are things that you can anticipate and
explore with the client before the proposal is created, but more about that idea in the
section below on eliminating objections before they come up (can you guess what the big
idea is there now?).

But let’s face it, sometimes we can’t get all of the information, or some new issues come
up, or the prospect was not fully honest with us, or something. For whatever reason,
objections come up - sometimes just for sport it seems.

To the extent that we can predict what objections might come up and prepare for them in
advance, we will be more successful when they do come up. So as with the prospecting
objections, think about how to address predictable proposal or offer objections beforehand
so that you will be well prepared when they do come up.

While you are considering how to prepare for these objections as they come up after you
present your proposal, also consider how to bring these up during qualification and needs

© David Masover www.davidmasover.com

 Handling Objections
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analysis such that you won’t even write the proposal until you have DISCUSSED these
issues with the prospect.

As you go through qualification and needs analysis, be sure to address questions like the
elements of the solution that you think might work best and get agreement on it in your
conversation (this is called a trial close, and is discussed in more details in the book
Mastering Your Sales Process by David Masover). In short, the idea is that if you anticipate
what you need to know before you start your questions - the elements of qualification and
needs analysis - and make sure to ask about them and get agreement on them before you
write your proposal, then your proposal is a formality, and you won’t need to address the
objections at all - you took care of them already, before they even came up as objections.

Sweet!

In other words, think of your proposal as a list of questions that you have already asked,
and answers that you have already discussed with your prospect. For example, if they tell
you about a problem with their widget machine, explore it, and during the discussion
suggest a potential solution and see if the prospect agrees that it makes sense. Go
through this potential solution exercise with each element of your solution.

Then, as you conclude your needs analysis, walk the prospect through all of the issues
and proposed solutions that you have discussed. Agree then that you have covered
everything then write a proposal that reflects the summarizing conversation that you just
had. This way, your proposal is made up of agreements that have already been made, and
the number of objections that you will face after the proposal has been delivered will be
dramatically reduced.

Use Techniques
The Feel, Felt, Found technique discussed in the section on prospecting objections can
also be used for objections about your proposal. Keep the format in mind and use it as
needed, but remember, you can only use it once or twice before the prospect notices the
pattern, so choose your words and your timing well.

One of the most seemingly difficult objections to overcome for many salespeople is the
dreaded “I need to think about it” stall / objection. Let’s look at some ways you can address
that one now, so that you have a technique ready for this frequent deal killer if it does
indeed come up.

One of the best ways to deal with the “I need to think about it” objection is to use the fact
that everyone is busy all of the time, and that you have established yourself as a
knowledgable resource to the client (you did do that, right?).

So using the time and expertise perspective, tell the client that you understand that they
want to consider the offer carefully, but point out in your own sincere words that because
everyone is always busy, and because you have a lot of information about the product or
service that you sell, it might make sense to identify the key areas of concern RIGHT NOW

© David Masover www.davidmasover.com

 Handling Objections
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- before the meeting ends - to make sure that you were clear and complete in how you
explained everything, or can get the prospective customer some additional information to
help them think through the problem areas more clearly.

From here, one of two things generally happens. In the better of the two cases, the client
will tell you what specifically is on their minds as a concern, which gives you the chance to
work on that some more. If you can solve it right then, go back to trying to close the deal.

If you can’t solve it right away, suggest a plan for getting the solution underway, then
quarantine the objection by asking - so if we get this cleared up can we move forward? If
they agree, you now have a conditional close - all you need to do is solve the one
identified problem and the deal should be ready to be finalized.

In the less good of the two possibilities, the client will tell you that they just need time to
think. This is bad. This means that they are uncomfortable with the deal, and either don’t
know why or don’t want to tell you. The best you can probably do here is to offer your
availability to help clarify anything that might come up in the future and suggest a specific
time within the next few days to touch bases again to see if things can move forward. In
most cases, you will be chasing a ghost here, and you probably can serve your future
sales better by looking back at your efforts and deciding what you could have done better
or differently so that you don’t repeat any mistakes.

Another way to approach the “I need to think it over” objection is to review the status of
things as a way to get to the same question, for example, you might say something like:

OK, I understand, but just so that I can get a sense of where we are now,

• Do you think that I had all of the information about the problem that needed to be
solved?
• Was the solution that I offered something that you believe will fix the problem?
• Will the solution fix the problem within the budget?
• Do you believe that the solution is something that my firm can deliver?

If you get a “no” answer to any of those questions, then clarify the missing pieces right
away or as soon as possible, then go back to this model until you get all “yes” answers.

Once you get all “yes” answers to these questions, the you can ask:

• So if all of that is OK, then please help me to understand what part of the proposal
requires additional consideration - it seems to me like we should be all set?

The objective here is to find out what is really keeping the prospect from finalizing the
decision - what exactly it is that they need to think about. To the extent that you can think
about it together, you will be better off knowing what the problem is, and being a part of the
solution.

© David Masover www.davidmasover.com

 Handling Objections
...what to do when they say “NO”

Handle the objection by confirming it

There is a bit of overlap in the “confirm” approach with the “technique” approach. Try not to
think of the suggestions in this section as tricks to be used one-at-a-time until one works,
but rather, think of them as a variety tools in a tool box that you will need to pull out and
use as you work through the objection set and toward a solution.

In that spirit, the idea of the “handle the objection by confirming it” is really about probing.
As with the prospecting objections, sometimes an objection is not as real as it appears.
Objections always mean that there is some reluctance on the part of the prospect, but
sometimes the objection that is stated is not really what is at the root of the problem.

This is not to imply that the prospect is not being honest (although that happens too),
rather that reluctance to move forward will be expressed with a reason that is top of mind,
while the real reason may lurk below - like an uncertainty about something that is not fully
conscious on the part of the prospect.

You can help yourself out by behaving a bit like Columbo here. You don’t have to have a
wrinkled coat or a dopey look on your face, but ask the prospect to clarify the objection.
Don’t insult them, just make it clear that you really want to understand what is at the heart
of the problem. Try saying something like:

“So let me be sure that I understand your concern. You are worried that /
uncomfortable with / not sure about / not convinced that....(restate the objection)”

As you discuss the objection in detail, in many cases, the prospect will realize on their own
that the objection doesn’t make sense, and either decide to move forward with the deal or
will help you both to move closer to uncovering the real obstacle. Either way, you are
closer to closing, or at least knowing what exactly is in the way of doing so.

Handle the objection by quarantining it

Quarantining is a very simple technique that is almost always accepted by the prospect
and yet is very powerful for you. The idea is this:

When you get a tough objection that you might not feel that you can solve right away, ask
the client if they would move forward with the deal if the objection they just stated was not
a problem, or somehow resolved. You can say something like:

• So if we solved that, would we be able to move forward with the project?

• If that wasn’t a problem, would we be able to agree to do business together?

...or something like that in your own words.

Again, one of two things will usually occur,

© David Masover www.davidmasover.com

 Handling Objections
...what to do when they say “NO”

In the better of the two possibilities, the prospect will say that if the problem was solved,
then the deal could go forward. Now you have a conditional close, and all you need to do
is solve that one problem. If you can, you’re as good as done.

In the less good situation, the prospect will tell you about the other things that are getting
in the way of the deal. On the one hand this is good, because you know what the
obstacles are. It is also good because you didn’t go out and solve that big hairy problem
only to find that it was not the only obstacle.

The value of the quarantine is that it lets you know exactly where you stand so that you
can decide how to move forward.

Eliminate objections by definition

As was implied at the start of this section, objections can be eliminated by the actions that
you take BEFORE you write your proposal, quotation or offer.

A funny thing happens when you formally suggest a solution and a price. The tone of the
conversation between you and the customer changes. Before the proposal, there is a
conversation. Questions are asked and answered, ideas are exchanged, the spirit of the
relationship may or may not be friendly and cooperative, but however friendly and
cooperative it is, it is less so after the proposal is given.

After the proposal is given, both sides of the sales equation become more defensive, and
more combative. A line has been drawn in the sand - the salesperson wants to hold the
line and move it forward, the prospect wants to push the line, or pull the plug. Ask your
sales friends - they will know exactly what this is about. You probably do to.

So knowing this, we can actually prevent objections by definition.

Before the proposal is given there are questions, and they are just questions. After the
proposal is given, those very same questions become objections. Accordingly, the better
we do in qualification and needs analysis, the more likely we are to close the deal with a
minimum of objections. Answering the questions when they are still questions - before the
proposal is given - allows us to eliminate objections by definition. If they are already
answered by the time that the proposal is given, then they just don’t show up as objections
at all.

In the book Mastering Your Sales Process by David Masover, strategies are offered for
closing the deal during needs analysis, and making the proposal a simple formality. In this
way, the often uncomfortable steps of handling objections, negotiations and closing are
virtually eliminated. You took care of the questions before the proposal was written, and by
definition you never even faced an objection or needed to use a closing technique.

Sweet!

© David Masover www.davidmasover.com

 Handling Objections
...what to do when they say “NO”

IV! Conclusion

As you can tell, a lot of the material in this free eBook is extracted from the book Mastering
Your Sales Process by David Masover. Click on the link to learn more about the book. To
learn more, try a free sample of the Kindle book from Amazon. You can download the first
10% of the book onto your Kindle at no charge.

We do hope that you have enjoyed and benefited from this guide. Please send any
feedback, questions, comments or concerns to http://davidmasover.com/contact/. I am
looking forward to hearing from you.

To your success!

-David Masover

© David Masover www.davidmasover.com