The Single Most Important Part of Objection Handling

If someone says that something is 'too expensive,' no sales rep is going to give the buyer more money so they can make the purchase. If someone 'lives too far away,' a sales rep is never going to physically pull their arena closer to their neighborhood. If someone's schedule is 'too busy,' no sales rep is going to be able to add hours to a day, or days to a week. So how on earth are we supposed to be able to handle any objections?

The key is in understanding that the objections you see above aren't actually the objections. Behind every objection you get, you have to believe that it's truly value that is standing in the way. If it's 'too expensive,' it actually means that they don't see the value in spending their money on the tickets. If someone is 'too far away,' it just means they don't see the value in making the commute. If someone is 'too busy,' it just means they don't see the value in allocating their time to attend.

This is a really important point of differentiation. I can't or won't do everything in the first paragraph. I can increase or grow value as a salesperson.

This starts by qualifying the objection...'When you say it's too expensive, do you mean that you don't want to spend that money on it right now, or that you don't want to spend all that money period?' The first answer? We can lower the cost or put them on a payment plan. The second one? Time to move on to the next person. You can do this exercise with any objection.

'When you say you live too far away, do you mean that you live too far away to come often, or do you mean that you live too far away to come period?' First one? I'd ticket exchange policy handle or perhaps lower the game commitment. Second one? Time to leave dodge.

'When you say you're too busy, does it mean that you're too busy to come consistently, or going to games just isn't a priority? The first one is absolutely in play. The second one? Yikes.

These are just some of the most common examples. You should be thinking about this for all the objections you get. Handling objections comes down to having a positive approach to creating solutions, or a negative approach to accepting defeat before the battle is fought. Excellent objection handlers hear an objection and start thinking, 'How do I create more value here?' To the buyer, value will always be king (as the great Warren Buffett quote above demonstrates). Your job is to help increase value through handling objections...not accept the defeat of the objection.

Editor's Note: We'll talk WAY more about objection handling in the future...this is just the most important foundational point to remember.