A Passion for Objections

If you look up the word “passion” in the dictionary, one definition is listed as “suffering” or “willing to suffer for.” As a sales coach for Nexstar, one of my passions is teaching others how to work around customer objections. And when it comes to working around objections, this dictionary definition fits. We need to go a bit outside our comfort zone to get the results we’re looking for.

In a previous article, I told the story of how I first created my Objection Bootcamp. What I didn’t share, however, was the “suffering” that occurred as I developed it.

The employees of the very first company to host my Objection Bootcamp gave me a crash course in what I was getting into. I remember walking in the front door feeling energized and nervous, but also confident. I knew I had prepared a strong program that was going to benefit the company I was visiting. Once inside, I was immediately approached by an intense sales manager with a puffed-up chest¬¬– he walked right up to me and said, “Are you the objection guy?”

I replied that I was. He said, “Glad you’re here. We just had an objection that I want the answer to.” He proceeded to lay out this scenario of a customer who was elderly and couldn’t follow the salesperson through the sales process; on top of that, her husband was visiting family in another country, and her son was actually the decision-maker, but he wasn’t there. I was stunned. I could feel my face getting hot. I don’t have that answer, I thought. He’s judging my expertise on this one question.

Yikes.

I share this extreme scenario because it’s the first thing that happened to me, but also because it was followed by hundreds of similar scenarios. I would enter a company to begin the Objection Bootcamp, and the sales team would try to size me up with the craziest scenario they could muster. I also began to realize that the word “objection” isn’t quite the right word for what we were all dealing with. Objections are actually just problems that need to be solved. The customers want to buy, but there’s a problem in the way. As salespeople, we’re really just problem-solvers. At the time, I suffered a bit as I learned to solve all these problems, but my passion to push through created the strong problem-solving program that exists today.

I tell every group I teach: “You literally have to do this a thousand times before you feel comfortable with the problem-solving.” And it’s true. I had to encounter and push through every problem a thousand times before I knew I wouldn’t get blindsided or stumble. You will, too. Eventually, you’ll be able to keep your composure and find a solution that works for the customer, the company, and yourself.