A customer's objection in a sales meeting is almost never what it sounds like. Behind most objections sits a fear, and the important question is not how to answer it but whether it is real or an alibi.
An objection, in plain words, is any reason the customer raises for not buying right now. Most owners hear it as an argument and answer it with an argument. The sales book this booklet draws on suggests a different way of listening to it.
The brick overcoat
The sales book has one image that carries the whole subject. As the meeting gets closer, the customer wraps themselves in an overcoat made of bricks. Each brick is an argument, some of them conscious and some not, and the seller has to get past all of them.
What are the bricks made of? The source answers plainly: “The bricks in the overcoat are bricks of fear.” Those fears have to melt away before the customer can buy feeling sure they are doing the right thing.
A second book adds an important detail. The customer is not building the overcoat because they are afraid of you. They are afraid of themselves: afraid they will buy, and that it will somehow turn out to be a mistake.
That changes what you hear. When a customer says it is expensive, they are usually not talking about the price. They are afraid of regretting it. When they say they need to think, they are not asking for more time. They are afraid of getting it wrong.
Suppose an owner who hears that it is too expensive and offers a discount. The objection comes straight back in other words, because the fear never had anything to do with the price.
Or suppose a client who raises three different objections within ten minutes. That is three bricks, but behind them there is one fear.
A legitimate objection versus an alibi
Not every objection is the same. There is the legitimate objection, meaning a reason that looks justified to the customer for waiting or not buying, and there is the alibi, meaning an objection designed to put the decision off rather than to solve anything.
According to the source, two marks tell them apart. The first is that a legitimate objection comes back. The customer does not invent a new reason every time you answer, but stays with the same one and returns to it again and again.
The second mark is that it makes sense. A legitimate objection sounds reasonable, there is something authentic about it, and it is not far-fetched.
An alibi looks different. The customer agrees with everything you say, right up to the point where you ask for a signature. That is when they suddenly start looking for reasons not to buy, because they have realised that unless they move quickly, they are in.
Suppose a client who comes back three times to the same line: there is nobody on their side who can run it. This one is legitimate, and on top of that it shows you exactly what this client needs.
Compare that with a client who says it is expensive, then after your answer says they are not sure it is the right moment, and after your next answer says they need to check with their accountant. Three different reasons, and so it is an alibi.
Why you listen before you answer
The natural reflex is to answer straight away. The source suggests the reverse order: first let the customer talk the objection through, and give them the chance to get past it on their own. Your proposal comes at the end, not at the start.
The reason is simple. By listening, you get the full background to the objection, and only then do you know which brick needs to come off.
Suppose a client who objects on grounds of time. Instead of answering, you ask what exactly is going to take up their time, and it turns out they thought they would have to manage the project themselves. They would not, and the objection is gone.
The other way round is the same objection met with an instant answer that it takes very little time and there is nothing to worry about. The client does not argue, and does not buy either.
Never belittle an objection
This is the absolute rule of the chapter: you do not belittle a buyer's objection, however far-fetched it looks to you. The source calls this the surest way it knows of losing a buyer.
And its reasoning is not about manners: “you are not the buyer; it is not your money.” You are not the one who will live with the results of the purchase. They are.
So you answer objections honestly, you acknowledge the customer's concern, and you even compliment them for raising it.
Suppose a client who asks a question that sounds technical and beside the point. An answer that starts by calling it a good question, one most people never ask, changes the whole tone of the meeting.
The other way round is a line that sounds reassuring, that this is really nothing to worry about. It wipes out the customer's concern. They will not bring it up again, but they will not buy either, because a concern that was wiped out has not gone away. It has only slipped below the surface.
The booklet gives this chapter two exercises, one to spot it and one to do it, followed by a self-check. The booklet as a whole is built in two halves, discovery and closing, and this chapter belongs to the closing half.
The next time a client tells you it is expensive, before you drop the price, ask yourself what fear is behind those words, and whether they will say it again after you answer.