Objections - or Offers?

by Graham Denton

In everyday usage, the word "objection" has a negative connotation. It retains its Latin root meaning of something "thrown in the way" of something else, that is, a hurdle to be overcome or an impediment. But that's only one - albeit the most common-sense of the word. If you'll check that mammoth monument to British scholarship, the Oxford English Dictionary, you'll find that an objection can also be something quite positive - something which is thrown in the way not as an obstacle, but as an object of contemplation or consideration. In the words of the OED, it can mean "presentation to the view or the mind; or that which is so presented; a representation; an offer."

An offer? This seems counterintuitive at best, ludicrous at worst. As every salesperson knows, when a customer presents an objection, she's on the way to rejecting your offer. She's certainly not making one of her own.

That's the conventional wisdom, anyway. But, as is often the case with conventional wisdom, this standard reading of the situation isn't always accurate. In fact, very often when customers present objections, "making an offer" is exactly what they're doing. They're giving you an opportunity to consider what they've "thrown out," and often inviting you to see it from their point of view. "Your price is too high," for example, can be translated as "I won't do business with you." That's a standard, negative reading. But it can also be read positively: "I'm willing to explore the possibilities here, only not at this price." That's not an objection, that's an offer.

After all, if a prospect is totally uninterested in what you're saying, and can in no way be considered a potential customer, then he would already have ended the conversation - or asked you, unambiguously, to leave him alone. If you and a prospect are still talking about his "objections," what you're really doing is considering his counter-offers. In other words, you're negotiating. And if you're in the process of negotiating, you're on the way to a sale.

You won't always make the sale, of course, but that goes for any customer encounter, with or without objections. My point is not to equate all objections with "offers to negotiate," and still less to play a Norman Vincent Peale type of game where "positive thinking" turns every minus into a plus. Face it: Some minuses are just that, minuses. The point is to understand the difference between a flat-out rejection and an objection that looks like a No but is an offer in disguise.

Re-jection versus ob-jection. Again, the origin of these words provides a helpful insight. To reject something means to throw it back, to say in effect "I don't want to look at this." To object means to present something as an object, that is, as something to be viewed, to be looked at further.

As contrary to common sense as it may sound, it's actually when you don't hear any objections that you may be in trouble. If you've been talking to a customer for fifteen minutes and she hasn't thrown out anything for your consideration, the chances are not very good that she's mentally reaching for her checkbook. It's much more likely that she's already begun to reject your offer, and is not even interested enough to make one of her own.

So welcome, and even invite, your customers' objections. They're often proof that you're on the right track, and should keep the dialogue going.