The Art of ACE-ing Objections

by Graham Denton

The baseline advice for handling objections is simple: Don't. Don't think of a customer's objection as an impediment that you need to push out of the way or a hurdle to be gotten over, because in the customer's mind that's not what they are. Customers raise objections because they are bothered. Something about the selling situation -- maybe the product, maybe the price, maybe you -- is telling them, "I feel uneasy about what's going on here. I'd better throw something in this person's way." That's the Latin root of the word objection, in fact: something that is thrown in the way.

Because objections are a sign of the customer's inner uneasiness, trying to "handle" them is risky. Why? Because somebody who sees you as handling a customer's objections is going to translate that as "He's handling me." He's not taking me seriously, he's not interested in why I'm bothered, he just wants to make the sale, at my expense. If customers even suspect that this is what you're doing, it doesn't matter whether their objections are legitimate, paranoid, or somewhere in between. Sooner or later you'll handle yourself out of the sale.

So, instead of discounting, minimizing, or otherwise finessing the customer's objection, always begin by acknowledging its importance. Acknowledgment is the first step in a three-part approach to objection management. The second step is providing Context, and the third is Evaluation. Learn not to "handle" objections, but to ACE them.

Acknowledgment. Begin by validating the emotion that the customer is feeling. Then uncover the specific concern that is causing that emotion. If your customer is balking at your perfect pitch, she's probably not just plain stubborn. She's worried about the payments stretching her budget to the limit. Or about her colleagues hating the design. Or about her employees not getting the training that your product requires. Acknowledge that her concern is a reasonable one, given her perspective. "If I were in your position, I'd probably feel the same way."

Context. Second, place her objection in a broader perspective. "Contextualize" it. This may mean comparing her feelings with those of other customers you've had who ultimately bought your product. It may mean breaking a daunting price tag down into monthly or daily increments so that the overall investment seems more manageable. (For more on this, see the Reduction to the Ridiculous technique.) Or it may mean measuring her negative feelings against her positive feelings (the Ben Franklin technique). Whatever the specific technique you find appropriate to a given situation, the point is to reframe her concerns from a wider perspective, so that she sees them anew as only a part of the picture.

Evaluate. Finally, ask her to evaluate -- or more precisely, reevaluate -- within the new context. Don't do the evaluation for her. That's a common mistake among amateurs who often tie up their Ben Franklin closes, for example, by saying something like, "As I think you'll have to agree, the logical choice is for you to embrace this opportunity." All that kind of statement does is to reassert the pressure that elicited the customer's objection in the first place. So let the customer make her own evaluation. If your Context step was effective, she'll often be ready to buy.

But not every time. Sometimes you'll have to reframe the objection a second or third time until it's effectively "ACE-ed" out of the way. Sometimes, even then, you won't make the sale, because the customer's negative feelings are just too deep, or they're a mask for deeper feelings that you haven't even gotten to. Get used to that. Part of being a professional is knowing that you can't win every sale, and that some objections are so thoroughly entrenched -- and in some cases so legitimate -- that you shouldn't try. Sales is the art of making it easy for people to buy what they want and need. If you look at the ACE strategy carefully, you'll see that it helps you to do that.

Traditional "handling" strategies do just the opposite. Based on the erroneous assumption that every sale is worth making, they direct the salesperson to treat objections as obstacles to be overcome. In fact, it's much more sensible to think of them as guides to future business.