Sales strategies: how to turn a 'no' into a 'not yet' by improving customer dialogue
In the world of sales, objections are not necessarily refusals but can be indications of uncertainty or need for clarification by the customer
by Massimo Calì*
In my work with companies, straddling complexity management and communication, a relevant part has always been that with sales networks. The topics are as broad as one likes, and that is what still makes it intriguing to deal with them after so many years (B2B or B2C, faster or more complex sales, more 'transactional' product or more 'consultative' services to be tailored to needs).
In this richness, the editorial production is also endless. One of the latest texts I came across deals with objections, an inescapable subject from whichever angle you look at it.
It is a 2019 text that I had missed at the time and approached in its most recent edition: Managing Objections, by Jeb Blount. The Italia subtitle 'The definitive guide for rejection-proof salespeople' seems to me to be more aimed at grabbing attention and getting it opened and leafed through in the bookshop. Instead, the original 'Objections: the Ultimate Guide for Mastering the Art and Science of Getting Past No' is more programmatic, and immediately points to one of the two things that struck me most about the text. And that is the thought that objection is not rejection, even if it sometimes sounds like it. Even the vaguest and most generic (I don't have time now, it's not the time, it's not in the budget) have a grammatical form that does not always coincide with the decision function. They may simply mean that the customer does not yet have enough confidence to move forward. Confusing the two leads the salesperson to let emotional aspects prevail (understandable and perhaps unconscious, especially since the objection itself is often abrupt or uncomfortable) and to react defensively, closing the dialogue space just when it is opening up.
This is the gist of the difference between the two subtitles (Italian and original): refusal, in its full meaning, closes. Objection, on the other hand, keeps the decision open: the client who communicatively objects is using "no" but is meaning "not yet". He is signalling that something in the proposal or the path is not yet sufficiently clear, certain or a priority. An objection then, if it is anything other than a refusal, is actually an expression of interest in continuing.
The book deals extensively with classifications, types and schemes for handling objections. But not with the aim of offering spectacular answers or punch lines; on the contrary, to take the drama out of the moment of objection. If objections are recurrent and predictable, then they are not an exception, but a structural component of selling.
