In-Sights: The Best Time To Handle Objections? Before They Arise
- Tyson Group
- Feb 3
- 6 min read
Updated: Mar 4
In this short episode, we dive into the art and science of handling objections—a skill every sales professional needs to master. Learn how to turn resistance into rapport, uncover hidden opportunities in challenging conversations, and navigate objections with confidence and finesse. Whether you're facing tough clients or complex deals, these proven techniques will help you stay in control and close more effectively. Tune in and take your sales game to the next level!
Lance is the bestselling author of Selling Is An Away Game and The Human Sales Factor. You can purchase these books at Tyson Group.
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In-Sights: The Best Time To Handle Objections? Before They Arise
The Science of Handling Objections: Strategies That Close Deals
Let's look at the marketplace first. You do a lot of studies. Usually in the market, you'll hear things about the cost of doing something's too high, the cost of owning something's too high, and the argument from sales as the cost of not doing it might be as high. What's interesting about value is value is perceived. Anytime somebody objects about budget, that always seems most legit. Budgets are usually based on a past number. It usually is a timeframe and it means people are involved in the decision-making of prices.
The Predictable Way To Look At Objections
Budget is a decision-making process all in that's a marketplace rejection. The last thing is the price. Price is the price. What's interesting about capitalism is the price is what's there regardless. The marketplace is an uncanny way of getting rid of products and services that don't meet standards. That's where price comes into play. As we look further into this, we have to have a predictable way that we look at objections.
Prices are capitalism’s uncanny way of getting rid of products and services that do not meet standards.
If we're talking about objections in this episode, we're going to talk about negotiation in the next seminar. One of the things we need to ask ourselves is, “When is the best time to ever deal with an objection?” Your choices comes up after somebody says something. The best time to deal with an objection is before it ever comes up. That means it's baked into your process.
My mentor, Sami Iorio, was the greatest at dealing with objections before it ever came up in his speeches and the way he would prep for things. He would make comments that would in a way put a buyer on their heels a little bit. I'm pulling a text up from one of these guys who used to work with him. He used to say things. Remember the time he was selling to a big pharmaceutical company?
I'm sitting next to him. Before we started, he said to the decision-makers or the senior management, “Before I can get into help you, I need you to know that what we're going to suggest is going to push your budget because it's something you didn't budget for. It's going to be very inconvenient for your supervisors because what we're suggesting is going to take them off the job site or production floor.” I looked at him and said, “That one line deal with that objection before it came up was unbelievably effective.”
That's strategy. Before you go there, you have to understand what was behind Sam's recommendation. In my book, Selling Is An Away Game, we talk about a very collapsible, predictable sales process. It’s a sales process that probably fits in a lot of spots. I'm not saying this is your process but hear me out. It follows a visit to an orthopedic surgeon or a dentist's office. When you go to a dentist, doctor, or surgeon, you need to connect with somebody. They have credibility, were suggested, and referred to.
You walk into a doctor's office and the nurse practitioner, assistant, or whoever it is, or PA evaluates you. The connect is they look at your insurance and qualify you, who you are, your name, and all your contact information. That's the connect step. You identify who you're going to deal with the provider and then they verify who you are. When you get in the office, there's an evaluation done by a nurse, nurse practitioner, or whoever it is.
I have a couple of people in my family. My niece, Madison, is going to be a nurse. One of my son's girlfriends is going to be either a PA or nurse too. This is probably something they're going to do in their life. They evaluate. Once that evaluation is done, they confirm your past and look to move to the future. The doc comes in and diagnoses you. From there, based on a wellness visit or sick visit, there's a prescription made. That's the evidence and advice.
After you get a prescription, say you're going to get your shoulder done because you tore a labrum, there's going to be a dialogue about the prescription like what PT you're going to get, any painkillers, and whatever it looks like. You have to debate back and forth with the doc. Ultimately, you close and advance it. We call for level first with objections. Before you get an objection to what they say after you pitch, there's another level of objections called Inherent Objections. They are built in and tied to each one of these steps.
A Balanced Approach To Selling
The goal is to have you understand them first. We have a secondary sales process we teach inside of all our sales processes called A Balanced Approach to Selling. If you look at 3:00 first, it takes into consideration the mindset of the buyer or prospect. If you want to sell John Brown what John Brown buys, you're going to see things through John Brown's eyes. You've got to see the inherent objection that you can deal with.
There's a strategy tied to that. What are you trying to accomplish? What are the overarching goals? What tactics would you use? What skills would you need? Brandon Lawrence, who’s on my team is one of our Senior Director of Business Development. He and I are on a call with an executive of major league baseball. She was very lukewarm, if not cold, at best. If you got out of there, it felt that we didn't establish credibility but it was a cold call.
If we're going into her and you look at that first connect step, her mindset for us is she's preoccupied. We had to say or do something to get her out of her preoccupation. She's probably asking herself, “Why the heck am I even meeting with these people?” Brandon and I both had to engage her in a conversation and get her to acknowledge that we were somebody worth listening to. There's the rapport and credibility.
Were we able to move it to the next step? Yes. If you were reading the buying and warning signals thing she was doing, it seemed like a hell of a lot more warning signals and buying signals. We didn't employ tactics as a good sales starter. We had to use impact statements where we were talking about other organizations we did business with. We had to facilitate the call. That's called a white speak statement.
The first objection is she's preoccupied. We need this when we're prospecting, opening calls, and presenting. We have to get our buyers or audience over a level of preoccupation. That's an inherent objection number one. Remember, before we can talk about objections when you present, you have to know the inherent objections that are there. That's why the sales process is there.
Let's look at step two. Back to the bounce stock selling, we're in the evaluate step. If you go to 3:00, the mindset is that the buyers are disinterested. If you've ever asked buyers questions in the beginning, they were pretty enthusiastic about answering your questions. As you went forward, they stopped being enthusiastic and participating. It's probably because your questions weren't interesting.
If anybody ever told you there's no bad and stupid question, that's a lie. There are stupid and bad questions. Especially if you're not thinking of your audience and you have that kind of EQ, that's an issue. As you ask questions, you go through a needs assessment and opportunity analysis. The strategy would be to ask questions for the buyer to paint a picture of their ideal scenario.
Most salespeople ask questions like a lawyer leading a witness in court. They ask questions that are good for them, not necessarily the good of the buyer.
Most salespeople ask questions that are like leading the witness if you were in court. They ask questions that are good for them but not necessarily good for the buyer's tactics. You have to understand the gap. Secondly, you have to create the right environment for asking questions. If you do want to be good at resolving objections or negotiating, facilitating is at play at all times. What skills do you need there? You've got to be a strategic thinker and an active listener.
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