Objections

10Prospecting Objections

Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.

—Mike Tyson

Of all objections, prospecting objections are the most severe. They're often harsh and cold, and at times, flat-out rejection. This is why millions of salespeople treat prospecting like the plague and allow avoiding it to damage both their careers and chances for income advancement.

There is a simple reason why prospecting is so emotionally difficult and why prospecting activities (primarily phone and in-person) generate such harsh rejections and objections:

Prospecting is interrupting.

You don't enjoy being interrupted. Neither do your prospects.

Frankly, in a perfect world, salespeople would not interrupt prospects, and prospects would be happy that they were not being interrupted. It would be a loving utopia where buyers and sellers sat in circles and sang “Kumbaya.” But a world where qualified buyers reached out and contacted salespeople at just the right time and no one ever had to prospect again is a fantasy.

If you want the peace of mind of a full pipeline, if you want sustained success in your sales career, if you want to maximize your income, then you've got to interrupt prospects. You must pick up the phone, walk in the door, send an e-mail or text message, or ping a prospect on LinkedIn.

Unless you are a pure inbound sales rep, if you wait for your prospect to interrupt you, you will fail. Why? Because the number-one reason for failure in sales is an empty pipeline, and ...