When you become a Master Persuader, you will learn to love objections. You will come to understand that when people voice their objections, it actually indicates interest and shows that they are paying attention to what you are saying. The key to persuasion is anticipating all objections before you hear them. Fielding questions and handling objections can make or break you as a persuader. Such skills will help you in every aspect of your life. Four different times to handle objections:

1. Before they occur
2. When they occur
3. Later
4. Never Real Objections Vs False Objections

You have to be able to read real objections from false objections. People are nice and sometimes won’t tell you the truth. Most people won’t say “I cant afford it.”

1. The first thing is to find out if the objection is something you can solve. Suppose you are negotiating a large office furniture order and the objection comes up about not being able to afford your furniture. You then find out your prospect just declared bankruptcy. Obviously there is nothing you can do or say that will resolve such an objection.

2. Let your prospect state his objection: hear him out completely, without interruption. Wait until he is finished before you say anything. Hold your response until the other person is receptive to what you are about to say. This is the first time your prospect has voiced his objection; he will not listen until he has said what is on his mind.

3. Always ask your prospect to restate or repeat his key points. Every time he replays his objection it becomes clearer in both your minds. Letting him speak, particularly if he is upset, drains emotion from his objection. Allowing him to voice his concerns also gives you time to think about a response and helps you determine his intent in bringing up the objection in the first place.

4. Always compliment your prospect on his objection. As a Master Persuader, you can appreciate a good objection; it dictates the direction in which you should take your presentation. You don’t have to prove you are right 100% of the time. Skillful persuaders will always find some point of agreement. It’s important to recognize the apprehension or objections people have instead of ignoring them.

5. Stay calm. Scientifically proven tests show that calmly stated facts are more effective in getting people to change their minds than are threats and force.

6. Don’t be arrogant or condescending. Show empathy with your prospect’s objection. Let him know others have felt this way. Talk in the third person; use a disinterested party to prove your point. This is why we often use testimonials to let someone else do the persuading for us.

7 . Give the person room to save face. People will often change their minds and agree with you later. Unless your prospect has made a strong stand, leave the door open for him to later agree
with you and save face at the same time. It could be that he did not have all the facts, that he misunderstood, or that you didn’t explain everything correctly. Questioning can also measure the level of receptivity in your prospects. How receptive your audience is correlates with how many questions or statements arise. So what if there are no questions? What do you do? If there are no questions, it could be because the audience needs time to think about what you have just said, they could be afraid to ask because of what others might think, or they just might not be able to think of a good question to ask. Maybe you went on too long or stepped on a sensitive issue. Perhaps the audience has already made up their minds, or maybe they don’t speak English. The best questions draw a person into a conversation and out of being unreceptive. So, it is to your advantage to direct questions at your prospects that will reel them in: What do you think about…? Have you ever thought about…? How do you feel about…? When did you start…? Where did you find…? No matter what, when you get people involved in the process, you will get some objections. The way you handle objections will correlate with how mentally involved people become with your message. The better you become at handling objections, the more persuasive you will become.