The “objection” is one of the least-understood aspects of selling. It’s also one of the most frustrating to salespeople.

There are no new objections. Actually, there has been one new objection in the last 150 years: “I can get it cheaper online.” All the rest you have heard time and again. You’ve heard, “Your price is too high” ad nauseam. You’ve heard “I’m satisfied with my present supplier” a lot, too.

Why do you continue to let this happen? You insist that you are a great salesperson, yet you let these puny little objections get in the way of making sales. I don’t get it.

I refer to an objection as a barrier. There are several barriers to a sale. Affordability is a barrier. Competition is a barrier. Customer understanding is a barrier. The “fit” of your product or service to the prospect’s needs is a barrier. Risk of ownership is a barrier.

The other elements that you call objections, in my opinion, occur because you are not dealing with the decision maker or because you have not generated any interest or communicated any value beyond your product in order to earn some time with your prospective purchaser.

There are several recurring sales scenarios where the salesperson feels that an obstacle can’t be overcome. For example, your price is too high. The old-world tactic was to ask, “Well, how much were you thinking about paying?” or “How far apart are we?” or “Well, how can we work this out?” or my favorite dumb sales response, “What will it take to get your business?”

The reason price plays into a selling cycle is that you the salesperson, have not communicated the “value reasons” for the prospect to buy, and your price is the only thing left.

Instead of asking what it will take to get their business, wouldn’t it be more powerful if you told the prospects what it would take to get their business? Don’t you know what it will take to get their business? How low do you want to sink on the respect level? You’re the expert, aren’t you?

You should walk into the sale and tell the prospect: “I’ve studied the situation. I’ve worked with your people. I’ve analyzed the risk elements. I’ve created several great ideas about what it will take to get your business.”

If you walk into the sale knowing what it will take to get their business, you’ll have a 100 percent better chance than your competitor will by walking in and asking what it will take to get their business.

As soon as you ask the customers, “what it will take,” they immediately think “price reduction.” Even if you win the business, you lose the profit.    When someone says your price is too high, it’s too late in the sales game to recover without dropping your price.

A better play is during your sales presentation say: “A lot of people who are considering purchasing our stuff look at our price and look at our competitor’s price and believe ours to be higher. In fact, even though we may charge the higher initial price, during the term of use, we are the lowest cost. Our productivity is the highest. Mr. Jones, people buy in 30 minutes. But they use for several years. Let’s look at how you are currently using our stuff.”

That’s objection prevention.

When the customer says, “We’re satisfied with who we have,” it’s too late. You should head it off by asking, “Mr. Jones, why do customers switch suppliers?” when you enter the room. This takes the objection away and makes the customer answer his own objection.

This will create dialogues, and will generate real answers from customers. It also implies that you know why they switch. You better have your own set of answers.

Here’s the biggest rub: Customers will lie to you or play games or both, and there’s almost nothing you can do about it. Being a keen listener and a keen questioner will help you. In the end, if they lie about anything, they’ll lie about everything. It’s best to give these people to your competition, and let them deal with them.

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President of Charlotte, N.C.-based Buy Gitomer, Jeffrey Gitomer gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts Internet training programs on selling and customer service. He can be reached at (704) 333-1112 or by e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com.