Q: Why are objections important in sales?
A: Salespeople often hope buyers will agree immediately and buy without resistance. In reality, if the buyer won’t commit on the spot, the next best outcome is an objection. An objection shows they are engaged enough to test the decision. It is a sign they are still considering the offer rather than dismissing it.
Mini-summary: Objections are not a setback. They are evidence the buyer is still in the conversation.
Q: What does it mean when there is no sale and no objection?
A: That is a danger signal. Buyers who have no intention of buying won’t spend energy on due diligence. They won’t question the offer, probe the details, or raise concerns. They simply drift away. No objection, when there is also no decision, can mean the buyer is not serious enough to invest effort in evaluating the proposal.
Mini-summary: Silence may feel comfortable, but it can be a stronger warning sign than resistance.
Q: What role do questions play in larger or more complex sales?
A: Poor questions are another warning sign. If the sale is expensive or complex, we should expect a lot of quality questions. Serious buyers want to understand risk, value, timing, and fit. Strong objections and strong questions show the offer is being taken seriously and examined properly.
Mini-summary: In bigger sales, good questions are healthy because they show real interest and due diligence.
Q: Why does it matter who is in the meeting?
A: Sometimes the person in front of us is not the real decision-maker. They may simply be collecting data and information to relay to others inside the organisation. In that case, they may not raise many objections because they won’t be the end user or the final approver. We need feedback from the real decision-makers so we can address what worries them.
Mini-summary: If the real decision-makers are absent, a lack of objections may tell us very little.
Q: What is the practical lesson for salespeople?
A: After a meeting with a large financial institution, the deal turned out to be ten times bigger than expected, and the investment matched that much larger scope. Walking out, the reaction was that there weren’t enough objections. A proposal that much larger should have triggered more concern, more pushback, and more discussion. The lesson is simple: don’t fear objections. Work hard to draw them out so you can surface doubts, show value, create urgency, and move the sale forward.
Mini-summary: We need objections if we want to complete the sale, because they help us deal with what really matters.
“Dr Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is a veteran Japan CEO and trainer, author of multiple best-sellers and host of the Japan Business Mastery series. He leads leadership and presentation programmes at Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo.”
