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Stop Teaching People to "Overcome" Objections - You're Making Them Worse Salespeople
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Nobody wants to buy from someone who treats their concerns like obstacles to bulldoze through.
After seventeen years running sales teams across Melbourne and Perth, watching countless "objection handling" workshops turn decent people into pushy robots, I'm calling it. The entire industry has got this backwards. We're teaching people to fight their customers instead of listening to them.
The problem starts with the language. "Overcome objections." "Handle resistance." "Break down barriers." It's all combat metaphor that positions your prospect as the enemy. No wonder 74% of buyers report feeling pressured during sales conversations - we've literally trained our people to wage war on legitimate concerns.
Here's what actually works, and why most training gets it spectacularly wrong.
The Fatal Flaw in Traditional Objection Training
Most objection handling courses teach you to memorise responses. "If they say X, you say Y." It's like giving someone a phrasebook for a language they don't speak. Sure, you might stumble through a basic conversation, but you'll sound robotic and miss all the nuance.
I learned this the hard way in 2019 when I hired a "sales guru" (expensive mistake number 847) to train my Brisbane team. Within a month, my best performer - Sarah, who'd been outselling everyone through genuine rapport - had turned into a script-spouting nightmare. Her close rate dropped 30%. Customers started complaining she wasn't listening.
The real kicker? Sarah's natural approach had been perfect all along. She'd simply... answered questions honestly.
Revolutionary concept, right?
What Objections Actually Mean (Spoiler: They're Good News)
An objection isn't resistance - it's engagement. When someone voices a concern, they're essentially saying "I'm interested enough to tell you what's stopping me from buying." That's gold.
The silence is what should worry you. The polite "we'll think about it" followed by radio silence. Those are the real rejections.
But we've trained salespeople to fear objections instead of recognising them as buying signals. It's like being scared of questions during a job interview - mate, questions mean they're considering you.
I've noticed that my top performers actually generate more objections than the strugglers. Not because they're worse at selling, but because they're better at building trust. People feel safe enough to voice their real concerns instead of giving polite brush-offs.
The Perth Principle: Why Geography Matters
Here's something most sales trainers won't tell you because they're too busy selling one-size-fits-all programs: Australians buy differently than Americans.
We're more direct, less tolerant of schmoozing, and we can spot fake enthusiasm from across the Nullarbor. Yet most objection handling training comes straight from US sales methodologies that rely on high-pressure tactics and artificial urgency.
I call it the "Perth Principle" after watching Sydney-trained reps bomb spectacularly when they transferred to our WA office. What works in the pressure-cooker environment of Sydney's CBD falls flat with laid-back Perth executives who just want straight answers.
Perth taught me that the best "objection handling" technique is often no technique at all. Just honest conversation.
The Three Types of Real Objections (Ignore the Rest)
Most training overcomplplicates this. There are really only three genuine objections:
Budget objections: They can't afford it or don't see the value justifying the cost.
Authority objections: They're not the decision maker (though they'll rarely admit this directly).
Timing objections: They need it, want it, can afford it, but now isn't right.
Everything else? That's just people being polite while they figure out how to get you off the phone.
The magic happens when you stop trying to "handle" these and start having actual conversations about them.
"Sounds like budget's tight this quarter" is infinitely better than launching into a discount offer or value proposition spam. Sometimes the honest response is "Fair enough, what would need to change for this to make sense financially?"
Mind-blowing, I know.
Why Qantas Gets It Right (And Most Companies Don't)
I was flying Qantas last month - delayed flight, stressed passengers, the usual airport chaos. But their customer service rep, instead of giving scripted responses to complaints, simply said "Yeah, this sucks. Here's what I can actually do about it."
No corporate speak. No "I understand your frustration" (which nobody believes anyway). Just honest acknowledgment and practical solutions.
That's exactly how objection conversations should go. "I hear you saying price is an issue. Let me see what options we have."
Compare that to the nightmare I experienced with a major telecommunications company (naming names would be unprofessional, but their logo is red and they rhyme with "Smelstra"). Their rep insisted on following a script that addressed objections I hadn't even raised while completely ignoring the one concern I'd clearly stated three times.
The Melbourne Method: Conversation Over Confrontation
Down in Melbourne, I stumbled onto something that transformed how I think about sales conversations. We started recording calls (with permission) purely for training purposes, but what we discovered surprised everyone.
Our highest converting calls didn't feature any "objection handling" at all. They were just... conversations. Professional conversations where concerns were discussed openly and resolved collaboratively.
No tricks. No pressure. No closing techniques that sound like they were written by someone who learned English from infomercials.
The data doesn't lie: when reps treated objections as information rather than obstacles, conversion rates increased 43%. When they responded with curiosity instead of prepared rebuttals, average deal size grew by 28%.
The Real Secret Nobody Talks About
Here's what seventeen years in this game has taught me: most objections aren't about your product or service at all. They're about trust.
"It's too expensive" often means "I don't trust that this will deliver value." "We need to think about it" usually translates to "I don't trust you enough to make a decision right now." "We're happy with our current provider" frequently means "I don't trust that switching will be worth the hassle."
Once you understand this, everything changes. Instead of preparing clever responses to surface-level concerns, you focus on building genuine trust through transparency and competence.
What Actually Works in Practice
Stop memorising scripts. Start memorising principles.
Principle One: Acknowledge first, explore second. "That's a fair concern" beats any prepared rebuttal.
Principle Two: Ask questions before offering solutions. "Help me understand what specifically worries you about the price" reveals more than any assumption.
Principle Three: Sometimes the answer is no, and that's okay. "Sounds like this isn't right for you guys" builds more long-term credibility than desperately trying to force a square peg into a round hole.
I know this sounds almost insultingly simple. But simplicity is exactly what's missing from most sales training. We've turned natural human conversations into complicated strategic manoeuvres.
The Adelaide Revelation That Changed Everything
Three years ago, our Adelaide team was struggling. Terrible conversion rates, customer complaints, team morale in the toilet. The regional manager kept pushing for more objection handling training.
Instead, I tried something radical: I banned the phrase "objection handling" entirely. Started calling them "customer concerns" instead. Sounds semantic, but language shapes thinking.
Within six months, Adelaide became our top-performing region. Not because they got better at overcoming resistance, but because they stopped seeing customer concerns as resistance in the first place.
Where Most Training Goes Wrong
The sales training industry has convinced us that objection handling is a skill that requires elaborate systems and frameworks. BANT qualification, SPIN selling, Challenger methodologies - they're all missing the point.
Real objection handling isn't about techniques. It's about character.
Do you genuinely care about solving your customer's problem, or just closing the deal? Are you curious about their concerns, or just waiting for them to stop talking so you can deploy your next tactic?
People can sense the difference immediately. And in 2025, with unlimited information at their fingertips, they have zero patience for salespeople who prioritise process over authenticity.
The Future of Sales Conversations
We're moving toward a world where traditional sales techniques become increasingly ineffective. Buyers are more informed, more sceptical, and less tolerant of manipulation.
The companies that adapt fastest will be those that abandon the adversarial model of objection "handling" and embrace collaborative problem-solving instead.
This isn't wishful thinking - it's pragmatic business strategy. The evidence is already overwhelming among forward-thinking organisations across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide.
The best salespeople I know don't "handle" objections. They welcome them, explore them thoroughly, and work with their prospects to find mutually beneficial solutions.
Sometimes that solution is buying their product. Sometimes it's waiting six months. Sometimes it's working with a competitor who's genuinely a better fit.
And counterintuitively, this approach leads to more sales, not fewer.
Stop fighting your customers' concerns. Start partnering with them to address those concerns thoughtfully and honestly.
It's not rocket science. It's just good business.
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