When I was in executive management, I had the opportunity to meet with salespeople who were presenting their solutions to my company. In many cases I was in the “investigation stage” of a solution. I knew my company needed a better way to address a problem, but I didn’t know what was available to me. I had no objections at this time; however, I had my share of perceptions. My business was going to go to the first salesperson’s company that could solve my problem while being congruent with my perceptions. Throughout the various presentations, I was rarely listened to, yet I continued to volunteer all the information needed for the salesperson to make a recommendation. Still I had no objections, and one would think that it was clear sailing to the sale. But then it happened. The salesperson began telling me how their features were so much better than ABC Company and XYZ Company. Little did he know that I wasn’t even aware of ABC Company and XYZ Company’s existence, let alone the features they offered. As a matter of fact, XYZ Company sounded very interesting, and I made up my mind to look into their offerings. Beyond the normal objection of the salesperson being unprofessional by criticizing someone else, I had a new objection going forward. Now armed with competitive information, I wanted to look some more. And you can bet that XYZ would scare up a few objections that I’d never thought of as well.

Who created these objections? The world of selling is hard enough without salespeople creating more hurtles. Oh yes, there are thousands of techniques to address every detailed objection known to mankind, but why take the chance? No need to add objections. Why not nip them in the bud by not creating them in the first place?

Sometimes it’s not what you say, but what you assume that creates objections in prospects’ minds. Take the example of references. When you give a prospect an unsolicited reference, what you are trying to say is, “My product is so great that it is used by ABC Inc.” You’re assuming that they will be impressed by the reference and sign on the dotted line. But what does the prospect think of ABC Inc.? Do they respect them, or think they are nothing like their company (i.e. bigger or smaller)? If their perception of ABC Inc. is not creditable then you just hitched your wagon to a submarine and created an objection. The ball player Pete Rose was a well-respected icon for years. He was featured in a great deal of advertising, creating the message that if Pete Rose is behind a product, then you should be, too. But when Pete got accused of betting on ball games, the advertisements suddenly disappeared.

Another example of unknowingly creating an objection is the concept of customer tours. I realize that many salespeople are proud of their office facilities, and it’s a notion that I’m quite happy with, to tell the truth. However, I’m left wondering what they are trying to accomplish when their prospect visits them. Do they have a specific purpose and goal in mind that they would like to accomplish? Really think about it and ask yourself, “Does my office help or hurt that mission?” Maybe a customer’s site would suit the mission better, especially if you were to perform a demo there. Many a tour through an unfamiliar, cluttered and untidy technical area gave a prospect the “Can I entrust my work to these people?” feeling. Walking in the door there was no objection, but walking out was a different story. Just make sure there’s a purpose behind your strategies and that your action plan adds value to that purpose.

There was a startup software company that was quite proud of the expensive sign they had hanging outside of their office. It was truly a good looking sign. In fact, they were so proud of the sign that they took a picture of the building’s exterior, and made this image the major presence on their website. The only problem was that the building was small and located in a strip mall, yet they were looking for customers who would commit to their one million dollar software product over several years. This minor decision created an objection that the company might just be too small, and might not be around in the long haul, which was then broadcasted all over the World Wide Web. But you can’t assume you know your customers’ beliefs and opinions. You must truly know these invaluable pieces of information, or else everything you say or transmit is like rolling the dice.

At this point you are probably feeling like everything you say and do has an affect on creating objections, and you’re walking on eggshells. Well you’re partially right. Everything you say and do does have an effect on your success. But walking on eggshells is your choice. If you’re willing to take a “ready, fire, aim” approach, go ahead and step about freely. If you land on a couple of shells, you can try to do damage control, and handle the objection with one of a thousand pre-spun phrases. But if you are truly interested in avoiding the eggshells, thus avoiding the chances of dealing with the damage control/objection handling issue, then understand what affect your words will have in each situation. Try “ready. Aim, aim, fire”. There are plenty of monsters out there, and as salespeople, we should try not to bring any more to the table.

In the sales world, a new day often presents an old story – another prospect with another objection. Once you remove the factor of being in the wrong place with someone who has no need for your product (which is a huge time waster), you must still determine the other elements that create these objections. If you were to do a study, you would find that over 60% of all prospect objections come from salespeople. Yes, we salespeople create more monsters/objections in prospects’ minds than any other single cause. We accomplish this task by bombarding all who will listen with an endless supply of canned pitches, “boiler plate proposals,” and “one size fits all” PowerPoint presentations. We believe that our mission is to place “ideas” in a prospect’s head as opposed to guiding their ideas and perceptions to a sales solution. But we insist on pitching when we should be listening. When we do this, our prospects are sometimes catching all right, but they are catching our words and applying them to their personal reference points, and BANG – an objection is created.Let’s take a look at an example that illustrates this point. Once there was a salesperson that represented a website design company. He received an inquiry from a three man law firm about creating a website for their organization. The salesperson arrived, and if the time had been taken to find out what the prospect was thinking, he would have found out that there was no “IT” help on-site for the firm. In fact, the firm wanted nothing to do with updating the site. The prospect believed that having a website was something he needed, but worried that it would surely take time away from his practice to develop and maintain. Details were something reserved for his law practice, and this whole website process needed to be handled by someone else. However, the salesperson didn’t uncover these facts ahead of time, and instead arrived with an open mouth and an open PC, determined to show how great his product was. At this point there were no objections to the salesperson’s product or their company, just beliefs on the part of the prospect. The salesperson began the canned presentation just as he had done hundred times before. With all the enthusiasm the salesperson could muster, he told of how the law firm could customize the site’s look and feel. Out came the endless samples of fonts, followed by colors, graphics and clipart, all for the prospect to choose from. Next in the presentation came the customization of the site that could be performed including content changes, video insertion and semi-automatic HTML coding. Then came the mini-training overview on how, as an administrator of the site, the prospect could monitor and filter e-mail as well as all other mailbox options. The prospect asked (in an attempt to slow down the avalanche of information), “What is price for this service?” The salesperson, now encouraged with a buying sign, went into a twenty minute list of options, which led to a further detailed description of features. The call ended with a firm handshake from the prospect, a promise to “look over” everything, and an “I’ll get back to you”.

Let’s take a look at what happen here. There was never a direct benefit given to the prospect regarding what was important to him. How could there be, as the beliefs the customer held were never uncovered. In football, would a quarterback run into the game without knowing what yard line his team was on? Or where their goal line was? Or what down it was? Or where the opposing team’s defense was weak or strong? Of course not, but then why do salespeople run into the “sales game” unprepared? And worse yet, why don’t they ask for the very information that would help them avoid creating objections? In the case of the lawyer prospect, if his thought bubble could have been seen, it would have said, “I have some serious concerns about this offering. It’s too complex, too time consuming and I need to get back to work.” The salesperson realized that after the pricing conversation, the call ended. Therefore, “price” must be the objection. Armed with his new wisdom, the salesperson returned back to his office and told management that if they wanted this sale, they had better address pricing.

Where did all these objections come from? The truth is we (as salespeople) create them. In our example, there wasn’t even a chance to uncover the explanation of what was really going on, which ultimately prevented a sale. And what if the true objections had come out? It doesn’t really matter now, as the damage was done, and now all the salesperson is left with is the dilemma of how to undo or “handle” those objections in the future. Just as David slayed a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass, these objections were created using the same instrument.

Customers are definitely different from years ago. A lot of selling concepts fit for the people who were totally loyal to their jobs and company. The company’s pain was their pain. Little else mattered. That’s when most people stayed with their company for their entire career. They never saw massive downsizing and indiscriminate reductions in the workforce. In their world, when a layoff took place, the company stock went down. It was a sign of trouble. In contrast, a layoff today signals lower costs and higher profits, resulting in stock prices being driven up.Take a close look at the tools you’re being taught and make sure they’re suited for NOW.

I’m not saying that customers aren’t loyal and devoted to their companies as much any more. Different priorities are now in the forefront of all prospective customers’ minds.

You may have a product that relieves your prospect’s pain and would solve a major company problem. However, if your solution requires that the buyer (A Gen Y or X) stays after work two extra hours a day for three months, watch out. It might conflict with what he perceives as his gain, which is getting home for dinner each night.

Go ahead and uncover the pain. But you also have to find the gain or you won’t make the sale.

It’s been said that we’ve experienced more change in the past 50 years than in the previous 500 years. This has left a wake of out-of-date strategies from four distinctive generations whose points of view and opinions must be taken into account.

“Selling in the NOW” is recognizing different generational groups. Learning to understand, test, and then validate any perceptions they might hold will help you relate to them and gain their trust—and ultimately assist them in buying.

1. Mature (traditionalists) – born 1909 to 1945

• Experienced World War II and possibly also WWI
• Strong belief in duty, honor, country
• Lived through the Great Depression
• Hardworking, loyal
• Slow to embrace change
• See technology as having little value
• Financially conservative
• Strong desire to work out issues and meet company goals

Many traditionalists today are approaching retirement or have retired and hold temporary positions in an organization.

2. Baby Boomers – born 1946 to 1964

• Born to post-WWII parents
• Make up 28% of the population and 48% of the workforce
• Raised to believe they can accomplish anything
• Willing to give up family for advancement of career
• Competitively seek advancement because of their numbers
• Seek to please management, thus becoming skilled at company politics
• Look down on others who don’t come into the office early and leave late
• Pay attention to the amount of time spent at the office versus what gets accomplished
• Place efforts on acquiring wealth
• Value learning new things
• Rebellious toward existing policy, especially if it’s not geared toward their personal goals

3. Generation Xers – born 1965 to 1984

• Raised in times of rapid change
• Make up approximately 16% of the population
• Technologically savvy
• Have witnessed major layoffs
• Do not expect employer loyalty
• Change jobs quickly
• Work is not the most important thing in their lives; they seek a balance
• Work hard and expect to be well compensated
• Favor receiving money today versus future benefits (stock options, vesting bonuses, etc.)
• Want to be regarded as individuals rather than be labeled by what they do.

4. Millennials – born 1981 to 1999

• Recent college graduates entering the marketplace
• Grew up in the computer age
• Can apply technology to the workplace easily
• Confident and ambitious
• Skilled at retrieving volumes of information via the internet
• Entrepreneurial and resourceful
• Eager to learn and enjoy questioning
• Desire career options that are open-ended
• Can multitask with ease
• Have a sense of civic duty
• Their ambition is greater than their knowledge of how to execute new things

There’s little demand today for a 26-page boilerplate proposal. Most customers want their information fast, to the point, and on demand. And today, direct mail pieces find their way to the trash can faster than to the decision makers. No, the tools aren’t bad. But they definitely need updating. Doing spam email blitzes has introduced an electronic aggravation and makes discarding the sales approach even easier.

“Selling in the NOW” means making sure you find out exactly who your prospects are. That includes knowing the effects that different generations may have on the sales process. The generational differences are not hard fast as we all know Baby Boomers that have the traits of Gen Y and X’ers and the opposite can be true but being aware is a starting point to test and not assume. The point here is validating who is catching before you start pitching.

Where do you turn when sales aren’t where they should be? Conventional wisdom tells us to hit the sales-training road in an attempt to utilize those time-proven selling techniques. Back to the basics – you know, those sales tools that have been used with great success for years and have stood the test of time. Not so quick. They’re often repackaged, but not much has really been altered during the past twenty years. But something has changed…your customer.Many of the selling tools and techniques we still use today were created back when all customers had the same motivations, values and perceptions. At that time, creating a set of universal selling concepts that would appeal to everyone was a pretty good idea. Ultimately, a “one size fits all” sales manual was utilized to teach and appeal to the majority of the prospects out there, namely Baby Boomers. The only problem now is that Baby Boomers have begun to retire, and the incoming Generation Y and X’ers don’t dance to the same drummer as the generation before them. And the Millennials who follow the Gen Y & X’ers are bringing even more diverse motivations, values and perceptions to the playing field.

So why are we selling in the past? It’s almost like we are skating where the puck used to be, and then surprised when we get there only to find that the game has moved to another place. If the mission is to win the game of today, then you must use the tools that customers respond to NOW. “Selling in the NOW” means recognizing that if you want to make a sale to today’s buyers, you have to be aware of how and why they buy in today’s world.