Jeb Blount - Objections: The Ultimate Guide for Mastering the Art and Science of Getting Past No

Cover image: EHStock/Getty Images

Cover design: Wiley

Copyright 2018 by Jeb Blount. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 7508400, fax (978) 6468600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 7486011, fax (201) 7486008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) 7622974, outside the United States at (317) 5723993 or fax (317) 5724002.

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.

ISBN 9781119477389 (Hardcover)

ISBN 9781119477365 (ePDF)

ISBN 9781119477372 (ePub)

For the Titans:

Mark Hunter, Anthony Iannarino,
and Mike Weinberg

There are few one-size-fits-all solutions in sales. Complex sales are different from one-call closes. Calling on a business is different from selling directly to individual consumers. Selling software requires a different skill set than selling office automation equipment. Real estate sales has a different sales process than insurance or financial services.

In sales, context matters. There is little black and white. Every prospect, sales conversation, territory, company, and product are different. There is one exception, thoughobjections. As a sales professional, you face objections and the potential for objections, no matter your unique situation.

Objections don't care about or consider:

• who you are
• what you sell
• where you work
• where you live
• if your sales cycle is long or short, complex or transactional
• how your day is going
• if you are new to sales or a veteran

There is democracy in objectionsa shared reality for all salespeople. You are going to get objections, and you need to learn how to get past them. This is why Jeb Blount's Objections is one of the most important books to hit the sales profession in a generation. In this book, Jeb takes on both the art and science of getting past no.

It's his focus on the science of no that makes this the most powerful book ever penned on sales objections. When you leverage Jeb's frameworks for getting past no, you'll find yourself shortening the sales cycle, closing more deals, and getting higher prices.

Following in the footsteps of his blockbuster bestsellers Fanatical Prospecting and Sales EQ, this book will change the way you view sales objections forever. Objections is a comprehensive and contemporary guide that engages your mind and your heart. Jeb draws you in with examples and stories, all while teaching specific human-influence frameworks for turning around the four types of objections you face in the sales process.

At the same time, he pulls no punches, and in his signature right-to-the-point style, he slaps you in the face with the cold hard truth about what's really holding you back from the success and income you deserve.

Sales has changed so much over the past 20 years, yet sales trainers and experts continue to teach strategies that fall flat with modern buyers who are smart enough to know they are being manipulated. I've watched hundreds of salespeople crash and burn using these sleazy tactics as they attempt to bully and trick buyers rather than address their concerns.

Today's buyer is more sophisticated and informed. In Objections you'll learn a new psychology for getting past no. Rather than the same tired, cheesy, old-school scripts, you'll learn contextual frameworks and strategies for responding to objections in the real world.

From the first chapter all the way to the last chapter, you'll gain new insights that will help you get past objections. You'll find that you can easily relate to what Jeb has written. At times you will feel he's writing about you!

That's the power of Jeb's books. He is a sales expert who lives in the real world. A practitioner who gets up every day and sells just like you. When he's not training, you'll find him at his company Sales Gravy, in the trenches with his sales team prospecting, on sales calls, and like you, facing and getting past objections.

Mark Hunter, author of High-Profit Prospecting

Writing books is the closest men ever come to childbearing.

Norman Mailer

I wasn't planning on writing this book. It wasn't on my radar. Frankly, I never even considered writing a book on objections because it seemed like such limited subject matter.

The objection is most often a bit player; never the star of the show. There's usually a chapter on objections tucked away in the back of most sales books. And, sales training programs offer up a module or two on objections almost as an afterthought.

I was in the middle of writing a book on a much more important subjectsales-specific negotiation tactics. That was until I met Adam Vogel, the director of inside sales for the New York Mets. Adam and the Mets sales organization had fallen in love with my book Fanatical Prospecting and invited me to New York to inspire their stable of young sales guns to make one more call.

Bright, young, well-dressed sales professionals gathered in the auditorium at Citi Field for what my Sales Gravy team calls Jeb Un-Plugged. It's a session in which sales professionals and sales leaders hurl questions and challenges at me and I answer whatever comes my way. No script, no slides, and no preparation.

I enjoy unplugged sessions. It's my favorite way to teach. For three hours, they hit me with hard questions. When it was all over, they let me go to a game (I'm an unapologetic fan of baseball).