January 15, 2026

Business by the Book

Genesis 18:25 That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

Today’s topic has no verse from the story we are considering to support it. However, with your indulgence I would like to share a point of philosophy concerning the issue of dealing with objections within the framework of a negotiation.

A professional, hardworking, knowledgeable, confident, and usually financially successful sales person can be spotted a mile away. They have a certain way about them that comes from honing their skills through practice, study, and determination. One area in which they are different from others is that they learn to encourage and embrace objections. Objections give them an edge. While lesser prepared business people do anything rather than hear an objection, highly successful people have learned that objections need to be drawn out and listened to.

One reason for this is that objections give a sort of “blue print” or map that point the way to successful negotiations. Let’s face it, to negotiate anything properly one party must know where the other party stands. What do they believe, what are their areas of concern, what roadblocks are there, what is their ultimate goal, etc. These are learned through encouraging and embracing the issue behind the objection.

For example, I was once involved in a very intense negotiation session with a committee of three from a very well respected group purchasing consortium. Five or six competitors were trying to win a major multi-year agreement which would place our products in their facilities. This was a contract that would bring millions of dollars of new sales to our organization if we were awarded the contract. The vice president of sales and I represented our company. As the meeting began our vice president asked for all of the concerns or issues about our proposal to be voiced in order and then we would have an agenda from which to work. This was brilliant. All of their objections were listed. To us this was like a road map to success. We did win the awarded contract which became a cornerstone in our national marketing program. If we had tried to answer one objection without knowing the others we may have misjudged its importance and conceded too much on one objection leaving us little room on other more important concerns.

Objections also can bring to light wrong assumptions, improper technical data, personal bias, preferences, competitor’s information and or strategies. Objections can be very useful on the road to the successful outcome of a negotiation. Learn to encourage and embrace them; they are like gold to those who understand how to use them.

Dr. William Howe