I recently heard one of the greatest questions of all time to use in response to an objection. And it wasn’t on a sales call. And it wasn’t really an objection, but we can adapt it.
It was a television interview done with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
I had originally heard the clip while listening on a business radio show, and tracked down the video. The interviewer was Laurie Segall with CNN. In the middle of the interview, after discussing some of Facebook’s recent troubles, Ms. Segall slipped in,
“So you’re not stepping down as Chairman?”
Zuckerberg replied, “That’s not the plan.”
And then, here it is:
“Would anything change that?”
Briliant!
Zuckerberg got uncomfortable, nervous,smiled, and said, “Eventually…Over time… I’m not going to be doing this forever…”
So simple, yet so effective.
It gets people thinking in terms of possibilities. And you can use variations of it as well. For example,
“We’re just going to stay with what we are doing.”
“What would change that?”
“What would have to happen in order to change that?”
Think of the resistance you encounter, and formulate a similar question you can use to get them to open up.