You’re in a meeting, you’re making progress with someone, and then you hit a wall. What next? How do you get past that, to ultimately win the client over?
First, let’s define some terms: What is an objection?
An objection is a resistance in communication. It’s someone’s way of preserving the way they do things, their beliefs or ideals. It’s an expression or feeling of disapproval or opposition; a reason for disagreeing.
Here we hit an important point. Most people don’t disagree simply for the sake of it: they have a personal reason why they’re disagreeing, and reason lives deep inside their mind.
The Structure of the Human Mind
To start thinking more about how objections work, let’s review one model of the architecture of the mind. In this model, the mind is made up of three parts:
- The conscious mind
- The unconscious mind
- The critical faculty barrier, which exists between them
All our ideals and beliefs, all our ways of coping with life are stored in the unconscious mind. The critical faculty barrier is the part of the mind that allows things in, or doesn’t allow things in, to preserve our ideals and beliefs. It protects the unconscious mind from all the stimulus that goes through your conscious mind on a daily basis. The critical faculty barrier discriminates and decides if a statement is true or false, if it should be believed or blocked from entering the unconscious mind.
When you get an objection from someone, you’re hitting their critical faculty barrier.