Handled Properly An Objection May Help Seal the Deal
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As talented and as wonderful an attorney you may be, chances are pretty slim that every one of your settlement proposals was immediately accepted. There was at least one objection and possibly many of them to most of your proposals. Since you can’t make everyone happy all the time, what’s the best way to respond to an objection?
When you get an objection to your proposal take it as a good sign. The person is interested, engaged and may be motivated to find a way around the problem in order to reach an agreement. You need to find a way to finesse the objection and prevent it from grinding the mediation to a halt. Sure ways to turn the objection into a problem is by failing to address the core issue presented, downplaying the objection or making the other party feel foolish to bring it up.
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There are many things you can do to keep the communication going in the right direction after an objection is made.
- Hear the person out. Focus and listen. Get to the heart of the disagreement. Don’t cut the person off, be argumentative or act dismissively. On the other hand don’t blow the objection out of proportion
- Show respect for the other party by acknowledging the objection. Show some empathy, talk about why you understand the objection could arise. Then put yourself in the other party’s shoes and talk about why your proposal is in their interest.
- Treat the objection as a question. Re-phrase it as a question and pose it back to the other party so everyone understands the basis of the objection. Are there missing facts? Are there assumptions that you’re making that the other party isn’t making?
- Find out if there are other objections. You need to know how big the fire is before you can plan how to put it out. One objection may be related to another. See if you can take an approach that will solve more than one objection.
- If the objection comes early in your presentation, acknowledge it, and then continue with your presentation in a way that may address it. If the objection remains, talk about it later.
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