Whoa! You’ve done everything right, you’re cruising toward a major sale, you think it’s in the bag. Then, suddenly, for no reason that seems to make much sense, the customer balks and the deal goes up in smoke. What just happened? When salespeople are defeated by customer objections that take ...

Ken Prenger is general manager of the Prenger Implement Store Inc., an AGCO farm-equipment dealer in Minster, Ohio. He sells tractors that can cost $250,000 or more. On a flight returning from an Action Selling sales training seminar in another state, Prenger reflected on a deal he had recently lost...