Objection handling
When they push back or say no
17 entries · 0 traced to a named source · 13 free
- What's this regarding?
- Treat the gatekeeper as a person with influence, not an obstacle.
- Answer honestly, and leave a message worth carrying to their boss.
Getting Past the Gatekeeper
Common practice
- Call me after the holidays.
- Makes sense. Are we talking early January?
- I'll put Thursday the 8th in and send a short note before then.
Handling "Call Me After the Holidays"
Common practice
- I need to talk to my partner about this.
- Uncover the full decision-making group during discovery, before this surfaces at the close.
- Arm your champion with what to hand them and what to say when you're not in the room.
Handling "I Need to Talk to My Partner"
Common practice
- I need to think about it.
- Of course, it's a real decision.
- Just so I know I've covered everything, what's the part you want to think through most, the price or the fit?
Handling "I Need to Think About It"
Common practice
- It's too expensive.
- Too expensive compared to what?
- You said the manual process eats about ten hours a week. This is less than what one of those hours costs you.
Handling "It's Too Expensive"
Common practice
- Just send me some info.
- Happy to. So I don't send you a forty-page PDF you'll never read, what's the one thing you'd want it to answer?
- I'll send that today. Can we grab ten minutes Thursday to see if it's a fit?
Handling "Just Send Me Some Info"
Common practice
- We already use something for this.
- Make the cost of staying with the status quo concrete.
- Open the gap between what the incumbent delivers and what you now need, without an insult.
Handling "We Already Use a Competitor" (or Do Nothing)
Common practice
- We have no budget for this.
- Is it that there's genuinely nothing this year, or that this isn't in the plan yet?
- You mentioned losing two clients last quarter to the slow turnaround. What would keeping one of them have covered?
Handling "We Have No Budget"
Common practice
- Now's not a good time.
- Is it timing specifically, or is this just not a priority right now?
- What needs to happen on your side before this is worth a proper look?
Objection: "Bad timing right now"
Common practice
- I'm just looking, thanks.
- Of course, take your time. Is there a particular kind of {{Product}} you had in mind, or just seeing what's here?
- You stay useful and nearby without pushing, so they come back to you when ready.
Objection: "Just Looking"
Common practice
- We'll need to run this by legal.
- Makes sense. What does legal usually flag on deals like this, and how long does that typically take?
- Offer to join a call with legal directly instead of waiting on a relay.
Objection: "Need to Run It By Legal"
Common practice
- Not interested.
- That's completely fair, you don't know me yet.
- Can I take twenty seconds to say why I called, and if it's not relevant you can hang up on me?
Objection: "Not interested"
Common practice
- That number sounds too good to be true.
- Fair, I'd be skeptical too. Here's exactly how {{Customer}} got there, and what it took.
- Name the cases where results were smaller, not just the best one.
Objection: "Sounds Too Good to Be True"
Common practice
- Switching everything over sounds like a huge headache.
- What's the part of switching you're actually worried about, the setup or something breaking mid-way?
- Lay out exactly what the migration looks like on their side, step by step.
Objection: "Too Much Hassle to Switch"
Common practice
- We tried something like this and it didn't work.
- That's really useful to know. What did you try, and where specifically did it fall down for you?
- You get the precise objection to address instead of pitching a generic difference.
Objection: "We tried something like this before"
Common practice
- You're a bit small for us.
- You're right, we're not a huge shop. That's exactly why you'll deal with me directly instead of a ticket queue.
- Here's a reference from a similar buyer, and we can start with a short pilot.
Objection: "You're too small / too new"
Common practice
- X quoted us less for basically the same thing.
- What did their quote actually include, so we're comparing the same thing?
- Point to the specific difference that explains the gap, without badmouthing them.
Objection: "Your Competitor Is Cheaper"
Common practice