The 3 Most Common Sales Objections and How to Handle Them

In the sales game, hearing “No…” is the job.

If you’re lucky, you’ll get prospects who are hot and sold before engaging in conversation with you. However, most of the time, this isn’t the reality for most closers. In most scenarios, prospects are interested but need more before buying.

Without knowing their objections, you won’t be able to close them.

So, what are the three most common objections in sales?

Before I tell you, you must remember that telling isn’t selling. In sales, you can’t “make” someone do anything. Telling is “pushy,” and when you push, you get pushback.

To effectively navigate the following objections to a close, you can’t convince them by telling them what they should do. You must ask surgical questions so the prospect can convince themselves that buying your product or service solves their problem.

And you need to know how to nullify their objections once you isolate their concerns.

Here are the three most common sales objections you’ll hear as a closer.

The Stall Objection

As a closer, you’ll hear this objection more than any other, so prepare and be ready for it.

As stall objection is:

“I need to think about it.”

“It’s not the right time.”

“I don’t have the time.”

A stall objection is the prospect delaying pulling the trigger on buying. Your job as a closer is to figure out if it’s a smoke screen for a deeper reason and isolate that objection.

Most sales professionals make the mistake of challenging the prospect here. They may become pushy or lose their cool in the sale. Never do this.
What you want to do instead is to agree with the prospect in a calm manner. As a sales professional, you should remain detached, never needing the sale and not reeking of “commission breath.” That’ll send potential buyers running for the hills.

So if a prospect says, “I need to think about it,” to you, your response can be something like,

“Of course. I totally understand.”

Or,

“Yes, that’s not a problem.”

And then, and this part is crucial, you’ll want to ask them in a detached manner,

“How long do you think you’ll need to think about it?”

They’ll respond with a time frame like, “Give me a week to think it over.”  

Whatever their response is, you must follow it up with,

“Are you sure that’s enough time? You can take two weeks, a month, a year if you’d like?”

The key here is to make a joke out of it. Get them to laugh at your suggestions. Doing so accomplishes two things:

A. You’ll break the tension for the prospect, and that’ll put them back into a buying state.

B. You will come across as detached.

Then, after they commit to a week to think about it, go to your calendar and plug a time in to reconnect. While doing so, say something along these lines:

“That’s great, Mr. Prospect. While I’m pulling up my calendar to solidify a date, let me ask you:

Is it the product you need to think about, or is it the price?”

This moment is the conversation section where you’ll isolate the actual objection or the truth about why they aren’t giving you their credit card number yet. It'll be the price 9 out of 10 times, but if it isn’t, it’ll be the truth and the honest reason they’re hesitating.

Once you have the reason, you can help them move beyond the objection to a sale.

The Third Party Objection

A third-party objection is when the prospect must speak to someone else to decide.

“I need to speak to my wife.”

“I need to speak to my husband.”

“I need to speak to Jesus.”

Don’t laugh. You’ll hear this, and it’s your job to know how to navigate them past this objection.

In this objection, this is when sales professionals drop the ball. They think that since this other person isn’t present in the conversation, the prospect is paralyzed and magically incapable of making decisions. This notion couldn’t be further from the truth.

Once again, agree with their response and then simply ask the prospect,

“What do you think will happen if they say no? Then what?”

You would not believe how many times I’ve heard a prospect say back to me,

“Well, I’ll probably just do it anyway.”

And if this happens to you, it’s a best-case scenario. Your response will be detached and as follows,

“Oh, okay. Well, if you’re going to do it anyway, why don’t we just get started?”

And they close—More times than you’d think.

However, if they don’t close at that point and are fixated on speaking to their partner, agree with them. Let them know that you understand, and then play that scenario out with them,

“Are they aware that you’re thinking about doing this? What do you think they're going to say? What would happen if….and there’s pressure here…if you went ahead and did this without speaking to them? Would they disown you? Kick you out of the house? Cut you out of their life completely?”

You casually and playfully talk them through that scenario to diminish the fear of buying without their partner’s consent.

As you can see, I was going extreme with my questions to get them to laugh (break the tension and show I’m detached) and help them see that their partner wouldn’t kill them for buying something without permission.

This objection is the hardest for most people because sometimes prospects really do need to speak to their partner or spouse.

If that happens, ensure you get another time on the calendar when you can speak with them and sell them.

The Financial Objection

This objection is, hands-down, the biggest reason why people don’t buy.

A financial objection would be,

“I don’t have enough money.”

“I’m broke.”

After you’ve asked them, “Is it the product you need to think about, or is it the price?” and they tell you that the price is the issue, now you’ve isolated the objection.

A financial objection is excellent because you, as the closer, can now go into collaboration mode with the prospect.

First, you must get crystal-clear clarity on how much money they have.

Never assume that they (the prospect) know this. It’s a sales conversation, and people panic about money, making them forget their options.

Ask them first if they can afford your product or service. As in, if they even have the money currently.

Ask them how much they make per month. Ask them how much they have left over after fixed expenses. Ask them how much they’ve saved up at this point. See if they have credit cards as a potential tool they could utilize. Find out if they have crypto or investments elsewhere that they could recruit to this.

You want absolute clarity on their finances to serve them better–not for your commission. Doing this will make them feel like you care if done correctly.

If they don’t have the money, you can devise a financing option for them—monthly payments of x amount for however many months. Or, you can help them get more financing options, like applying for a loan or a credit card.

If they do have the money and are hesitant to pull the trigger, then the objection is fear. It could be fear about spending that amount in one go, fear that the product won’t work for them, or fear that they’re making an emotional decision.

Your job is to remind them that there’s no pressure to buy ever and then ask them more questions to dispel their fear.

“So, let me ask you, Mr. Prospect, hypothetically, if you did buy, what’s the worst that could happen? Would you end up broke?--Living on the street, eating out of trash cans? What’s the worst-case scenario?”

They respond. Then, get them back into a buying state by asking,

“Okay. So, what’s the best that could happen if you moved forward with this? What would be the best-case scenario?”

And then, they’ll tell you. When they answer your question, they will be painting the picture of the best-case outcome, and this is typically as far as you’ll need to go to dispel the fear they have.

It’s important to ask these questions in this order because the worst-case scenario question will get them to voice their fears out loud. Fear is always worse in our heads. When people can acknowledge the fear and talk it through with someone, they realize it’s not so bad.

Then, when you ask the best-case scenario question, the fear has diminished, and they go into a dream world of their creation. This is the part of the conversation where they are selling themselves on the benefits of your product/service.

Once this is accomplished, the prospect will buy or start asking you “forward-moving questions.”

Example: “What payment options do you guys have again?”

Once you’ve started getting these forward-moving questions, they’re sold. Now, it’s a matter of working out the payment logistics.

The BMM Takeaway

This article is a broad overview of navigating objections in sales.

Now, will it work every single time? No.

No one has a 100% closing rate. However, when you get objections, stay calm and don’t freak out. You’re there to serve and guide them to the solution, which is your product or service.

You aren’t forcing them ever. And you aren’t telling them anything. Telling is not selling.

Instead, when the objections arise, you simply want to ask them questions that will get them to convince themselves that nothing will change unless they do.

The change can begin with you there to help them take that first step by asking the questions that will get them beyond their fears and put more money in your pocket.