The Ultimate Guide to Sales Objection Handling

If you work in sales, you'll routinely encounter objections from the prospects you pursue. Some will shy away from your pricing, others won't be convinced of your product's value—and sometimes, you just won’t be pitching to the right person. 

Sales objection handling can be daunting, but if you learn to handle tricky situations, you'll get better at turning them into opportunities and closing more deals. In this article, we're going to explore different strategies you can use and some advice from experts to help you overcome sales objections. 

What is sales objection handling?

Sales objection handling is when you, a salesperson, address concerns that a prospect may have about your product or service, in a way that eases their uncertainty and encourages them to move forward. Typical objections are usually related to pricing, your competition, and whether or not the product is right for their needs.

If you've ever asked yourself, why is objection handling important in sales? The answer is that, if you can successfully handle your prospects' objections, you'll have better odds at closing deals—which means more new business. 

How do you handle objections in sales? 4 tips

We wanted to share strategies for handling sales objections that are backed by real data and expert advice, so the four tips below are based on advice from sales pros and data from thousands of real sales conversations (the research is sourced from a study by Gong Labs and one by Wingman).

1. Ask questions and seek clarity

According to Gong Labs’ research, 54.3% of top-performing salespeople respond to all types of objections with questions. When someone first raises an objection, you'll want to ask them questions to clear up potential misunderstandings and truly understand their concerns.

Otherwise, if you start responding without understanding the root cause of your prospect’s objection, you risk losing their trust. Worse yet, you might end up answering the wrong problem. So, instead of operating on guesswork, encourage your prospect to open up by repeating their concern in the form of a question, like:

• “You say the timing isn't right? Can you please elaborate?”
• “Do you think the price is too high?”
• “Can you help me understand your problem a bit more?”

When you clearly understand your prospect’s concerns, you can address them directly. 

2. Focus on value

Some prospects won't be sold on the value your product can provide their business. They might be convinced that it's a good product, but they're not really sure how it can specifically serve their needs. In these situations, you'll want to prioritize the value your product offers by addressing your prospect's specific needs. 

Ask them about their use cases, what their daily workflows look like, and how they picture a solution that can make their lives easier. Make sure you really understand what they need in a solution before pitching your product; otherwise, you risk introducing more concerns. 

Don't mention features they aren't interested in, and avoid answering unasked questions—steer clear of anything that introduces friction into the conversation.

3. Justify ROI

One of the most common sales objections is around pricing. You'll frequently hear phrases like:

• “We don't have the budget for that.”
• “That's too expensive.”

However, experienced sales pros will tell you that objections around pricing aren't always to do with the expense. The real problem is usually that your prospect isn't convinced of the value your solution has to offer—they're not sure it'll solve their problem well enough, save them enough money, or help them grow their revenue.

So, when prospects raise objections around pricing, sales reps can respond in the best way by doubling down on the solution's value and justifying its ROI. You might want to lean on case studies and previous successes to give yourself more credibility. Saying, “We can help you save/make X amount” and “We have helped X company save/make X amount—and we can do the same (or better) for you” may capture their attention.

4. Isolate the most important objection

If your prospect has multiple objections, it's important to identify and focus on the most pressing one. Since you have limited time with your prospect, you'll want to overcome the objection that can help you close the deal.

So when your prospect shares multiple concerns, ask them to clarify what their biggest deal-breaker is. For example, let's say your prospect's concerns are a) their team is trained on a competitor's product, b) pricing, c) money-back guarantee, and after prompting them, they clarify that “a” is their biggest concern.

In this case, you can walk them over how your training academy will upskill their team in under a week and how you'll help them migrate from their existing systems and provide them with a customized onboarding experience. If you hadn't clarified their biggest objection, you might have spent the rest of the call negotiating price—and would have failed to address their most important issue.

After the biggest objection is out of the way, you can move on to less pressing concerns. For example, you can offer them a risk-free trial period to address objection “c”, or a new customer discount in response to “b”.

Dealing with common sales objections

Sales professionals face different objections from prospects, but you’ll still find that they’re often very similar. Let's take a look at some common objections and how you can address each one.

1. Pricing objections

Pricing is one of the most common types of sales objections, and as we discussed earlier, the best way to approach it is by focusing on value and ROI. Try opening up the discussion with a response like:

“I'd love to tell you more about how our product/service can help you achieve {specific goal}, and then perhaps we can circle back to pricing negotiations?”

Or, if they're persistent about not having the budget for your product/service, you can try saying:

“I understand your concerns about our pricing. May I walk you through our other products/services that might be a better fit?”

Another way you can approach these price objections is:

“One of our customers had similar concerns, but after they purchased a subscription, they were sold on {platform}'s revenue potential. I'd love to walk you through how {platform} can increase your ROI.”

2. Competitor-related objections

Competitor rejections are quite common—you might encounter prospects that are using a competitor's product at a lower price, or they might just be more comfortable with what they're already using. Sometimes, they may have come across a comparison by your competitor where they didn't present your product or service in the best light.

In these cases, you'll want to:

• Clear up any misunderstandings about your product/service. Without bashing your competitors, let your prospect know if they've been exposed to some misinformation. A simple statement like, “That simply isn't true—our product actually...” should suffice.
  
• Lead with value. Walk your prospects through how your solution will help them overcome their pain points, and where possible, give examples of how you've helped other customers out.
  
• Confront price objections. If your prospects' concerns revolve around pricing, ease their concerns by focusing on ROI or offering them a discount or special deal.

According to the Wingman study, if your prospects raise competitors as an objection, your win rate increases by 31%. So make sure you capitalize on the great opportunity of turning the sales conversation in your favor. 

3. Decision-making objections

Sometimes, a prospective buyer might inform you that they don't have the authority to make the purchasing decision. Or, they might be part of a larger buying committee that they're struggling to win over. 

If you find yourself facing the first objection, thank the person for letting you know and ask them to direct you to the right decision-maker. You can then reach out directly to the person with that authority. Try responding with something like:

“Thanks for letting me know, {First Name}. Could you please point me to the right person to talk to?”

If you face the second sales objection, you can start by offering to help the prospect overcome the internal objections. Ask them about their company's pain points and what objections they anticipate from team members, and help them prepare to address each. Provide them with any necessary social proof or case studies, too. 

If your potential customer is ultimately unsuccessful in getting internal buy-in, thank them for their time and move on: “Sorry to hear that, {First Name}. Thanks for your cooperation, and if anything changes, don't hesitate to get in touch. We'd love to have you onboard.” Otherwise, if all goes according to plan, congratulations—you'll have scored new business. 

Save your sales objection scripts with Magical

If you or your sales team are regularly reaching out to prospects, you'll likely encounter similar objections time and again. So it's a good idea to prepare yourself for different situations—scripts can help you prepare for calls, and message templates are great for quickly responding to emails or DMs.

The Magical Chrome extension lets you save customizable text templates and scripts to use whenever you need to, or to share with your team members in a common workspace. Plus, if you need to brainstorm responses to different objections, you can use Magical's AI writing assistant for inspiration.

The best part? Magical is completely free to use. Add it to Chrome today, or learn more about how Magical helps sales teams at companies like Disney, PayPal, and Intuit.