A Practical 6-Step Framework for Handling B2B Sales Objections
Objection handling is one of the most challenging and rewarding parts of the B2B sales process, and one of my most popular sales training topics.
Most salespeople make objection handling harder than it needs to be because they start answering before they understand what the buyer is actually objecting to.
The purpose of objection handling is not to argue with buyers or knock down every concern.
It is to uncover what is really stopping them from moving forward and decide whether that concern can be resolved.
In this article, I’ll walk you through some of the most common sales objections I’ve encountered during my career, and share the framework I developed to handle them.
From addressing budget concerns to navigating the “We’re happy with what we’ve got” objection, I’ll provide you with the structure and techniques to help you handle almost every objection in the book.
Jump to a section:
- What is an Objection in Sales?
- The 4 Foundations of Effective Objection Handling
- The 3 Types of Objections
- The 6 Step Objection Handling Framework
- Serial Objectors
- Objection Handling Examples
- Final Thoughts
- Frequently Asked Questions
What is an Objection in Sales?
An objection in sales is a concern, question or hesitation raised by a prospective buyer that may prevent them from moving forward with a purchase.
An objection is not necessarily a rejection.
In many cases, it is simply a request for more information, clarification or reassurance before the buyer feels comfortable taking the next step.
The key is to understand what is really behind the objection before trying to answer it.
Throughout the sales process, you’ll have to handle a variety of objections from buyers. They will tell you they’re not interested, happy with what they have, your pricing is too high, your solution does not meet their standards, and so on.
I find most salespeople are poorly prepared to handle objections.
They react defensively, drop their price or launch into a pitch before they fully understand what the buyer is actually objecting to.
The 4 Foundations of Effective Objection Handling
I love handling objections, and with the right understanding and objection-handling strategy, you can too.
But before you can do so, you need these four foundations in place.
1. Strong Qualification
Good objection handling starts long before an objection is raised.
Strong qualification helps you understand the buyer’s situation, uncover potential deal-breakers early and build the context you need to interpret objections later.
Ask good questions, listen carefully and take clear notes throughout the sales process.
If there is a genuine Brick Wall, the goal is not to fight it at the end of the deal. The goal is to uncover it early and walk away.
2. Product and Industry Knowledge
You need to be sharp when it comes to your product knowledge because although you don’t use features to sell, you still need to know what features can help a client solve a problem or reach a goal.
And when it comes to industry knowledge, you, of course, need to know the key strengths and weaknesses of your competitors and understand how the industry works, so you come across as a knowledgeable expert.
3. Good Questioning Techniques
You need good questioning techniques because questions buy you time and help you get to the root of what your prospects are telling you, and can also help you go directly from handling the objection to closing the sale.
4. Confidence
You must feel confident in yourself to handle objections effectively.
A solid knowledge of your solution and industry combined with your good questioning ability will go a long way to giving you the confidence needed.
But experience is also vital.
Luckily, you don’t need to be a 15-year veteran in sales or objection handling to be confident at something, but you do need to have done it over and over and over again.
Practice makes perfect.
Many salespeople mentally give up when they hear their first objection, but it is often just a request for more information, clarification or reassurance.
When you have qualified the opportunity properly, later-stage objections can also be a strong sign that the buyer is seriously considering the decision.
An objection can also be a sign that the buyer is rationalising the decision and logically thinking through the risks before moving forward.
Stay calm, slow the conversation down and work out what the buyer actually needs before deciding what to do next.
The 3 Types of Sales Objections
There are three types of sales objections you must learn to identify before trying to handle objections from your prospects.
1. Smokescreen Objections
The smokescreen objection is by far the most common of the types of sales objection you’ll come across. It’s a false objection used to disguise the real one.
Two common examples of a smokescreen are when a prospect says your solution costs too much or when they tell you they’re not interested.
The best way to quickly judge if you’re dealing with a smokescreen is to ask yourself if there is a reason behind the objection.
For example, a prospect saying your solution costs too much could be that they don’t have the budget, but it could also be that they don’t see the value.
The same goes for when a prospect tells you they’re not interested.
There could be a considerable number of reasons behind this objection ranging from them having a bad day to having recently purchased another solution.
You just don’t know.
When you fail to spot a smokescreen, you waste a lot of time and energy trying to overcome the wrong objection without coming closer to making the sale.
Another classic example of a potential smokescreen is when a seemingly hot prospect starts nitpicking at the small details of your solution, such as the features and functionality.
You may find that despite your suggested workarounds, the prospect just claims it’s not sufficient and walks away from the deal. In reality, there was probably another reason why they did not go ahead with your solution.
2. Real Objections
The most significant sales objections you must handle are the real ones.
Thankfully there are a small number of real objections compared to smokescreens, so unless you offer a weak solution, you should be able to handle all of them.
When handling sales objections, you must pay particular attention to your prospect’s tone.
If they move fast, match their pace.
If they are cautious and deliberate, slow the conversation down, remembering to speed up again when the objection is handled.
Objections can relate to time, cost, service, features, and many other areas of your solution, which is why you need to master how to handle them accordingly and why your product and market knowledge need to be sharp.
3. Brick Wall Objections
A Brick Wall is not an objection you need to overcome. It is a reason the deal cannot realistically happen.
An example of a Brick Wall would be if you worked in real estate and had a buyer who wanted to buy a house but could not get credit from the bank.
There would be very little you could do about this situation, and the likely outcome would be that the sale wouldn’t happen.
A good salesperson will always try to find workarounds to make a deal happen. But a bold salesperson who values their time knows when to walk away.
The goal with Brick Walls is not to fight them. It is to uncover them as early as possible.
If you discover a Brick Wall at the end of the sales process, there is a good chance you failed to qualify the opportunity properly at the beginning.
Rather than getting frustrated with the buyer, learn from it and move on.
I witnessed a classic example of this a while back when role-playing with a team of experienced salespeople for one of my clients.
I knew the client offered a software solution that didn’t work on Mac computers without having to install a Windows operating system.
For some companies, this workaround is no problem, but for most, it’s a complete brick wall.
Not one of the salespeople asked me about what computers my company worked with as part of their qualifying questions.
As a result, I hit them with the objection after 15 to 20 wasted minutes of the call, and there wasn’t any reason to continue.
I strongly recommend you write down as many of the common brick walls you know that can kill a potential sale and ensure you’re raising these potential objections as part of your early qualifying questions with new prospects.
It can save you a lot of wasted time and frustration.
The 6-Step Objection Handling Framework
When prospects raise objections, it either means they’re interested in buying, or they’re not interested in buying.
Your job is to figure out which one, quickly.
I handled thousands of objections during my sales career and developed an instinct for separating the real ones from the smokescreens.
There are six fundamental steps to my strategy for handling objections.
If you master them, you’ll have the answer for every objection your prospects throw at you, whether it relates to budget, features, or competitors.
Step One: Listen & Digest
The first step is to listen to and digest the objection.
A reactive response will get you in trouble.
You must pay attention to the speed, tone, and words coming from your prospect’s mouth; then, be comfortable taking a moment to digest what was said and plan your response.
If a prospect tells you they’re interested in your solution but comments that it’s rather expensive, your natural reaction may be to assume that price is an issue.
You may be tempted to ask your prospect for their budget or start discount-hinting at this point, but this approach will put your prospect in complete control.
If you listen carefully and digest what was said, you’ll be surprised at how quickly you can pick up on certain signals telling you that price isn’t the issue.
Step Two: Repeat & Clarify
Next, you must use the ‘Closed-Ended Question’ technique and repeat back or paraphrase what your prospect said.
The purpose is to demonstrate excellent listening skills and give your prospect a chance to elaborate on the objection.
You’ll again need to apply a few moments of silence after repeating back the objection, especially if it doesn’t make much sense.
You’ll also have to handle long-winded objections from some prospects. I highly recommend using the option to paraphrase rather than repeating in these cases.
A prospect may tell you they’ve reviewed the contract terms, sat down with colleagues to discuss, and can’t justify the investment in your solution at this moment in time.
When you master how to listen, digest, and paraphrase, your response may be to say something like, “So you’re saying you can’t justify the investment due to the contract terms?”
What you’ve done here is taken a step towards isolating the exact objection.
It’s highly unlikely a prospect would spend time reviewing contract terms before deciding if they can justify the investment, so if you get a ‘yes’ response to your closed-ended question, you can move on to step three.
Step Three: Isolate the Objection
Once you’ve narrowed down the concern, dig deeper with open-ended questions to isolate the exact objection.
For example, my natural response to the above objection would be to ask, “What part of the contract terms are you concerned about?”
If the prospect responded saying they are concerned with the upfront payment, you could respond by asking;
“Would it help if I split the initial investment into two payments?”
You must never try to handle an objection before you know the exact details.
You may need to go back and forth with open- and closed-ended questions before you move on to avoid wasting time trying to overcome smokescreens or brick walls.
Step 4: Answer the Objection
Once you have a positive response to your open-ended question(s) and know you’re handling a valid objection, you must now provide an answer to the objection.
Your answer may be to explain that you’ll need to get approval from your finance department on the new payment terms, or if the objection relates to another concern, you may need to explain how something works or how you handle a particular scenario.
The two most common mistakes salespeople make at this point are providing detailed and boring answers and assuming they’ve overcome the objection if the prospect seems happy.
Step Five: Confirm Acceptance
You must confirm your prospect is happy with your answer using the ‘Heat Check’ sales technique.
A heat check is a simple open-ended question that gets your prospect to confirm they accept your answer.
You should avoid using heat checks such as “Does that sound okay?” because ‘okay’ may not be enough to overcome the objection. You must get solid confirmation that your answer is accepted.
I recommend using heat checks such as these.
“Will that work for you?”
“Does that erase your concern?”
“Is that a workable solution?”
Depending on the nature of the objection, you may be able to use a test close and get the prospect to accept your answer and give you a commitment at the same time.
For example, when your prospect says the upfront payment is an issue and you confirm you can check with finance to get instalments approved, this gives you the perfect opportunity to ask this question.
“If I can get these new payment terms accepted, are you happy to go ahead?”
Alternatively, you could be a little less direct and ask your question this way.
“Apart from the payment terms, was there anything else you had any concerns about?”
Step Six: Move On
Once you have a positive response from your heat check, you must move on and discuss the next steps swiftly.
You may find that using deflection tactics makes the transition away from talking about an objection easier.
Changing the topic by asking your prospect if they’ve looked over or thought about something else, such as their preferred start date, tariff, or payment method, is usually an efficient strategy.
Dancing around the objection to try and reassure the prospect of your answer can also have the reverse effect.
You risk raising suspicion that you’re hiding something, so provide your answer, get acceptance, and move on.
With these six simple steps, you can isolate and handle pretty much any objection your prospect comes up with and take them quickly into the closing stages of the sales process, but you must be aware of the serial objector.
Beware of Serial Objectors
Regardless of how effective you become at handling objections, you’ll always meet prospects who have a new objection every time you handle the previous one.
It can be easy to get frustrated when dealing with these serial objectors, especially if you feel like you’re close to concluding the sale – but beware.
Serial objectors will always find a new objection no matter how well you handle their last one because they may have no intention of buying.
By mastering objection handling, you’ll find it easier to filter out these time wasters, but until you do, be on high alert for prospects who raise more than two objections at once.
If your gut tells you you’re dealing with a serial objector, don’t be afraid to take the direct approach and say,
“I sense you’re not entirely happy with our solution, and if that’s the case, please just let me know, and we can discuss it again at another time in the future”.
In my experience, this approach will provoke a defensive reaction from prospects with no intention of buying your solution and will extract the real objection from genuine buyers.
Objection Handling Examples
It pays to prepare well for the most common buyer objections to your solution.
Objections can come in a variety of forms at any time in the conversation with your prospect.
If you handle them well, you may win the sale.
If you handle them poorly, you lose money either by losing the sale or by winning it at a heavily discounted rate.
The following examples show how to apply the framework to some of the most common sales objections.
How to Handle “It’s Too Expensive”
It’s pointless expressing your personal opinion about why your solution isn’t expensive.
Your prospect doesn’t care about your opinion.
Repeat back and paraphrase the objection by saying;
“So, you think the solution costs too much?”
When your prospect confirms, you may be tempted to ask a passive-aggressive question like “Compared to what?”, but you must remember to isolate the objection before handling it.
Instead, consider asking;
“When you say you think it costs too much, is this because you don’t have the budget, or because you don’t see the value in our solution?”
If they do not see enough value, you have a positioning problem to address.
If they see the value but genuinely cannot fund the purchase, you are dealing with a budget problem instead.
If budget is the issue, move right into answering the objection by offering a solution such as extended payment terms or a delayed start date before confirming the terms on offer, heat-checking they are acceptable and talking about next steps.
The payment terms solution, of course, only works when you have payment terms as an option.
If not, you’ll most likely have some different options available. I refer to these options as “Ace Cards”, and knowing how and when to use them is key to your objection handling success.
How to Handle “We Don’t Have the Budget”
Your prospect may come right out and say they don’t have the budget from the start.
I find this to be one of the most common objections salespeople struggle to handle, but it typically means your prospect either doesn’t have the budget at all or doesn’t have the budget right now, so you should ask the following question.
“When you say you don’t have the budget, do you mean you don’t have the budget at all or right now?”
In the event your prospect says they don’t have the budget at all, you could be dealing with a brick wall, or you may just need to work more on selling the value of your solution.
Many prospects will say they do not have the budget if they’re uncomfortable with the size of the investment, especially if your solution is new to them.
The most common response will be that your prospect confirms they don’t have the budget right now.
This objection is often very valid, so it’s important not to press your prospect to the point of no return as you may be only dealing with a temporary Brick Wall.
Before you begin brainstorming ways to get around this objection, ask your prospect more about how and when their budgets get allocated.
You may discover potential solutions such as split payments or ways to dip into the budget of another department.
Listing your options such as instalments, lower deposits, or delayed first payments is a good way to prepare yourself for handling objections about pricing.
It will also steer you clear from offering discounts too early, which may be the buyer’s objective.
How to Handle “We’re Happy With Our Current Solution”
It’s common for prospects to tell you they’re happy with what they’ve got.
They could be referring to existing software, an agency, or a certain process they already have in place.
This objection is commonly used very early in the dialogue to try and get rid of you.
It’s essential that you do not go into an objection-handling mode this early in a conversation.
Instead, Park the Objection and respond positively, saying something like, “That’s great to hear. What solution do you have in place at the moment?” and continue with your planned qualification questions.
You may not always get away with parking the objection, so here is a word-for-word strategy for how a conversation could go when someone says they are happy with their current provider.
Prospect: “Thank you for the call, but we are happy with our current provider.”
Me: “So your current provider meets all of your present needs then?”
Prospect: “Yes, thank you.”
Me: “Can I just quickly ask, what do you like best about them?”
Prospect: “We have a long-standing relationship with them, so they know our business very well”.
Me: “So it sounds like knowing your business is a crucial advantage for any new potential provider then?”
Prospect: “Yes, absolutely.”
At this point, it is clear the prospect is happy with their current provider. But that does not mean they are closed to hearing a better idea.
You could respond with something like:
“If I told you I’d spent the past ten years working in your industry and had a few new ideas I’d love to share, would you be open to hearing me out?”
At this point, stay silent and wait for the response.
If they are open to it, continue the conversation.
If not, thank them for their time and move on.
Some sellers find this approach a little too direct, but with tough objections like this one, you need to be bold.
Final Thoughts on Objection Handling
Good objection handling is not about becoming better at arguing with buyers.
It is about understanding what they are really telling you.
Listen before you respond.
Clarify what you heard.
Isolate the real objection.
Answer it.
Confirm it has been resolved.
Then move on.
And if you uncover a genuine Brick Wall, have the confidence to qualify the opportunity out rather than wasting time trying to save a deal that cannot happen.
The best way to get good at objection handling is to practise it.
Role-play common objections, review real calls and repeat the framework until your response becomes instinctive.
Theory will not condition your instinct to respond to live objections. Action will.
About the Author
I’m David Craig White, a British B2B sales trainer, coach and consultant with more than 20 years’ experience helping sales teams get results.
When I’m not writing B2B sales articles, I’m providing sales training, coaching and sales consulting to B2B sales teams, sales leaders and business owners.
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Frequently Asked Questions About Objection Handling
An objection in sales is a concern, question or hesitation raised by a prospective buyer that may prevent them from moving forward with a purchase.
Objection handling is the process of identifying, understanding and responding to concerns raised by a buyer during the sales process.
The three types of sales objections are smokescreen objections, real objections and brick wall objections.
Smokescreens hide the real concern, real objections can be resolved, and brick walls are genuine deal-breakers.
The six steps for handling sales objections are to listen and digest, repeat and clarify, isolate the real concern, answer it, confirm acceptance and move on.
You handle pricing objections by first identifying whether the issue is budget, value or timing.
Once you understand the real concern, you can respond without discounting too quickly.
When buyers say they’re happy with their current solution, acknowledge it and ask what they value most about it.
This helps you understand whether they are genuinely satisfied or simply trying to end the conversation.