Objection handling, UK edition
Ten things a British buyer says, and what each one actually means
None of them are lying to you. That is what makes it hard.
Will Freeman
Founder, Close Rate UK. Sales rep, currently, not formerly.
I sell in the UK, on the phone and in person, and I have been getting these ten wrong for six years so you do not have to.
An American buyer who is not interested tells you. A British one protects your feelings and their own afternoon.
So you come off the call with a maybe. You put it in the pipeline at fifty percent. And you forecast off a sentence that was built to end a conversation politely.
None of these people are being dishonest. They are being kind, and in Britain kind means vague. This page is the translation, and it is free. There is no form and there is nothing to download.
Who is writing this
I sell for a UK waste management firm. I started there two months ago and I had never sold in the industry before. I did not know the products, the buyers, or what a good deal looked like.
- 200%
- of target, month one. £10k asked for, £20k done.
- 327%
- of target, month two. £15k asked for, £49k done.
- 2 months
- from Sales Executive to account management.
Take month one with a pinch of salt. Anyone can have a good month and new starters often do. It is the second one that means anything, because by then the beginner’s luck has worn off and they have put your target up.
On the size of it, since people ask. In month one I got two accounts with credit limits over £100m, and ten more between £100k and £50m. Those are the credit limits of those businesses. That is how big the companies are. It is not what I sold them and it is not what I earned. The point is that eight weeks into an industry I knew nothing about, I was getting in front of companies that size at all.
Before this I led a team of thirteen on the phones at a UK contact centre. £3m in three months at 60% conversion, top team on site by £1.5m, and I built the objection handling training they ran. Before that, field sales, self-generated cold pipeline, a hundred dials a day. Six years in sales, seven roles, and two of them ended in redundancy.
I am telling you that last part on purpose. Most people writing sales advice have edited it out.
The ten
The phrase, what it means, and the one question to ask after it. The question is written the way you would actually say it, because a question you would feel daft saying out loud is not a question.
“I’ll have a think.”
No, most of the time. Nobody goes home and thinks about your quote. It sits in an inbox until something with a date on it forces the issue. The tell is whether anything with a date on it comes after the sentence.
Ask
Course. What would you need to see to make it a yes?
“Leave it with me.”
Warmer than it gets credit for. Somebody has taken ownership of a job. The problem is there is no date in it, and a job with no date loses to every job that has one.
Ask
That’s good of you. When should I expect to hear back, so I’m not chasing you for no reason?
“That’s interesting.”
Nothing about it was interesting. It is the sound of a polite person waiting for the call to end.
Ask
Which bit? I’d rather know now if it isn’t landing.
“Send it over and I’ll take a look.”
It will get the look a menu gets from someone walking past a restaurant. The document almost never gets opened. You know that already, you have sent forty of them.
Ask
I’ll send it over. What will you be looking for when you open it?
Then answer that on the phone, while you still have them.
“We’re not quite there yet.”
Nearly honest, this one. There is usually a specific reason underneath and they will tell you if you ask. It is the only one on the list worth a straight follow-up question.
Ask
What does ‘there’ look like?
“I’ll need to run it past someone.”
The real objection is one floor up and you are not in the room. Nothing you say next gets repeated accurately unless you help them repeat it.
Ask
No problem. Who is it, and what’s the first thing they’ll ask you?
“Can you email me the details.”
Often a graceful exit. It is politeness doing the job a no should be doing.
Ask
I can do. Be straight with me though, is this a no? You won’t offend me.
“It’s a bit more than we were expecting.”
Price, but it is rarely only price. “Expecting” is doing a lot of work in that sentence and it is worth finding out where the expectation came from.
Ask
What were you expecting? And where did that number come from?
“Now’s not a great time.”
Usually true, and usually specific. Something real is going on at their end and it is not about you. The mistake is treating it as a brush-off and pushing.
Ask
Fair enough. What’s got to be out of the way before it is a good time?
“I’ll be honest with you.”
The one phrase on this list that means exactly what it says. Whatever comes after it is the truth, and it is usually the only truth you will get on that call.
Ask
Nothing. Say nothing and let them finish.
The job isn’t catching them out
None of this works if you use it to win an argument. Every one of those questions has the same shape: it makes the honest answer the easier one to give.
Ask a question that already has a no in it, so they do not have to build one from scratch. A British buyer will nearly always take the exit you hold open for them. That is the whole trick, and there is not a second one.
Ask a question that already has a no in it, so they do not have to build one from scratch.
I’m working through this properly with the first 50 UK reps who join. They pay £39 a month and keep that rate for as long as they stay. After 50 it goes to £79.
Both of those are before VAT. Whop adds 20% at the checkout, so joining now is £46.80 a month all in. I would rather you saw that here than on the payment screen.
The first 5 also get 20 minutes with me on a call, one to one. I will message you in Discord to sort a time. That is 5 people, and then it stops.
If that’s not you, the ten above are yours anyway. No email needed, nothing to download.