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Most objections can be prevented. The ask is for an advance, not a signature. And a follow-up is worth sending only while it’s likely to earn more than it costs.
Ogilvy told his AGA salesmen to take objections as “a sign that the prospect’s brain is in working order” Published. An objection means the buyer is thinking about how the product would fit. Silence is worse.
Rackham found that skilled sellers received fewer objections than others, and concluded that preventing objections works better than handling them Published. Many objections are caused by presenting too early: describe what the product does before the buyer has said they need it, and “we don’t need that” or “that’s expensive” is the natural reply. So the first defense is the order of chapter 4. The second is to raise the predictable ones yourself: “You’re probably wondering how this sells at a price 30% above the category. Here’s what our stockists see.”
That needs a list. Keep an objection log: every objection you hear, in the buyer’s words, with a count and the answer that worked best. Most fall into six families:
| Family | Sounds like | Answer with |
|---|---|---|
| Price | “It’s expensive.” “Your margin’s thin.” | The cost of the problem, their margin math, sell-through evidence |
| Risk | “What if it doesn’t sell?” | A smaller first order, a guarantee, proof from similar buyers |
| Timing | “Not this season.” | Their calendar: when are the next resets and deadlines? |
| Authority | “I’d need to check with...” | An advance: meet that person, or give them what they need to sell it internally |
| Fit | “Our customers don’t buy that.” | Evidence from their kind of customer, or agree and move on |
| Trust | “Who else carries you?” | References, reviews, and whoever was first |
For each one, the same four steps work: acknowledge it, ask a question to find the concern underneath (“expensive compared with what?”), answer with proof rather than adjectives, and check it landed. The log feeds the page too: the objections you hear most are the ones readers have and never voice.
Rackham distinguishes an advance, a step the buyer agrees to that moves the sale forward, from a continuation, where the conversation ends pleasantly and nothing has been agreed Published. “Great meeting, let’s stay in touch” is a continuation. So is “send me some information”. Examples of advances:
Before the meeting, decide the best advance you could get and the smallest you’ll accept. Ask for the first. A clear no is useful too: a pipeline full of continuations looks healthy and closes nothing.
A no is a result. “Let’s stay in touch” is a deal that died and hasn’t told you yet.
Speed matters for inbound interest. In a 2011 Harvard Business Review article, James Oldroyd, Kristina McElheran and David Elkington (who ran a sales-software company) reported that firms that tried to contact a web lead within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to have a meaningful conversation with a decision maker as firms that waited even an hour longer. They also audited 2,241 US companies: 37% responded within an hour, and 23% never responded at all Reported. The data is correlational, but the cost of answering quickly is small.
After that, each follow-up reaches fewer people and draws a lower reply rate than the last. Stop when the next one is likely to cost more than it earns. Make every follow-up add something: a result, an answer to an objection, a date. “Just checking in” adds nothing. The last one should close the file politely.
With the defaults, five messages are worth sending: the first and four follow-ups. Together they lift replies from 10 of 100 prospects to about 25, and the follow-ups earn about $2,100 more than they cost Derived. A sixth, at about a 1.7% reply rate, would earn $4.20 per message against a $5 cost. Raise the value of a reply and the answer rises; lower it and a page or an automated sequence should do the following up.
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Written by Andrew Lauchner, a growth and retention operator for consumer brands. The paid work is one ninety-day Sprint.
This is one chapter of One to Many, which is free and readable in full on a single page with no form in front of it.