Once you’re in a calm, cool, Burrow-like state, you can start driving the conversation with confidence.
Step 1: Be grateful.
Yes, you should be grateful that they’re willing to be honest with you. They’re under no obligation to tell you the truth about their objection. Hell, it’s probably uncomfortable for them too! But they’ve just handed you an opportunity to address it.
Just think: Hey, they’re still talking to you, aren’t they? That means they’re interested in what you have to say to change their mind.
There’s your invitation to keep going.
Step 2: Identify the source.
You say, plainly:
“Thanks for the honesty! Can I ask where you heard that?”
A friend or a colleague? A review website? Reddit? A YouTube influencer?
Even if you can’t turn them into a customer, use the call as a source of intel!
Step 3: Four Ways to Address the Objection
Your answer depends on the situation:
📅 The information is outdated.
Either the information they heard was correct at some point, but it's outdated and no longer true.
You can say:
“You know what? What you heard was absolutely right. You did your homework! But that was true two years ago. We used to suck at [X], but we’ve come a long way since then and beefed up the product. Can I show you what’s different?”
🌦️ The information is partially true.
One objection we hear at Close: “I heard you guys don’t do marketing automation.” And that's mostly true, but needs some clarification.
We say:
“You’re right. We’re a sales CRM. We’re the best fit for B2B teams that do a lot of relational selling, calling, or have a mix of different touch points in their sales cycle. But we have native integrations with marketing automation tools like HubSpot. People who find the most success with Close typically use a sales CRM for their sales team and a marketing tool for their marketing team—so each team has the most powerful tool for them. Does that sound like how your business operates?
What you’re doing here is adding some context to clarify something they may have heard. Ask questions to find out what’s really important to them, so you can see if it’s actually a dealbreaker.
❌ The information is absolutely wrong.
When a claim is so blatantly wrong, it’s usually a surprise to you, isn’t it?
You could say:
“I'm glad that you've done your homework, but I’ll be honest: This is not something I've ever heard before. I’ve been working here [X] years and this one is a surprise to me! Let’s do some digging and figure out why that info is out there because in my experience, that hasn’t been the case.”
This is a tricky objection to handle, but just be honest!
💡 The information is absolutely right.
If the complaint is valid, OWN IT.
If someone says, “I heard you don’t have as many features as [your competitor],” you can say:
“You’re right! We don’t. But our point of view is—we don’t think those features matter to businesses like yours. We chose to focus on having a fast, lightweight solution over bloating a product with a bunch of extra bells and whistles that distract from your goals. We wanted to double down on these core features instead to become best-in-class in what matters.”
People are impressed by transparency, so if you proudly state your product’s point-of-view with your whole chest, it’s going to reinforce trust in you and your expertise.
