A SALES LEADER’S GUIDE

Cold Call
Objection Handling
At Outreach, we’ve worked closely with
thousands of sales managers who want
to give their team the best resources to
be successful. We’ve based this guide on
what we’ve heard from our customers as
well as what we’ve learned from our own
journey in outbound selling.

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Before you even get to the objections...
Cold calling is hard. The truth is, reps that make cold calls are interrupting
their prospects and their calls are not immediately welcome. We’ve taken
a deep look at our own data and identified common objections as well as
general best practices that all successful cold calls had in common.

Make your prospect feel safe

Humans are predictable, and when humans get caught off-guard, they
immediately express a fight-or-flight response. If you’ve ever heard the
phrase, “smile and dial”, it implies that the likeable, non-threatening, warm
attitude you convey can be relayed through the phone to the prospect.
You want to make the prospect feel safe, increasing the chances that you
can get through to the next challenge.

Be relevant to your prospect

Once your warm attitude gets you through the first few seconds of the
call, you should focus on establishing relevance. Prospects at this stage
are wondering “so what?” and you want them to think “me too!” Spend
this time explaining why you have specifically called the prospect and
what you are offering that will genuinely help him/her.

Be confident and be certain

Certainty sells. If you are attempting to convince a decision-maker to take
you seriously and listen to you, you should practice the following four
principles before and during the call.
• Truly understand your prospect
• Truly understand the pain they experience
• Truly believe your solution solves that pain
• Express your confidence and certainty in regards to all the above
If you do not believe your solution is a good fit for the prospect, don’t call.
If you genuinely don’t believe in what you’re selling, you should change
your job to selling something you do believe in.

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 CONDITIONED RESPONSE
Conditioned Response
These generally occur in the first 10 seconds of the call and are
intended to end the conversation as soon as possible. Here’s what
you’ll hear from your prospects as well as how to handle them to
keep the discussion productive.
If you get past your product pitch, you may encounter an objection.
Here are three main categorizations of objections you may encounter
as well as how to navigate around them:

OBJECTION SUGGESTED RESPONSE WHY THIS WORKS

This transitions the narrative to

{Name}, many of my best
one about your happy customers,
customers also said they weren’t
I’m not interested. reminding the prospect that you’ve
interested when I first called but
called them for a specific reason
now they’re getting X & Y results
— you’re not asking if they are
from our product/service.
interested.

Happy to. But typically when I

You relate to the buyer’s lack of
hear that what it means is you
Send me some time while offering a face-to-
don’t have time for this right
information. face solution that better fits their
now. When could we schedule a
schedule.
time when you’re not so busy...

Meetings are important and

you’re respecting your prospect’s
Understood, when is a good time schedule. This response gets your
I’m headed into a
for us to talk about... prospect to give you a time on
meeting.
the fly that they’re more likely to
answer your call. Now you can hold
them to it!

You shouldn’t expect to be on

Totally understand. You weren’t
a cold call for very long. This
expecting my call. I’ll be brief
I don’t have time to statement reaffirms that you
and let you get back to your
talk. understand your prospect is a busy
day…
person and that you’re being as
succinct as possible.

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 CONDITIONED RESPONSE
Fair question. I work for a
company that focuses on X,
This highlights their importance
and my job is to find leaders
to you and the work you’ve done
How did you get my whose teams might benefit from
to get in contact with them. You’re
name/number? our solution. So when I come
not calling them simply because
across someone like you, I move
they’re on a list.
mountains to get in touch with
them.

Use this as an opportunity to learn

who you should call next. Even
No problem, {Name} — sorry better, you can namedrop this
I’m not the right about that! Who would be the person in your next discussion:
person to talk to. right person in your organization “John recommended that I speak
to connect to? with you”. While this call may end,
you’ll have an even better chance
at success with the next one.

{Name}, I completely
understand that you haven’t
heard of us. In fact that’s the
This response makes it irrelevant
same thing we heard from the
that the prospect has not
{insert persona you are calling}
heard of your company. This is
I’ve never even heard at companies like {insert
about results, and you back it
of your company. customer references}. However,
up by name-dropping similar
they took some extra time to give
companies in their space that have
us a cursory evaluation and now
experienced those results.
their team is {insert results}. We
would love to get your team the
same results.

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 BUSINESS CASE OBJECTIONS
Business Case Objections
If you’re able to get past the initial few seconds on the phone, you
may face a more advanced objection —one that indicates they have
a basic understanding of what you are trying sell and how it’s not a
good fit for them.

OBJECTION SUGGESTED RESPONSE WHY THIS WORKS

We are actually very flexible. We

This response opens up the door
can work with any team, any way
for them to explain how and who
they want to work. We work with
We only do business they do business with. By adding
companies like X and Y, who have
a certain way. customer proof points, you further
a similar situation as you-- and
validate this point and block the
we’re producing {insert results}
objection.
results for them.

This works because you let the

prospect know you understand that
Great, so do many of our
We use a special, it’s OK to have a different approach,
customers like {insert similar
different approach. that you are used to that and have
customers}.
made other companies with different
approaches successful as well.

Understood-- I’m not asking you

to buy anything right now. Let’s This response humanizes you as
I am not looking take some time to talk about the caller-- in the end you don’t
for new software / how we’re producing X results want to sell something the prospect
solutions / this isn’t a for customer like {insert similar really doesn’t need. This level-sets
priority for me right customers}, and if at that point expectations and increases the
now. you feel the same way, we’ll chances that they’ll give you time
thank each other for our time, for a proper pitch.
and go on about our day.

We love this answer! This continues

the conversation so you can gauge
Call back in X months What’s going to change between
the authenticity of the prospect’s
or X quarter. now and then?
objection and learn about current
and future goals.

That’s great! So clearly, you’re a

forward thinker that invests in Your prospect will feel flattered
I have everything I everything your team needs. We and realize that they really should
need. love people like you! Why not take consider what you have to offer if they
a look at what we offer to make want to keep their competitive edge.
sure you have all the best tools?
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 INCUMBENT SOLUTION OBJECTIONS
Incumbent Solution Objections
This type of response exposes an existing solution is already in place
— leaving no room for what you have to sell.

OBJECTION SUGGESTED RESPONSE WHY THIS WORKS

This directs the conversation

back to the results they can
Look {Prospect Name}, no
receive versus deflecting the call
one is going to have a better
to someone else on their team.
I’m not the decision understanding of how a product
You want the prospect to either
maker. /solution like ours could boost
reconsider and continue the call or
the results for your team more
give you a genuine referral to who
than you.
he/she believes is the decision-
maker.

This response highlights that

You weren’t expecting my call, you are a real person who
I don’t have the so I wouldn’t expect you to have understands the inconvenience
budget / it’s too a budget. Most of our biggest of an unscheduled call. You are a
expensive. customers started in this exact professional and you’ve heard this
same way. many times before! Remember,
confidence!

X Solutions are great for {what Recognize that you understand the
We already use X. they’re good for}. We’re different non-related solution referenced and
(non-competitive) in that we focus/specialize in that you understand that it’s not the
{what problems you solve}. same as what you are trying to sell.

Many of the competitors do

a fraction of what we do, and
you may need to layer multiple This smoothly transitions the
We’re already solutions on top of one another conversation back into how your
using one of your to accomplish a single outcome. product/solution is different and
competitors. Would you be interested to learn why the prospect should take that
how our solution is different into consideration.
as well as the benefits of a
consolidated platform?

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 PHRASES TO AVOID
Avoid these phrases at all costs
D O N ’ T S AY W H Y YO U S H O U L D N ’ T S AY T H I S

We’ll go ahead and answer this for you for all your future cold calls.

Is this a bad time? Yes, you’ve probably called at a bad time. You probably interrupted your
prospect while he/she was doing something else. Don’t give your prospect
an easy way out in the first few seconds of your call.

For one, your prospect immediately knows you’re a sales rep, and two,
How are you? they likely know you don’t actually care how they are. Don’t waste their
time and instead tell them why you’re relevant.

This question is lazy and an answer of “no” basically means the prospect is
Does that make sense? too stupid to understand what the rep is saying or the rep is too stupid to
explain what he/she meant.

Using the word This could imply that not everything you said on the call up until this point
“honestly” was truthful. You want to come off as full of truth, not full of lies.

From “Smart Calling” by Art Sobczak: “The word ‘just’ sounds weak and
Using the word “just”
diminishes everything that follows it.”

“I’d love to set aside The prospect does not care what you’d love to do. Instead, say “Let’s
some time” schedule some time.”

Getting prospects on the phone and igniting interest is a rare feat,

but when you’re able to cultivate a productive and meaningful
conversation by navigating swiftly through common call objections,
that’s where the magic happens.
Get started today by crafting your own Call Objection Guide.

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