“He mentioned the last migration twice. That is the objection. Ask what it cost him.”
7 jobs reps bring under objection handling
Held in your own method, on your own scorecardHandle the objection behind the objection.
"We are happy with our incumbent" is rarely the real reason. Your coach diagnoses what is behind the pushback, and helps you handle that.
The objection, read. One sentence, three possible meanings, and the coach’s pick.
Specimen data. Every name, date and number in the card is made up to show the shape.
“We are fine with what we have.”
- 01
No felt problem. The cost is absorbed and nobody counts it.
- 02
The switching cost looks bigger than the problem. Most likely: he mentioned the last migration twice.
- 03
Someone owns the incumbent relationship and is protecting it.
The response: do not touch the incumbent. Ask what the last migration cost and what it left unsolved. Then practise it out loud against Jamie.
7 things reps bring under objection handling.
Overcome objections is the use case of getting past the surface statement to the real concern. Objection handling fails when reps memorise a rebuttal for the words and never address the reason underneath. 'We are happy with our incumbent' can mean the problem does not feel urgent, the switching cost looks high, or someone has a relationship to protect: three different objections wearing the same sentence. Your coach diagnoses what an objection is about, then helps you structure a response that addresses that root. No script gets handed over. You get the response coached, then practise saying it against a buyer persona that pushes back, so you can do it on a live call. The most common objection reps bring is the hardest one: ghosting, where the buyer says nothing at all.
01Handle prospect ghostingWhat to do when the deal goes silent and you do not know why.+
Ghosting is the most common objection reps bring to a coach, and the hardest because there is no statement to answer. Your coach helps you work backwards: what was the last point of real progress, what changed, did the problem ever feel urgent enough to act on. A busy buyer gets separated from one who has quietly decided no, and you get a move matched to the likely cause, including a clean way to force a yes-or-no and stop chasing. Get this right and you know when to invest and when to let go.
02Handle the "we are fine" objectionGet past incumbent satisfaction without attacking the incumbent.+
'We already have something' usually means the absence of a felt problem. Your coach helps you avoid the trap of attacking the incumbent, which only makes the buyer defend a past decision, and instead surface the gap the incumbent leaves: the part of the problem it does not solve, the cost being absorbed unnoticed. Done well, the response reopens discovery on the unsolved problem, and the feature fight you cannot win never starts.
03Handle a timing or urgency objection"Not right now": find whether it is real or a soft no.+
'Not right now' is either a genuine sequencing issue or a polite no, and the response is completely different. Your coach helps you test which it is by going back to the problem and its cost: if the cost of inaction is real and quantified, 'later' has a price the buyer can see. Either way you learn something: you uncover the real blocker hiding behind 'timing', or you confirm it is a soft no and stop spending time on it.
04Handle a price or discount objectionDefend the number by re-anchoring on the cost of the problem.+
'Too expensive' is a comparison, and you control what it is compared against. Your coach helps you re-anchor on the cost of the problem so the price is weighed against a larger number, and coaches how to hold it, when a concession is reasonable, and what to ask for in return. Handle it well and the buyer weighs price against the cost of inaction, with both numbers on the table.
05Handle a budget objectionWork the "no budget" line back to whether the problem is worth solving.+
'No budget' is rarely an absolute. Budget gets found for problems that hurt enough. Your coach helps you work the objection back to the problem: is it quantified, is the cost of inaction bigger than the spend, and is the right person seeing that maths. Often the real issue is that the business case never reached the person who can move money. You leave with a path to either build the case that wins budget, or a clear read that the problem is not a priority.
06Handle competitor loyaltyPosition against a competitor the buyer already trusts.+
When the buyer trusts a competitor, attacking that competitor attacks the buyer's judgement. Your coach helps you position on the specific gap: the part of the buyer's problem the competitor does not address, framed around their situation. The buyer can then accept the differentiation without feeling their existing relationship is being criticised.
07Handle the missing-feature objection"Does it do X?" without conceding the deal or overpromising the roadmap.+
A feature objection is a trap with two bad exits: say yes and overpromise, or say no and watch the deal cool. Both happen because the rep answered the feature and skipped the reason behind it. Your coach helps you do the harder thing first: find out why that capability matters, which underlying problem the buyer thinks it solves, and how much of that problem you address another way. Often the feature is a proxy for a worry you can answer better than the feature itself would. Done right, your response addresses the real need honestly, holds the deal without a roadmap promise you cannot keep, and reframes the evaluation around the problem.
Will the coach give me objection-handling scripts?
No, deliberately. Memorised rebuttals fail because they answer the words and leave the reason underneath untouched. Your coach diagnoses what the objection is about and coaches a response to that root, then lets you practise it so it comes out naturally on a live call.
How does the coach handle ghosting when there is no objection to answer?
It works backwards with you: the last point of real progress, what changed, whether the problem ever felt urgent. That diagnosis separates a busy buyer from a quiet no, and points you to a move matched to the likely cause, including a clean way to force a yes-or-no.
Can I practise objection handling out loud?
Yes. You get the response coached first, then you can roleplay it against a buyer persona that pushes back hard. Practising the delivery is what turns a good answer in theory into one you can land under pressure.
Why does the coach keep taking objections back to the problem?
Because most objections are symptoms of weak discovery. A price, budget, or timing objection is hard to handle if the buyer never agreed the problem was worth solving. Keenan is built on Gap Selling, so he treats the objection as a signal that the cost of inaction was never made real.
Does this work for objections specific to my industry?
Yes. You describe the objection in your own words and context, and the diagnosis and response get coached for your situation. The method, finding the concern behind the words, is the same whatever the industry.
Bring the objection you keep losing to. Your coach reads what sits behind it.
Bring us a live deal and the objection that keeps landing on it. Ask for a working session to rehearse against buyers built from your own deals.
