Seven Common Sales Objections That Coaches and Consultants Should Know How To Address Smoothly

Master Your Sales Strategy To Close More Deals, Grow Your Business And Prosper

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A Word From The Author: Not a single word in the following article was written by ChatGPT, any AI tools, or any ghostwriters. These words and ideas shared belong 100% to the author's brain. Keep reading if you enjoy hearing fundamental views from real people who are (still) the authors of their own thoughts.

First, you must realize that being in business makes you de facto a sales person.

You get two choices:

1. Avoid sales = make little to no money and zero growth, client to client, never able to support yourself or make future plan
2. Learn how to sell = make as much money as you want, see consistent growth, hire people, support your lifestyle and family, make big future plans

Which do you choose? If you are ok with 1. this article is not for you so you can stop reading here.

Common Mistake: Many Think Marketing, Content, or Personal Branding Is Enough

New entrepreneurs come to me first with their marketing problems. Their top priority isn’t getting client but building great personal brands and marketing strategies (web, email, and social) that drives new business. The problem? They think that this is enough.

Newsflash to all coaches, consultants, and online experts: you still need to learn to sell!

While creating a great brand and the right marketing assets and strategies is indeed a must, you must also learn how to close deals.

Why not just hire someone for this or outsource prospecting?

Hiring others to close new business on your behalf means mostly spamming in an icky, non-ethical way. I personally block lead gen specialists every day so if you want my business, you are going to have to reach out yourself.

Relationships Should Be Your Top Priority, Not An Outsourced Task or Something To Avoid

If you feel it is too much effort to have a conversation with your prospects, yet you want their business, you probably shouldn’t be in business at all. If you are “too busy”, your business priorities are messed up since you should hire a team to handle Admin, Production, or Content if those areas are what’s taking up your time.

Being too busy to build relationships means being in business for the wrong reasons.

Business should be based on trust, genuine interest in other people, and putting people first over profits.

When you outsource prospecting, it shows me your values are skewed.

People buy from people and if I’m going to be working with you directly, I need to first have an interview.

No corporation will hire you for ongoing consulting services without a conversation.

No individual will pick a coach without ever speaking to them first.

Now let’s talk about the seven most common sales objection scenarios.

Seven Common Sales Objections You Probably Will Hear From Prospects

1. No Time: “I’m slammed right now so thanks but no thanks.”
2. Not Able To Make Any New Commitments: “I have too many things going on now to commit to one more thing.”
3. No Money: “I wish I could but my budget is too tight at the moment.”
4. No Need: “I’m good with (insert your offer). I don’t need any help.”
5. Already Have A Solution: “I already invested in another solution/ am working with someone, etc”
6. Vague Rejection: “Thanks for the offer but I’ll have to pass.”
7. Ghosted: They don’t even respond.

The Real Reasons Prospects Reject You In the First Place

Do any of these objections sound familiar? Let’s look deeper so we can address and overcome them. Although I call them objections, in reality, they are often simply questions you failed to address sufficiently in your marketing materials.

Prospects Often Don’t Tell You the Real Reasons They Don’t Buy!

They are simply giving you their polite go-to excuses they give everyone when they aren’t interested. What they really often are saying is:

1. I’m not quite clear on what your offer is or the way you present it seems like it isn’t for me
2. What you are saying is way over my head, unreliable, and unattainable so I’ll have to pass
3. I’m not quite convinced that you are an authority in this area or I am cautious because I don’t know you or never heard of you before quite recently
4. I need more time to consider this since now my thoughts are focused elsewhere due to professional or personal reasons
5. I’ve been burned so often I am weary of hiring any new experts
6. I prefer to save money by trying to do it on my own
7. Right now this problem is not a priority for me to solve
8. I already bought a course or purchased a training that I just need to finish/rewatch/implement and I believe I will be able to fix the problem
9. Your pitchy approach turned me off so I’m not willing to consider working with you at all. Goodbye.

Learn to read between the lines and ask more questions to get to the bottom of why they said ‘no’. In my Social Selling cohort, I teach how to handle all of the above.

Good news: If they are willing to keep exchanging with you, you still stand a chance to close the deal.

Even if they aren’t ready now, they will remember you when they are so be patient, be curious, and go the extra mile to work through objections.

Even in the worst scenario where you started off on the wrong foot, there are ways to fix it that could still work.

Fixing Their Common Sales Objections

1) The “No Time “ Objection

Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard “I’m too busy right now.”

a) Pre-vetting Questions

When you first engage with a prospect, one of the questions I always ask if what they are currently working on and if they have any exciting big projects coming up. The more you converse with them, the more you should know how busy they are. Learning to build rapport is Sales 101 so long before you decide to make them any offer, you should find out about their work situation and time availability.

b) Program Design

Secondly, you should design all your programs for maximum impact in the shortest time frames or a shorter yet more intense commitment aiming to get significant results. Always build in flexibility for rescheduling or cancellations if you want busy people to say ‘yes’ your program. One must always account for scheduling who your target audience is. If they are working full-time or raising small children, you should adapt your services to make it possible for them, not the other way around.

Never try to take up too much of people’s time, or else you will have low sales and higher churn. This is personally one of my pet peeves.

c) Reply To The Objection

If you know the prospect with the time objection is a good candidate based on the information they told you earlier and who your programs are designed for, then ask for more clarification:

“Has something particular recently come up in your schedule that makes you feel now may be the wrong time to join our program?

Listen to your prospect first then share with them all the things below as to how the program accommodates the time issue.

In your marketing materials, stress the time factor with phrases like these:

Our programs are designed exactly with busy people, moms, executives, etc. in mind.

Time requirement is minimal. We don’t want you to have to spend a single moment more than necessary to get the results you are after.

You will only need to invest one hour per week for x amount of weeks in order to see results.

We offer meeting times in the a.m. and p.m. to accommodate busy schedules.

You have lifetime access to all the materials so you can access them at your leisure in case your schedule means you can’t attend all live.

Lastly, you get 1:1 support to make sure you get what you need.

Once you have shared all of this above, ask them this question:

Is this additional information enough to address the time question? Do you have other concerns?”

If they say the answer is still ‘no’ but confirm it is time, ask them one last question:

“Thanks for clarifying why now is not the best time. When will this project (or whatever they said) be finished so that I can follow up?”

2) The “Not Able To Make Any New Commitments” Objection

a) Understand The True Meaning

This could be a good sign that a person is setting boundaries. In fact, I teach my mentees to protect their time previously and say ‘no’ to most things. So this doesn’t mean ‘no’ forever. It could mean two things:

i) “I’m not convinced what you offered is worth my time.”

ii)”I’ve actually overcommitted myself by joining too many programs or communities and now I am saturated.”

b) Ask for clarification

To figure out if it is i) or ii), ask the prospect!

Always start by assuming they are honest with you and the reason is ii). Here is a script you can use as-is or to inspire you to write your own: “Thank you for your reply! Would you be willing to share which programs you are currently in? I’m always looking for personal development or business communities and coaches I can refer my clients to (or from).”

c) Get them on a non-commital call

If they answer, take note of the program or coach names to research and connect with later and ask them when would be a good time to follow up with them about working together. Here is a script you can use as-is or to inspire you to write your own: “Thanks for sharing! I have never heard of (insert coach or program) but will definitely look into them. (I’ve heard of this coach/program and think they are a great resource for (insert their speciality). How long before you complete that program? Can we schedule a quick follow-up call now so once you have more time availability to focus on (insert your expert area), we’ll both know if I can help you. Here is my calendar link to set up a quick call (insert link). I promise you there will be no pitches but I’ll make it worth your time!””

If they refuse to provide more information, they probably lied to you and just said they are overcommitted because the real reason is i) but they didn’t know how to say that politely. If that is the case, answer like this: “It sounds like now is not the best time for you to commit to fixing (insert problems) but I’d still very much like to be considered to help you with (your expert area) once it is a better moment for you. Could we have a brief follow-up call so I can hear more about your (insert problems). That way, at least I’d have all the information to move forward helping you once you are more available. Here is my calendar link to set up a quick call (insert link). I promise you there will be no pitches but I’ll make it worth your time!”

Final Thoughts

There you have it: tips to solve two out of the seven sales objections I mention in this article. If you want to learn what to say and do in all seven scenarios including the list of real reasons your prospects don’t buy, get more scripts to address them all, role play a sales scenario to practice, and get direct support from a seasoned business mentor to close more deals and feel more confident in your sales efforts, join our Social Selling Cohort (details below).

More Resources

If you are a coach, consultant, or services expert growing your solo business, you are in the right place inside From Zero 2 Six Academy. Check out our programs here.

Join my Social Selling Cohort where we cover all these objections, complete with scripts, role-playing, CRM, sales tracking tools, and more to turn you into a Sales pro in no time. Designed for coaches, consultants, and services experts who hate selling.

Read my favorite general prospect pre-vetting questions here and a version specifically for group programs here.

Read my article about sales lessons for solopreneurs here.

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