The sales process · Sales enablement
Write down the sentence the buyer actually said, not the objection you remember.
An objections list is the inventory of what your buyers actually say when they push back. It is written in their own words, collected over a fortnight by everybody in the business who hears one. Sorted by how many times each sentence was heard, the top of the list is short.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
An objections list is the inventory of what your buyers actually say when they push back. It is written in their own words, collected over a fortnight by everybody in the business who hears one. Sorted by how many times each sentence was heard, the top of the list is short.
Ask a sales team in a review meeting what objections they get and you will be given five. Mostly about rate, and all of them phrased the way a salesperson would phrase them. Collect what buyers really say for two weeks and the list is longer, odder and far less comfortable to read.
The collecting is the work. A shared sheet or one WhatsApp group, the sentence typed in while it is still exact, and nobody tidying it up. We will think about it and let you know is a different objection from send me your best price, and treating both as price loses the difference that matters.
This step stops at the sorted list. What you say back is the next step, objection handling. The two are separate on purpose: a team that starts writing answers on day one stops collecting on day two. The direct questions from the step before are what produce the real objection instead of the polite one.
Where this sits
Stage 5 of 10, sales enablement. What the person selling says, sends and answers with, written down instead of improvised.
- The stage before
- Lead generation
- The stage after
- Sales qualification
If you want this done for you
Have a ready, honest answer when a buyer says your competitor is cheaper.
The work
What this step is actually like.
“Everybody hears them, not only the salespeople”
The delivery driver, the service engineer, the receptionist and the accountant chasing a payment all get told things no buyer would say in a sales meeting. A buyer speaks most plainly to whoever is standing there and is clearly not selling him anything.
“Keep the sentence, do not clean it up”
The moment somebody writes price in the column, the information is gone. Your rate is higher and the other fellow delivers the same week is one problem. I do not want to deal with a company this small is another, and a salesperson who summarises both as price will answer neither.
“Two weeks, because memory flatters”
Memory hands back the objections you have good answers to. The one that made a hardware distributor on Kanakapura Road go quiet on Tuesday afternoon is forgotten by Tuesday evening, and it is the one worth having. An hour of collecting beats a year of recollection.
“The owner has to read it without arguing”
Some of what comes back is about your company rather than your product: nobody called back, the quotation took nine days, your office number rings out after six. That column only survives if the person who sees it first does not treat it as a complaint about the staff.
What we do
What you end up with.
The artefacts this step produces, what each one is for, and how you know it is finished.
A sheet with six columns
The sentence as it was spoken, who heard it, and the date. Then where in the conversation it came, what kind of buyer said it, and how many times it has appeared. Nothing else, because a seventh column is why people stop filling it in.
Result: Two weeks later you are holding evidence instead of opinions.
One collection channel, open to everyone
A WhatsApp group that exists only for this, where anyone types the line within the hour and no one comments on it. The owner replies with a thank you and never with a defence.
Result: People who do not think of themselves as sales staff start contributing by the second week.
The sorted list
An hour at the end of the fortnight, arranging them by how many times each was heard. The same few sentences come back again and again, and behind them sits a long tail heard once.
Result: You can see the handful worth writing proper answers for, and the ones to leave alone.
A true column
Mark every objection that is simply correct. If your quotation takes a week and theirs takes a day, that is not a salesperson's problem to answer. It goes to whoever can change it.
Result: Two or three things get fixed in the business instead of being argued with on calls.
Template
Objections log
One line per objection, written in the buyer's own words.
| Objection (buyer's words) | Where it came up | How often | What was said back | Outcome | True or a stall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Where this fits
Three pieces of sales work, in this order.
This work sits inside sales management. A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.
Step 1
Sales audit
Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.
Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.
Step 2
Sales process design
One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.
Start here if every salesperson sells differently.
Step 3 · you are here
Sales management
A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.
Start here if the team has targets and no routine.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
Can we not just list these in a team meeting?
How do we get the whole team to write them down?
What do we do with the objections that are true?
How often should the list be redone?
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
Where to go next
The work that carries this step further.
The rest of sales enablement
Or read the whole sales process in order.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.