What is objection handling, and what does call data say works?
Objection handling is finding out what a buyer's pushback really means, then answering that concern briefly and agreeing a next step. Gong's 2018 objection data points one way: slow down and ask before you answer.
In a Gong Labs study published in March 2018, Gong pulled 67,149 recorded demos from its database of over 1 million calls and looked at what happened after objections. Successful reps paused longer after an objection than in the rest of the call, answered with questions to clarify the concern, and kept the back-and-forth going. Average reps did the opposite: their pauses shrank and they went into a monologue that stretched 21.45 seconds. Chris Orlob, who led the creation of Gong Labs, wrote the piece; Gong notes, of one finding, that it shows correlation, not causation, and every call in the sample was a demo.
Gong's 2025 update on talk ratios (326,000 sales calls of at least 10 minutes) covers whole calls, not objections, and only partly agrees. Reps talked 57% of the time in won deals and 62% in lost ones, and low performers' talk time swung from 54% in won deals to 64% in lost deals. More questions weren't better either: sellers who won asked 15 to 16 questions a call, sellers who lost asked about 20. Both are Gong's own vendor research.
What are the main types of sales objections?
Gong sorts them into three groups. In its analysis of 300M+ cold calls (July 2024), dismissive objections such as not interested, call me in 6 months and send me some information made up 49.5% of objections; situational ones such as too expensive, no budget and no bandwidth made up 42.6%; existing-solution objections (in-house, a competitor, stuck in a contract) made up 7.9%. The top five objections accounted for 74% of all objections. That is cold-call data, so later-stage objections like authority may be under-represented.
Here are the six objections this guide covers, mapped to those groups. The last two columns are our reading, not Gong's, and so is the group for the last row: Gong's lists don't include it.
| Objection | Gong group | What it often hides | Ask this first |
|---|---|---|---|
| Not now, call me next quarter | Dismissive | No reason to act yet, or a polite no | What changes between now and then? |
| No budget | Situational | Budget set before the need, or someone else owns it | When is budget set, and who sets it? |
| I need to check with my boss | Not in Gong's list | You are talking to an influencer, not the buyer | What will they want to know? |
| Send me some info | Dismissive | Ending the call kindly | So I send the right thing, what's most relevant? |
| We use a competitor | Existing solution | Switching cost and risk | What would you change about it if you could? |
| We're fine as we are | Situational or dismissive | Fear of a failed change | What would have to go wrong for this to matter? |
How do you deal with an objection? A four-step method
Pause, clarify, answer the real concern in a few sentences, then check and agree the next step. Each step maps to a Gong finding above.
Pause
Count two beats before you reply. In Gong's 2018 demo data, top reps paused longer after objections; average reps' pauses shrank. Gong's 2025 talk-ratio article separately suggests pausing two seconds before responding.
Clarify with one question
Don't assume you know the concern. A strong answer to the wrong objection makes it worse, as Gong's 2018 article puts it. Use the question column in the table.
Answer briefly
Two or three sentences, using the buyer's own words, then stop; the 20-second limit is our rule of thumb, not Gong's. The average rep's 21.45-second monologue is the thing to avoid.
Check, then agree a next step
Gong found top reps asked “Does that make sense?” more often than their peers when wrapping up an objection. Then propose something small and specific: a date, a person to add, a test.
On cold calls, Gong's July 2024 article by Armand Farrokh, who describes selling at Pave as VP of Sales, uses a three-step version: agree with the objection, give them a reason to keep talking, then sell a small first step rather than the product.
Example answers to the six common B2B objections
All examples below are invented for illustration. You sell Northwind Ltd, a reporting tool, to Priya at Acme. Change the details to your product; keep the shape.
1. Timing: call me next quarter. Find out whether anything actually changes next quarter. If nothing does, it's a polite no. Our guide to following up after check back next quarter covers what to send in between.
2. Budget, when it isn't about the price. No budget often means the budget was set before they knew about the need, or it sits with someone else. Ask where it sits and when it resets, and offer a smaller first scope. If the objection really is the number, use our guide to handling price objections without discounting.
3. Authority: I need to check with my boss. Stop selling and equip your contact. Ask what the boss will want to know, and offer to join. Relying on one contact is risky; our post on multi-threading a deal covers how to reach the other people involved.
4. Send me some info. Gong files this under dismissive. Agree, then make the email useful by asking one question and proposing a time to discuss it.
Practitioners disagree about how hard to push here. We read two r/sales threads on brush-offs that include this one (both April 2025). In the first, the poster suggests asking to level with the prospect briefly; the second suggests booking a tentative time before sending the email. We counted the highest-scored top-level replies in each (Reddit archive scores, read 5 Nov 2026). In the first, 7 of the top 11 (ties included) praised or agreed with the line, 2 offered their own wording, 1 said to add value at once instead and 1 said it was lifted from LinkedIn. In the second, of the top 10, 2 agreed (one said a request for an email is usually code for being done), 4 offered other lines, such as asking what they want to see in the email, 1 called the script terrible and 3 were jokes or jibes at the post. Treat these as opinions, not proof.
5. We already use a competitor. Gong advises not criticising the current solution; agree with it, then ask a question that exposes a gap. If they then send you the rival's lower quote, see what to say when a client sends a competitor's lower price.
Why are status quo and let-me-think-about-it so hard to answer?
For let-me-think-about-it, the publisher's summary of one large study says buyers who already intend to buy care most about not failing. The book The JOLT Effect by sales expert Matthew Dixon and co-author Ted McKenna (Portfolio, 2022) draws on, per its publisher, a study of more than two and a half million sales conversations. The publisher sums up the finding: once purchase intent is established, “customers no longer care about succeeding. What they really care about is not failing.” It adds that pushing harder on the upside backfires with indecisive buyers.
That finding is about buyers who already intend to buy; using the same approach on a buyer who is happy as they are is our suggestion, not the study's. So answer the fear of failing first. Shrink the first step, name what could go wrong and how you'd handle it, and give a clear exit.
How do you stop the same objections coming back?
Log them, then fix the cause earlier in the process. A short log for a month tells you which of the six you hear most, and the fix for each usually sits in discovery: ask about budget owner, timing and current tools before you pitch. Our list of discovery call questions for founders has the questions.
This week: copy the table above into your call notes, write one example answer per row in your own words, and log every objection from your next ten calls. On cold calls specifically, the opener shapes which objections you get; our post on Gong's cold call opener data covers that part.
Frequently asked questions
What does objection handling mean in sales?
It means responding to a buyer's concern in a way that finds out what is really behind it and moves the deal forward or ends it cleanly. In practice that is a pause, a clarifying question, a short answer in the buyer's terms and an agreed next step, rather than a rebuttal or a list of features.
What are the major 3 objection categories?
Gong Labs groups cold-call objections into three: dismissive brush-offs such as not interested or send me some information, situational ones such as no budget or no bandwidth, and existing-solution objections such as a competitor or an in-house tool. In its 300M+ call analysis these made up 49.5%, 42.6% and 7.9% of objections.
Is there a right talk-to-listen ratio, like the 70/30 rule?
Gong's 2025 analysis of 326,000 calls found reps talked about 60% of the time on average, 57% in won deals and 62% in lost ones. Its older research suggested 43% talking and 57% listening. Neither is a rule; the steadier finding is that top performers keep a similar ratio whether they win or lose.
Should you always try to overcome an objection?
No. Some objections are true: no need, no budget for a year, or a recent contract with a rival. Ask one clarifying question, and if the concern holds, agree when to follow up and leave on good terms. Pushing past a real no wastes your pipeline time and the buyer's goodwill.
How do you handle objections you haven't heard before?
Use the same four steps. Pause, ask what they mean and what prompted it, then answer only what they said. If you don't know the answer, say you'll check and come back by a set date. Log the objection afterwards so you can prepare an answer for next time.
Sources
- Gong Labs: Mastering the art of handling sales objections (published 12 Mar 2018, modified 4 Mar 2026) (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Gong Labs: We found the top objections across 300M+ cold calls (published 31 Jul 2024) (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Gong Labs: Mastering the talk-to-listen ratio in sales calls (published 21 Aug 2025) (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Penguin Books: The JOLT Effect by Matthew Dixon and Ted McKenna (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- r/sales thread: Stop flubbing the easiest cold call objection (Apr 2025) (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- r/sales thread: Quit flubbing 'Send me an email' at the end of your cold call (Apr 2025) (checked 5 Nov 2026)