You will produce a playbook with your best response to each of the five common objections.
You have now worked through the five objections you will hear most: price, timing, trust, need and someone else. You have a method for each, and a log of the objections you have actually heard. What you do not yet have is a single place to go before a meeting, where your best response to each is written down in your own words.
That is what this exercise builds: an objection playbook, one page per objection. Allow about forty-five minutes to write it, plus time with a partner to practise. The worked example is Hafiz's playbook for payroll software.
Make five pages, one each for price, timing, trust, need and someone else. On each page, use the same four headings, so the playbook is quick to scan:
The common meanings: what this objection usually hides in your market, from lessons 5.1 to 5.5 A clarifying question that helps you find out which meaning you are hearing A response for each meaning, two or three sentences each, with any proof or figures you will use A confirm question to check the response landed
Keep each page to one side. If a page runs longer, you are writing a script rather than a guide, and scripts break the moment the buyer uses different words.
Open the log you started in lesson 4.4, Start your objection log. For each of the five objections, copy two or three real examples of how buyers actually phrased it at the top of the page. This matters more than it seems. Real wording reminds you what it sounds like in the moment, and it stops you writing responses for objections nobody actually raises.
Then fill in the four headings, using the lessons in this module as your guide and your log as your evidence.
Here is Hafiz's price page, in short.
Real wording from his log: "It's more than we're paying now." "This is more than we were planning to spend."
Common meanings: comparing with the current system's cost; a budget set before the night shift or another change; not yet seeing the cost of overtime errors.
Clarifying question: "When you say more than planned, what had you budgeted for, or what are you comparing it with?"
Responses: for the current system, compare what it does and does not handle, especially shift overtime. For a budget set earlier, offer a one-page note for finance with the buyer's own impact figure, or start with the overtime module only. For unclear value, play back the impact from their worksheet.
Confirm question: "Does that help with the cost side, or is there something else behind it?"
His someone-else page has the most real examples, because his log showed it was the objection that cost him most. Its main response is now an offer to meet the other person, with a one-page summary as the fallback, as lesson 5.5, I need to check with someone else, describes.
Give your partner the playbook and ask them to play a buyer. For each objection, they should raise it twice, in different words each time. They can use the real examples from your log, or invent their own phrasing.
You respond using the method: listen, clarify, respond, confirm. Do not read from the page. The point is to see whether the clarifying question and responses work out loud, against wording you did not expect.
Hafiz's partner played Kelvin for the trust page and said, "How do I know your company won't be bought out next year?" Hafiz had not prepared for that wording. His clarifying question still worked: "That's a fair worry. What would happen on your side if it were?" It turned out the real concern was being left without support during payroll, which his trust page already covered.
After each objection, ask your partner one question: "Did that answer feel convincing?" Note their answer on the page.
When you have role-played all five objections twice, pick the response that felt weakest, either to you or to your partner. Rewrite it from scratch, not by tweaking words.
Hafiz's weakest was the need page. When his partner said, "Honestly, we're managing fine with spreadsheets," Hafiz found himself listing features, which lesson 5.4, We are fine as we are, warns against. He rewrote the page around two questions: what has changed since they agreed to meet, and whether the overtime errors they described in discovery still happen. Then he added the polite exit for when they truly are fine.
Set a monthly reminder to review the playbook against your growing log. Add new wording, retire responses that no longer work, and keep each page to one side.
You have five pages, one per objection. Each has real wording from your log, the common meanings, a clarifying question, a short response for each meaning, and a confirm question. You have role-played each objection twice with a partner using varied wording, noted their reaction, and rewritten the weakest response from scratch.
Open your objection log and set up the five pages before you start the activity below.
Write the five-page playbook, role-play each objection twice with a partner, and revise the response that felt weakest.
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