Christian PolkYour Friendly Neighborhood Sales Trainer

Watch me handle a prospect giving an excuse

6 Feb 2026 · 0 min

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0:16

In this sales coaching role‑play, Speaker A demonstrates how to handle a prospect who offers an excuse for lost deals. The process begins by confirming the prospect’s reported numbers (seven lost deals out of eight) and seeking the prospect’s explicit buy‑in on those figures. Once buy‑in is secured, Speaker A probes the underlying limiting belief—here, the prospect claims they are "new on this offer"—and challenges the excuse by asking where the urgency to improve lies. Speaker A emphasizes the importance of pushing back when the prospect sounds uncertain, encouraging the prospect either to correct their statement or reveal the true objection. The coach also highlights the strategic timing of objection handling, noting that addressing the belief early in discovery is more effective than confronting it later after price discussions, as early intervention prevents the belief from undermining the entire sales call.

We lost seven deals. Does that, does that sound right? Yeah. You don't sound too sure.
Well, yeah, I mean like some of it's like a new offer is like, like there's a bit of a.
Ramp.
Up period. So.
No, and I, I can, I can appreciate that. But if we tell ourselves, like, hey, there's a ramp up period, like.
Where is going to be the urgency to actually change anything?
So a few things there. Number one, I get the numbers and then I, I need his buy in on the numbers. So we've lost seven out of eight deals. Does that sound right? He, he doesn't sound sure about that. So I'm not just gonna move forward. Even though he did say yes. I'm gonna say, well, you don't seem too sure. The reason being is there's an underlying belief there. What was his underlying belief? Well, I'm really new on this offer, so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna really go head on into that limiting belief. Well, well, if we tell ourselves, hey, I'm brand new on this offer, where's the urgency to actually change and get better? Right. You're giving yourself an excuse. That's basically what I'm telling him. Okay, so I need to dive into the actual belief, but I don't get that actual belief unless I get buy in on the numbers, which you always need because it needs to be their numbers, not your numbers. And number two, when it doesn't actually sound like they're bought in, push back. You should not be fearful to be like, hey man, you don't sound too sure. Because either they're going to do one of two things. Number one, they're going to correct their language. Oh no, I am sure that is right. Or number two, they're going to tell you an objection, a belief, like he did right here, so you can actually handle it much better. I get this right now in the discovery, but versus I get this 20 minutes later, after I drop the price, there's much more fear. And then I built this entire momentum with this underlying belief that's been undercutting the entire sales call. Okay. So I need to address it right away.