April 14, 2025 • 11 mins
There is a big challenge in today’s marketplace that’s popping up left and right for sales professionals—Decision Deferment Objections.
If you’re running into stakeholders who say, “Let’s just hold off a bit,” “We need more time,” or “We want to wait until the market settles,” then we're going to dive into why this is happening and, more importantly, how you can handle these sales objections with confidence and skill.
Turbulent Times Breed Buyer Fear
The market is swinging like a pendulum on steroids, and it’s making everyone skittish. You’ve got tariffs, trade wars, and a spike in economic uncertainty.
Buyers read The Wall Street Journal or check their news feeds, and the headlines scream “Turmoil!” They panic. So they defer decisions, walk away from deals, or play the “wait and see” game.
Decision deferment objections are a natural consequence of fear. People want to avoid making the wrong move. It’s easier to hit the pause button than to commit to something they’re not 100% sure about. That fear, in many ways, is irrational. But it’s a brick wall that will shut down your deal if you let it.
So how do you avoid letting hesitation, stalling, and decision deferment kill your deals during market uncertainty?
It starts with a fundamental truth: to succeed in this environment, you must sell better. Because when people are fearful, indecisive, or uncertain, how you sell matters far more than what you sell.
Why Buyers Pull Back and Defer Decisions
In uncertain and volatile times, mistakes come with severe penalties. A stakeholder who chooses the wrong vendor, invests in the wrong technology, or commits resources too soon might put their entire business or career at risk.
So they freeze. They put it off. They say, “We’ll need a little more time to think about it,” or “We need to run the numbers again,” or “Let me talk to my boss.”
If you haven’t uncovered real fears, addressed them, and methodically advanced the deal, you’ll hit a wall of deferment decision objections at maximum force. That’s why I often sound like a broken record—but repetition is the mother of skill. The basic steps to closing in an uncertain market are fundamental:
Execute your sales process flawlessly
Consistently ask for micro-commitments to advance the sale
Present a compelling, airtight case for change
Ask your stakeholders to make a decision confidently and without hesitation
Handle objections with empathy
Closing Is Not a Single Moment in Time
A lot of sales reps treat the close as one magic moment—like flicking a switch. But in reality, closing is a series of micro-commitments that happen throughout the sales process. Every time you get a commitment to a next step, your buyer to leans in just a bit more, and you set the stage for a final “yes.”
When times are normal, a halfway-decent rep can skip a few steps and still get deals across the finish line. But in a crisis or uncertain market, that sloppy approach falls apart.
You must consistently get micro-commitments and keep advancing—because if you let the ball drop even once, you’ll give your stakeholders an opening to stall or back out with objections like “We going to hold off,” or “We’re just going to stick with what we have until the economy gets better.”
Tough Objections? Check Your Upstream Sales Process
For this reason, if you are getting hammered at the close with brutal objections, it usually means you made mistakes earlier in the process.
So instead of obsessing over how to wordsmith your objection rebuttals, you might need to re-examine how you qualified and sold from the get-go. Tough objections at the 11th hour are typically a symptom of an earlier problem.
So, what do you do?
Qualify better upfront—Are these the right prospects? Are you sure they have a budget, authority, need, and timeline? Is there a compelling reason for them to change?
Ensure you’re dealing with real decision makers—If you’re stuck with “influencers” ...
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
This is Jeb Blunt, and it's Money Monday
on the Sales Gravy Podcast.
Make money, money, money,
money.
Make money, money,
Money, money, money. Money makes the world go
round. I'm a talk around town. Remy gave
me the sound.
I need a striller on the rilla.
Alright. Welcome back to the Sales Gravity podcast.
(00:25):
I'm Jeb Blunt, author of fanatical prospecting sales
EQ, and you gotta go get my brand
new book, The Linkedin Edge. It is on
preorder right now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble,
and wherever books are sold, you're gonna love
it. The book is fantastic.
I turned it in last night to our
publisher. It'll be out in September.
But to be the first person to get
it, go preorder it right now.
(00:48):
This is Money Monday where we get fired
up, focused, and ready to crush our goals
because let's face it, how you start your
week is how you finish your week. And
this week, we're facing the challenge of decision
deferment objections.
If you're running into stakeholders who are telling
you that they wanna hold off a bit
or they need a little bit more time
or they wanna wait until the economy settles
(01:09):
down, We're gonna dive into why this is
happening and more importantly,
how you can handle decision deferment objections
with confidence and skill and still close the
deal.
Just look around you. The market is swinging
like a pendulum on steroids and it's making
everybody skittish. You've got tariffs, trade wars, and
a spike in economic uncertainty.
(01:30):
Buyers read the Wall Street Journal or check
their news feeds or look at their investment
accounts, and the headlines scream
turmoil.
So they panic,
and they defer decisions, walk away from deals,
or play a wait and see game.
These decision deferment objections are a natural consequence
of fear. People wanna avoid making the wrong
(01:51):
move and it's easier to hit the pause
button than to commit to something that they're
not a % sure about.
But it's a brick wall that will shut
down your deal.
So how do you avoid letting hesitation,
stalling, and decision deferment
kill your deals during market uncertainty?
Well, it all starts with a fundamental truth.
(02:12):
To succeed in this environment,
you must sell better because when people are
fearful and decisive or uncertain,
how you sell matters far more than what
you sell.
In uncertain and volatile times, mistakes come with
severe penalties.
The stakeholder who chooses the wrong vendor, invests
in the wrong technology,
or commits resources too soon might put their
(02:35):
entire business or career at risk.
So they freeze. They put it off. They
say, we'll need a little bit more time
to think about it, or we'll need to
run the numbers again, or let me go
talk to my boss. So the question everybody's
asking is, how do we help them navigate
this fear and move forward?
But the kicker is shallow discovery and skipping
(02:56):
steps in the sales process
typically lead directly to massive pushback at the
close during uncertain times.
If you haven't taken time to uncover their
real fears and address them and methodically advance
your deal through the sales process,
you'll hit a wall of decision deferment objections
at maximum force.
Look, I know that if you are a
(03:17):
regular listener to this podcast or you read
or listen to my books, that I can
sound like a broken record.
But I also know that repetition is the
mother of skill.
The basic steps to closing in an uncertain
market are fundamental.
Execute your sales process flawlessly.
Consistently ask for micro commitments to advance a
(03:38):
sale. Present a compelling, airtight business case for
change.
Ask your stakeholders to make a decision confidently
and without hesitation,
and handle objections with empathy.
These are the basics, the essentials, the fundamentals
that will help you sell more in any
market.
Now, sadly, a lot of sales reps treat
(03:59):
closing as a magic moment, like flicking a
switch.
But in reality, closing is a series of
micro commitments that happen throughout the sales process.
Each time you get a commitment to a
next step, your buyer leans in a little
bit more and you're setting the stage for
a final yes at the close.
Now when times are normal, a halfway decent
(04:19):
rep can skip some of these steps and
still get a deal across the finish line.
But in a crisis
or an uncertain market like we're experiencing right
now, that sloppy approach will fail.
In this environment, you must consistently
advance your sale by getting those micro commitments
because if you let the ball drop even
(04:40):
once, you're giving your stakeholder an opening to
stall or back out with objections like, you
know, we're gonna hold off for a while
or we're gonna stick with what we're doing
right now until the economy gets better.
The truth is, if you're getting hammered at
the close with these type of objections,
it usually means that you made mistakes earlier
in the process or you didn't get those
(05:01):
micro commitments.
So instead of obsessing over how to wordsmith
your objection rebuttals,
you might need to re examine how you
qualified and sold from the get go. Tough
objections at the eleventh hour when you're trying
to close the deal are typically a symptom
of an earlier problem, not the root cause
itself.
And this brings us to one of the
(05:21):
most important sales tactics that you'll need to
deploy in uncertain times like these.
It is absolutely critical that you get buyer
worries, fears, and potential objections
out in the open and on the table
as soon as possible. And this means that
you need to do deeper discovery and have
the courage to ask tough questions like what
are you afraid of, Or how do you
(05:42):
see the current market volatility impacting your decisions?
Or what's your biggest concern that would hold
you back from moving forward? Or if you
don't address this problem soon, what do you
think might happen?
It takes confidence to get your stakeholders talking
openly about their fears and concerns.
And yes, you'll risk hearing truths that might
scare you or them.
(06:03):
But the alternative
is to bury your head in the sand
and get blindsided at the last minute when
they say, you know what? We're gonna wait
until next quarter.
Asking hard questions like these are where many
salespeople hesitate because
these type of direct questions can feel confrontational,
and they worry that the prospect may shut
them down or that they'll push their prospect
(06:25):
away.
So they back off, tiptoe around the real
issues, and avoid pressing them on timelines and
next steps.
And that might keep the conversation
calm, but it sets them up for a
big heartbreak later.
The biggest agony in sales is pouring time,
energy, and emotion into a deal only to
(06:45):
lose it at the finish line when the
stakeholder reveals an objection that had you known
about it weeks ago, you could have handled.
This is why you must push through your
own discomfort
and bring hidden fears to the surface early.
It's infinitely less painful to deal with them
up front than to discover them at the
worst possible moment.
(07:07):
There's this quote a lot from philosopher, Julian
Bighini. He says, if you believe you're right,
then you should believe that you can make
the case that you're right. This requires you
to deal with serious objections properly.
I can't think of a better way to
explain exactly what it takes to handle decision
deferment objections when buyers say things like, we're
gonna hold off for a month and see
what happens with the economy, or we'd like
(07:29):
to run this by the entire team before
we commit, or we're just not ready to
make a long term commitment right now.
If you truly believe that your solution
is what your prospect needs, then it's your
duty to address their fears and hesitations head
on and show them why moving forward makes
sense even in choppy waters.
Start with empathy.
(07:50):
This isn't about agreeing with their reasons, but
acknowledging them as a human. It's saying, I
get where you're coming from and it's smart
to be cautious.
That's it. We're not discounting their worry or
jumping into a debate. We're just letting them
know that we understand and we're listening.
They're bracing for you to argue or push
them. But by empathizing with them, you lower
their guard and show them that you're on
(08:11):
their side. And it also buys you a
moment to compose yourself and think strategically before
you respond.
Then, you wanna make sure that there aren't
other hidden objections below the surface. So gently
probe with something like, aside from needing more
time, what else is worrying you about moving
forward? The last thing you want is to
handle one objection and then be blindsided by
(08:32):
another objection.
And never assume that you know exactly what
they mean. Always take a moment to clarify
their words and objection.
When they say something like, we need to
run the numbers, maybe they really do need
to do a cost breakdown, or maybe they
doubt the ROI,
or maybe they're afraid installing.
So clarify with open ended questions like, when
(08:54):
you say you need to review the math,
how do you mean?
These clarifying questions will unearth the real meaning
behind their words, which makes it easier for
you to handle the objection.
And once you have clarity on what's really
holding them back, all you need to do
is minimize their fear by reconnecting them to
their desired outcomes.
(09:15):
Remind them of the pains they wanted to
solve, the benefits they hope to gain, and
how your solution addresses that. Show them the
math that you need, get out your calculator,
demonstrate the ROI,
and paint the brighter future.
By focusing them on what they stand to
gain and the cost of doing nothing, you
shrink the size of their fear while maximizing
(09:35):
the benefit of moving forward. And finally, you
need to ask for the sale again because
your buyer won't do the job for you.
The key here is asking with relaxed assertive
confidence
because your confidence gives them the confidence
to push past their fears and make the
right decision.
I'm gonna share my final words with you
(09:57):
in just a moment, but first I want
you to take a note. We're in for
a rough ride. I don't know how long
this market volatility and uncertainty is going to
last, but while it does, selling is going
to get harder.
And this is exactly why I wrote my
book, selling in a crisis.
It is there to be a companion, a
guide in a handbook to help you navigate
(10:17):
these rough waters and sell more.
You can get selling in a crisis in
hardcover ebook and audio book on Amazon Barnes
and noble audible and Spotify.
It will help you, so go get it
now.
Look, times are unstable.
Buyers are jumpy. They'd rather punt than make
a risky call. But you are a sales
(10:38):
professional, and that means that you have to
stand in the gap, helping them navigate doubt
and find a solution that actually benefits them
right now.
Don't shy away from we need more time
or we're gonna hold off. Expect it, be
ready for it, and face it head on.
The markets may wobble, but you should not.
So lean into better discovery,
(10:58):
surface hidden fears, and confidently ask for the
sale. And when you get hit by decision
deferment objections,
now you know exactly what to do. And
remember,
when it's time to go home, always make
one more call because that extra call is
where breakthroughs happen, especially when everyone else is
scared and is sitting on their hands.
(11:19):
This is Jeb Blunt, and I'll see you
next time on the Sales Groovy podcast.
Survival of the fitness. You could sink or
swim. I've been broke. I ain't never going
back again. I need some sea notes, some
cheddar, and a stack of ends. I need
a bowl of dough. I don't need no
Facebook friends.
I need a pack of them snaps, a
handful of fettie wops, a rubber band on
my green vax. Look, doll. Don't be playing
(11:42):
with my paper. I need every rare scent.
That's why I brought my little scraper.
This is Jeb Blunt, and it's Money Monday
on the Sales Gravy Podcast.
Make money, money, money,
money.
Make money, money,
Money, money, money. Money makes the world go
round. I'm a talk around town. Remy gave
me the sound.
I need a striller on the rilla.
Alright. Welcome back to the Sales Gravity podcast.
(00:25):
I'm Jeb Blunt, author of fanatical prospecting sales
EQ, and you gotta go get my brand
new book, The Linkedin Edge. It is on
preorder right now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble,
and wherever books are sold, you're gonna love
it. The book is fantastic.
I turned it in last night to our
publisher. It'll be out in September.
But to be the first person to get
it, go preorder it right now.
(00:48):
This is Money Monday where we get fired
up, focused, and ready to crush our goals
because let's face it, how you start your
week is how you finish your week. And
this week, we're facing the challenge of decision
deferment objections.
If you're running into stakeholders who are telling
you that they wanna hold off a bit
or they need a little bit more time
or they wanna wait until the economy settles
(01:09):
down, We're gonna dive into why this is
happening and more importantly,
how you can handle decision deferment objections
with confidence and skill and still close the
deal.
Just look around you. The market is swinging
like a pendulum on steroids and it's making
everybody skittish. You've got tariffs, trade wars, and
a spike in economic uncertainty.
(01:30):
Buyers read the Wall Street Journal or check
their news feeds or look at their investment
accounts, and the headlines scream
turmoil.
So they panic,
and they defer decisions, walk away from deals,
or play a wait and see game.
These decision deferment objections are a natural consequence
of fear. People wanna avoid making the wrong
(01:51):
move and it's easier to hit the pause
button than to commit to something that they're
not a % sure about.
But it's a brick wall that will shut
down your deal.
So how do you avoid letting hesitation,
stalling, and decision deferment
kill your deals during market uncertainty?
Well, it all starts with a fundamental truth.
(02:12):
To succeed in this environment,
you must sell better because when people are
fearful and decisive or uncertain,
how you sell matters far more than what
you sell.
In uncertain and volatile times, mistakes come with
severe penalties.
The stakeholder who chooses the wrong vendor, invests
in the wrong technology,
or commits resources too soon might put their
(02:35):
entire business or career at risk.
So they freeze. They put it off. They
say, we'll need a little bit more time
to think about it, or we'll need to
run the numbers again, or let me go
talk to my boss. So the question everybody's
asking is, how do we help them navigate
this fear and move forward?
But the kicker is shallow discovery and skipping
(02:56):
steps in the sales process
typically lead directly to massive pushback at the
close during uncertain times.
If you haven't taken time to uncover their
real fears and address them and methodically advance
your deal through the sales process,
you'll hit a wall of decision deferment objections
at maximum force.
Look, I know that if you are a
(03:17):
regular listener to this podcast or you read
or listen to my books, that I can
sound like a broken record.
But I also know that repetition is the
mother of skill.
The basic steps to closing in an uncertain
market are fundamental.
Execute your sales process flawlessly.
Consistently ask for micro commitments to advance a
(03:38):
sale. Present a compelling, airtight business case for
change.
Ask your stakeholders to make a decision confidently
and without hesitation,
and handle objections with empathy.
These are the basics, the essentials, the fundamentals
that will help you sell more in any
market.
Now, sadly, a lot of sales reps treat
(03:59):
closing as a magic moment, like flicking a
switch.
But in reality, closing is a series of
micro commitments that happen throughout the sales process.
Each time you get a commitment to a
next step, your buyer leans in a little
bit more and you're setting the stage for
a final yes at the close.
Now when times are normal, a halfway decent
(04:19):
rep can skip some of these steps and
still get a deal across the finish line.
But in a crisis
or an uncertain market like we're experiencing right
now, that sloppy approach will fail.
In this environment, you must consistently
advance your sale by getting those micro commitments
because if you let the ball drop even
(04:40):
once, you're giving your stakeholder an opening to
stall or back out with objections like, you
know, we're gonna hold off for a while
or we're gonna stick with what we're doing
right now until the economy gets better.
The truth is, if you're getting hammered at
the close with these type of objections,
it usually means that you made mistakes earlier
in the process or you didn't get those
(05:01):
micro commitments.
So instead of obsessing over how to wordsmith
your objection rebuttals,
you might need to re examine how you
qualified and sold from the get go. Tough
objections at the eleventh hour when you're trying
to close the deal are typically a symptom
of an earlier problem, not the root cause
itself.
And this brings us to one of the
(05:21):
most important sales tactics that you'll need to
deploy in uncertain times like these.
It is absolutely critical that you get buyer
worries, fears, and potential objections
out in the open and on the table
as soon as possible. And this means that
you need to do deeper discovery and have
the courage to ask tough questions like what
are you afraid of, Or how do you
(05:42):
see the current market volatility impacting your decisions?
Or what's your biggest concern that would hold
you back from moving forward? Or if you
don't address this problem soon, what do you
think might happen?
It takes confidence to get your stakeholders talking
openly about their fears and concerns.
And yes, you'll risk hearing truths that might
scare you or them.
(06:03):
But the alternative
is to bury your head in the sand
and get blindsided at the last minute when
they say, you know what? We're gonna wait
until next quarter.
Asking hard questions like these are where many
salespeople hesitate because
these type of direct questions can feel confrontational,
and they worry that the prospect may shut
them down or that they'll push their prospect
(06:25):
away.
So they back off, tiptoe around the real
issues, and avoid pressing them on timelines and
next steps.
And that might keep the conversation
calm, but it sets them up for a
big heartbreak later.
The biggest agony in sales is pouring time,
energy, and emotion into a deal only to
(06:45):
lose it at the finish line when the
stakeholder reveals an objection that had you known
about it weeks ago, you could have handled.
This is why you must push through your
own discomfort
and bring hidden fears to the surface early.
It's infinitely less painful to deal with them
up front than to discover them at the
worst possible moment.
(07:07):
There's this quote a lot from philosopher, Julian
Bighini. He says, if you believe you're right,
then you should believe that you can make
the case that you're right. This requires you
to deal with serious objections properly.
I can't think of a better way to
explain exactly what it takes to handle decision
deferment objections when buyers say things like, we're
gonna hold off for a month and see
what happens with the economy, or we'd like
(07:29):
to run this by the entire team before
we commit, or we're just not ready to
make a long term commitment right now.
If you truly believe that your solution
is what your prospect needs, then it's your
duty to address their fears and hesitations head
on and show them why moving forward makes
sense even in choppy waters.
Start with empathy.
(07:50):
This isn't about agreeing with their reasons, but
acknowledging them as a human. It's saying, I
get where you're coming from and it's smart
to be cautious.
That's it. We're not discounting their worry or
jumping into a debate. We're just letting them
know that we understand and we're listening.
They're bracing for you to argue or push
them. But by empathizing with them, you lower
their guard and show them that you're on
(08:11):
their side. And it also buys you a
moment to compose yourself and think strategically before
you respond.
Then, you wanna make sure that there aren't
other hidden objections below the surface. So gently
probe with something like, aside from needing more
time, what else is worrying you about moving
forward? The last thing you want is to
handle one objection and then be blindsided by
(08:32):
another objection.
And never assume that you know exactly what
they mean. Always take a moment to clarify
their words and objection.
When they say something like, we need to
run the numbers, maybe they really do need
to do a cost breakdown, or maybe they
doubt the ROI,
or maybe they're afraid installing.
So clarify with open ended questions like, when
(08:54):
you say you need to review the math,
how do you mean?
These clarifying questions will unearth the real meaning
behind their words, which makes it easier for
you to handle the objection.
And once you have clarity on what's really
holding them back, all you need to do
is minimize their fear by reconnecting them to
their desired outcomes.
(09:15):
Remind them of the pains they wanted to
solve, the benefits they hope to gain, and
how your solution addresses that. Show them the
math that you need, get out your calculator,
demonstrate the ROI,
and paint the brighter future.
By focusing them on what they stand to
gain and the cost of doing nothing, you
shrink the size of their fear while maximizing
(09:35):
the benefit of moving forward. And finally, you
need to ask for the sale again because
your buyer won't do the job for you.
The key here is asking with relaxed assertive
confidence
because your confidence gives them the confidence
to push past their fears and make the
right decision.
I'm gonna share my final words with you
(09:57):
in just a moment, but first I want
you to take a note. We're in for
a rough ride. I don't know how long
this market volatility and uncertainty is going to
last, but while it does, selling is going
to get harder.
And this is exactly why I wrote my
book, selling in a crisis.
It is there to be a companion, a
guide in a handbook to help you navigate
(10:17):
these rough waters and sell more.
You can get selling in a crisis in
hardcover ebook and audio book on Amazon Barnes
and noble audible and Spotify.
It will help you, so go get it
now.
Look, times are unstable.
Buyers are jumpy. They'd rather punt than make
a risky call. But you are a sales
(10:38):
professional, and that means that you have to
stand in the gap, helping them navigate doubt
and find a solution that actually benefits them
right now.
Don't shy away from we need more time
or we're gonna hold off. Expect it, be
ready for it, and face it head on.
The markets may wobble, but you should not.
So lean into better discovery,
(10:58):
surface hidden fears, and confidently ask for the
sale. And when you get hit by decision
deferment objections,
now you know exactly what to do. And
remember,
when it's time to go home, always make
one more call because that extra call is
where breakthroughs happen, especially when everyone else is
scared and is sitting on their hands.
(11:19):
This is Jeb Blunt, and I'll see you
next time on the Sales Groovy podcast.
Survival of the fitness. You could sink or
swim. I've been broke. I ain't never going
back again. I need some sea notes, some
cheddar, and a stack of ends. I need
a bowl of dough. I don't need no
Facebook friends.
I need a pack of them snaps, a
handful of fettie wops, a rubber band on
my green vax. Look, doll. Don't be playing
(11:42):
with my paper. I need every rare scent.
That's why I brought my little scraper.
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