Module 12
Objections and hard guardrails
How to handle the eight you will hear, and the six lines you never cross.
After this module: You can handle the common objections without scripts, and you know exactly which promises are never yours to make.
The eight you will hear
Most objections are requests for information wearing a disguise. The instinct to correct is what turns them into arguments.
| Objection | What it usually means | Your first move |
|---|---|---|
| Is this legal under GDPR? | They do not know which kind of identification you mean | Split company-level from person-level, then ask which worries them |
| We already use a competitor | Could be satisfaction, could be fatigue | Ask what made them choose it |
| You are too expensive | No reference point for the value | Ask what they are comparing to, and what the problem costs |
| We are too small | Often true — sometimes not | Ask about traffic and pipeline, then answer honestly |
| Our engineers could build this | Testing whether you respect them | Concede they could, ask about maintenance |
| Just send me information | Polite exit, or genuine research | Ask what to send, so you find out which |
| Not a priority right now | Something else outranks it | Ask what is ahead of it on the list |
| How do I know my data is safe? | A real question, often a proxy for procurement | Answer concretely, point at the security and DPA pages |
Check yourself
The six lines you never cross
Everything above is judgement. This is not — these are fixed, and breaking one costs more than the deal it saves.
| Never | Because |
|---|---|
| Give a written legal assurance that their use is compliant | You are not their counsel; a written representation creates real liability |
| Promise person-level identification in the EU | We do not offer it there — the customer will discover this in week one |
| Claim we identify every visitor by name | We identify companies for a minority of traffic; this promise guarantees a refund |
| Quote a single identification rate as a guarantee | It varies by traffic mix and market. Quote the range |
| Promise a roadmap date | You do not control engineering, and a missed date poisons the relationship |
| Say the AI sends email on its own | Sending is approval-gated. Getting this wrong terrifies buyers and is simply untrue |
The reason these are absolute rather than guidelines: every one of them buys a deal now and loses it in month two, with a refund, a churn and someone telling their network. Our entire positioning is that we say what we cannot do — a page on our own site lists where competitors beat us. An AE who oversells contradicts the thing that makes us credible in the first place.
Check yourself
Worth remembering
- Objections are usually requests for information, not rejections. Ask before you answer.
- Discounting to beat a price objection teaches the buyer to wait, and it survives into every renewal.
- Never give a written legal assurance. Point at the DPA, the privacy pages and their own counsel.
- Never promise person-level identification in the EU, a roadmap date, or a specific identification rate.
- Breaking a guardrail costs more than the deal it saves — usually a refund, a churn and a reputation.
Words that came up
- DPA
- Data Processing Agreement — the contract covering how we process data on a customer’s behalf. It is published.
- Controller and processor
- Under GDPR the customer decides why data is processed (controller); we process it for them (processor). Their compliance obligations are theirs.
Do this before moving on
Reading about a demo is not the same as having given one.
- 1Run the drill below until you get all four right without guessing.
- 2Write your own answer to the GDPR objection and check it against the guardrails.
- 3Read the DPA and privacy pages so you can point at a specific section rather than a URL.