🏆 December Community Competition: What’s the most surprising objection that you were able to turn into a "yes", and how did you do it?

One of the most surprising objections I turned into a “yes” was from a B2B SaaS prospect who told me, “We already tried Sales Navigator before, it didn’t work for us, so we don’t want to invest time again.”

Instead of pushing back, I treated it as a diagnosis moment. I asked a few questions around how they had set up their ICP, whether they started from Accounts or went straight to Leads, and how the team was measuring success. Very quickly it became clear that their “Sales Navigator didn’t work” was really “we didn’t have a clear process.”

I suggested a low‑risk experiment:

• Redefine their ICP using Account filters (industry, headcount, growth).

• Build one focused Account list.

• Then run a simple, insight‑driven outreach sequence using Account IQ and Buyer Intent for just 2 weeks.

We framed it as a workflow test, not a tool purchase decision. Once they saw pipeline opportunities coming from that narrow test list, the original objection disappeared—and they not only said “yes” to Sales Navigator, but also asked me to help train their SDR team on this approach.

I love how you got an opportunity out of this objection ​@Sinchu Raju. It’s really important to listen to understand what the root of the objection is, as it might originate from factors that are not completely connected to your proposal. 

​@Francesca_Community Manager What a fun question! I love it!

One of the most surprising objections I turned into a ‘yes’ came from a CIO at a mid-sized law firm. His initial response was, “We already migrated to the cloud, we’re good.” In most cases, that’s where the conversation ends, but I used Sales Navigator to dig a little deeper. I noticed recent posts from their managing partner about rising cybersecurity concerns, plus job posts that suggested their IT team was stretched thin.

So instead of pushing back, I reframed the conversation and asked a simple question: “Totally understand, out of curiosity, how confident are you in your disaster recovery speed and ransomware isolation today?” That opened the door. He admitted they’d had two outages that year and weren’t thrilled with the performance of their current cloud environment.

From there, I shared briefly how IronOrbit isolates threats at the workspace level and guarantees 99.999% uptime, something their current provider didn’t offer. That shifted the conversation from “We already have a solution” to “maybe our solution isn’t doing what we thought.” He agreed to a meeting with our solutions team the following week.

The win wasn’t just the meeting, it was turning a hard “no need” objection into genuine curiosity by using insight from Sales Navigator and asking a question that hit on a real pain point.

Fantastic story ​@Ndacorsi0218! It’s great to see how you used Sales Navigator to find out what the real situation that company was going through was. Sometimes, companies don’t realize they have a problem until you show them - and in the end, you were able to showcase how your solution was ideal to help them. You really turned that objection into an opportunity!

Thank you, ​@Francesca_Community Manager ! It’s so true that we are creatures of comfort, even if that comfort is a bit lumpy. We get into set our routines and never want to step out of that zone until we have to. It’s when you can show someone how their comfy space can be smoothed out, they realize they could have been this cozy all along! For me, that is the best part of sales, the happy customer in the end. 

💡 A Unique Success Story: From Unaccepted LinkedIn Connection Request to New Client 😃

I have a compelling story that perfectly answers this question. What makes this sales objection unique is that I have never ran into a sales rep who was using his personal paycheck to fund an ads campaign. I had to think outside the box to convert this original ‘No’ into a ‘Yes’ and ‘Sold’. Story below. 👇🏾

It began when I sent a connection request on LinkedIn to local a sales representative from a local steel manufacturing company here on LinkedIn. He did not accept the request. Ironically, a few days later, the same sales representative sent me a connection request on another social network.

Shortly after, he reached out to me, expressing interest in learning more about the work I do on LinkedIn and seeking an introduction to a specific local business. I informed him I didn’t have a direct connection at that company, but I knew someone who did.

Over the next few days, we exchanged a couple of phone calls. Our conversation naturally progressed to his business goals as a sales rep, specifically his use of Facebook ads to generate business. I suggested that he would be better off utilizing LinkedIn to connect with decision-makers, as they are more likely to be active here than on Facebook, or at least he could use it as a resource to look them up. He did not seem persuaded by my suggestion.

I then invited him to an in-person networking event I was hosting locally in one of my business areas. He accepted the invitation, which led to an introduction to a valuable lead for him.

I followed up with him regarding his Facebook ad campaign, and he confirmed that he was not generating quality leads from the platform. I challenged him to consider using LinkedIn or Google Ads, suggesting it would be more cost-effective. However, he resisted this idea, explaining that he did not want the leads to go to the company website. Since he is personally funding the ads, he felt he had no way to prove to the owner that the new leads were a direct result of his ad spend, and he was not the owner of the company. He could prove that more leads came from his ad spend but he could not specifically identify which leads were organic and unrelated to his ad spend versus those who actually came to the website from his ad spend.

I immediately suggested we build a dedicated website to capture and track the leads generated from his personal ad spend. The challenge lay in getting the owner's permission to use project photos and website content that we could rewrite and repurpose to accurately reflect the company’s offerings. Fortunately, the owner was supportive of both his sales representative and my innovative suggestion.

We built the website and subsequently set him up with an AI-powered software that generates high-quality, converting ads based on the site’s content, images, and Google requirements.

This was a classic "think outside the box" approach that successfully landed me a three-month contract, paid in full upfront. Both he and his boss are completely satisfied with the website we built, and just this week, we completed the onboarding to get his ads campaign live.

If that isn’t a unique success story, I don’t know what is.

​@Damien-XocialGong your storytelling is fantastic ⭐ this is a great story. You didn’t just offer your services, you listened closely, showed him you could truly help by inviting him to your networking event, and then presented different solutions that could support his work. Even if he was resistant at first, he eventually realized he could trust you because you were listening to understand. Well done, and thanks for sharing!

L’obiezione più sorprendente è stata: ‘Un CRM ci rallenterebbe, non fa per noi’.
Non ho iniziato a difendere lo strumento: ho chiesto di vedere il loro flusso reale di back office. In 20 minuti abbiamo evidenziato attività ripetitive che bruciavano ore ogni settimana. Ho costruito al volo un mini–scenario con le automazioni ERP-CRM di Zucchetti, mostrando il tempo recuperato già dal primo mese.
La risposta è diventata: ‘Perfetto, quando possiamo attivarlo?’.
L’obiezione era paura di complessità: l’ho trasformata in un “sì” mostrando semplicità e valore immediato!

​@Alessia Pucci Spesso la paura del cambiamento tiene ferme le aziende, e gli impedisce di vedere quanto certe soluzioni renderebbero il lavoro molto più facile ai loro team, e anche più efficiente. Tu invece gli hai dimostrato quanto tempo potevano recuperare passando ad un CRM. Grazie mille per aver condiviso la tua esperienza! 

***

Many companies are held back by the fear of change, missing out on solutions that could make work so much easier for their teams. You helped them see how much time a CRM could give back to them. Thank you for sharing your story!

Thanks ​@Francesca_Community Manager 😃🥳 I appreciate you awesome feedback.

Had a CHRO tell me straight up: “We don’t really have a hiring problem. Our current methods are working fine.”
Honestly… that’s the toughest one. Because if someone doesn’t believe a problem exists, there’s no reason for them to change.

Instead of pushing back, I tried something different.
I said: “Fair—today may feel stable. But can I show you what companies like yours started seeing 6 months before their hiring challenges actually surfaced?”

That shifted the energy.
Curiosity > resistance.

We looked at two blind spots:
• Their job views → apply rate was far below industry benchmarks
• Talent Insights showed they were losing talent to two competitors they didn’t even consider serious

That one unexpected insight changed everything.

Instead of a “No”, we landed on a low‑pressure 3‑month pilot for one business unit.
Zero disruption. Full measurability.
And suddenly the “We’re fine” turned into
👉 “Let’s test this.”

Sometimes the objection isn’t resistance.
It’s just an information gap waiting to be illuminated.

​@Ekta Agarwal this is a great example of how to turn an objection into an opportunity. In particular, I love the approach “curiosity > resistance”: asking the right question at the right time opened doors for you that weren’t accessible otherwise. Data is so powerful, and you showed them insights on issues they couldn’t deny. Thank you for sharing this story! 👏

Using LinkedIn Sales Navigator: my journey and the biggest “No” that turned into a YES! 🚀

When I started using Sales Navigator, my first mission was to clearly define my ICP (ideal customer profile) and master the advanced filters — like role, location, recent activity, and company size — to find truly qualified leads. This saved me from wasting time with prospects that never fit my target market.

💡 What made the difference for me:

• Segmenting by job titles and industries precisely using advanced filters;

• Saving searches and leads to get alerts on job changes or engagement — cue perfect outreach moments;

• Using social insights to personalize every InMail message — proximity generates responses.

But now, the best part 👇

❗ The most surprising objection I managed to reverse:

📉 “We are not prioritizing new tools or investments right now.”

💬 My reply:

“I totally understand. But what I’m proposing isn’t a new tool: it’s how to discover opportunities that are already happening in your market — and that you could lose if you don’t act now. With Sales Navigator, we identify real-time buying signals (like job changes, relevant posts, engagement) and act exactly when the lead is receptive.”

And guess what — that approach changed everything? The prospect went from “no budget” to a scheduled call and then a closed demo 👏

📌 Moral of the story:
🔹 Objections are almost always about timing and perceived value.
🔹 If you show combinations of data + context + the right timing, the conversation changes completely.
🔹 And Sales Navigator gives exactly that: actionable insights, not just name lists.

Yes!! Timing is KEY, but so are data and the appropriate context which is unique to each situation. Judging by your experience, recognising the right time, bringing up the meaningful data, and showcasing the importance of the proposal given their specific case and industry seems the be the perfect formula to turn an objection into a Yes. Thank you for sharing your story, ​@Maurício Souzá! ⭐