I close roughly 80% of the objections I hear on cold calls and reply threads. And the first word out of my mouth is never but. It's the word almost every rep refuses to say. And I am not teaching you something I read in a book. Everything I'm about to tell you I've done personally. The move is called yield first and it's three steps in order. Step one, you yield. Prospect says, "I'm not interested in switching vendors right now." And you say, "Yeah, I get that." That window determines whether you get the deal or not because their guard dropped since they came ready for a fight and you didn't give them one. Step two, you normalize. You take what they just said and frame it as something you hear constantly. The line sounds like this. Honestly, budget being locked up is the first thing I hear from pretty much everyone I talk to in your space. And honestly, you're not wrong for thinking that. You've just told them that their objection is normal, that you're not offended by it, and that plenty of people who said the same thing ended up in a different conversation later. You didn't say that last part out loud, but they heard it. Step three, you redirect with a single low stakes question. If they said, "Send me an email as a brushoff," you say, "Happy to. What's the one thing you'd want me to cover in it?" That question does two things. They keep talking and now they're helping you build the pitch instead of blocking it. They're answering a question now, which is a completely different dynamic than fighting you. After 11 years running cold email campaigns across my companies, the biggest mistake I see when reps try this is they skip the yield or blow through it too fast to get to the redirect. If you skip yield and jump straight to normalize, you sound like you're reading from a script. And if you skip normalize and jump to redirect, you sound like a closer who's just waiting for them to stop talking. So go yield, normalize, redirect in that order. Yield lets them relax. Normalize keeps it from feeling like a trick and then they're thinking about a new question instead of feeling cornered. Now take what I just said and apply it here. This runs in email threads too. When someone replies, "We're all set. Thanks." The wrong response is, "I understand, but I wanted to share that we've helped companies like yours." That word but right after I understand. Wipes out the acknowledgement. The yield first reply looks like this. Timing is tight right now. I get it and I'm not going to push you on it. One quick question though. Is it more that you've already got this handled or that it's just not a priority this quarter? So, you yield and normalize first and then you ask one redirect question. Conviction is the layer underneath the technique. If you're not sure your product is right for them, your yield sounds like you're giving up. Your normalize sounds like an apology and then your redirect just falls apart. It comes off as begging. But when you've done enough research to know this prospect has the exact problem you solve, the yield sounds like confidence because you're agreeing since their push back doesn't scare you. You can't manufacture that energy across a thousand calls. So, your targeting has to be just as tight as your technique. I use Scraper City to sort leads by industry, company size, title, and seniority. So, I'm not guessing whether someone's a fit before I pick up the phone. The tighter the list, the more natural the conviction and the more yield first falls into place. I tested this myself. That's how I know. Drill this on five objections until it's automatic. I'm not looking at anything new right now. We don't have budget. Just send me an email. We already have a solution for this. I'm not the right person to talk to. Write out your yield line, your normalized line, and your redirect question for each one, and then say them out loud. Then have someone throw the objection at you cold and see if the sequence comes out smooth. It comes out smooth because you've already had this conversation a hundred times in practice before you ever have it live. If you need leads, check out Scraper City. For cold email coaching, check out Galladon Gold. And if you want to see my favorite tools to grow your business, go to alex berman.com/tools. The next video is coming up