This page collects published third-party research for 10 questions. 8 have no reliable published benchmark as of October 2026. None of these figures are Revspire results. Vendor numbers are labelled with their evidence type.
What are the most common B2B SaaS sales objections, ranked by frequency?
The only large published ranking covers cold calls. In that data, brush-offs dominate, and a handful of objections account for most of what reps hear. No comparable public ranking exists for discovery, demo or late-stage calls.
Best available evidence
- Across 300M+ cold calls, Gong classified objections as dismissive (49.5%), situational, such as price, budget or bandwidth (42.6%), and existing solution (7.9%). The top five objections made up 74% of the total.Gong Labs (Armand Farrokh), 2024 · Vendor platform data · 300M+ cold calls
How to measure this in your team: Tag objections in recorded calls by type and stage. Report each type’s share by stage, segment and buyer role.
Which objections correlate most with lost deals?
No reliable published benchmark exists as of October 2026.
No public dataset separates common objections from deal-killing ones. Win-loss interviews rank reasons for losing, and research on indecision shows how often deals die without a competitor winning.
Proxy evidence
- In 3,400+ buyer win-loss interviews, mostly in late-stage deals, Klue found price was the third most common loss reason, after product and sales-experience issues.Klue (Adam McQueen), 2024 · Vendor platform data · 3,400+ buyer win-loss interviews, mostly late-stage deals
- In Dixon and McKenna’s analysis of 2.5M recorded sales conversations, deals with high customer indecision had a 6% win rate. Deals with medium indecision had 30%.Challenger Inc. (research by Matt Dixon and Ted McKenna), 2024 · Vendor platform data · 2.5M recorded sales conversations
How to measure this in your team: Join objection tags from calls to opportunity outcomes. Report the win rate for deals where each objection appeared against deals where it did not.
What share of deals lost “on price” show a different root cause?
Win-loss data suggests that “price” often stands in for other problems, and that CRM loss reasons rarely match what buyers say. Neither source gives one clean percentage for re-coded price losses.
Best available evidence
- Among deals Klue found lost on price, budget constraints were mentioned less than 10% of the time. Confusing pricing structure or model contributed to more than 40% of them.Klue (Adam McQueen), 2024 · Vendor platform data · 3,400+ buyer win-loss interviews, mostly late-stage deals
- In 1,000 closed-lost deals, Clozd found CRM loss reasons matched buyer interviews only 15% of the time. About 44% of CRM reasons recorded an outcome, such as “lost to competitor”, rather than a cause.Clozd (Nate Bagley), n.d. · Vendor platform data · 1,000 closed-lost deals compared with buyer win-loss interviews
How to measure this in your team: For deals coded “price” in the CRM, run buyer interviews or call reviews. Report the share where price was not the primary decision factor.
How often is the incumbent displaced when the buyer says “we already use X”?
No reliable published benchmark exists as of October 2026.
No published displacement-rate data exists. Call data shows how often the existing-solution objection comes up, and buyer research shows how early buyers form preferences.
Proxy evidence
- Existing-solution objections, such as “we do it in-house” or a named competitor, made up 7.9% of objections in Gong’s 300M+ cold calls.Gong Labs (Armand Farrokh), 2024 · Vendor platform data · 300M+ cold calls
- In 6sense’s 2025 buyer survey, 94% of buyers had ranked their shortlist by preference before engaging sellers.6sense, 2025 · Vendor survey · Nearly 4,000 buyer responses plus a 766-response companion survey
How to measure this in your team: For opportunities flagged “incumbent in place”, report the win rate and the median cycle length against opportunities with no incumbent.
Which security and AI-governance objections stall enterprise deals longest?
No reliable published benchmark exists as of October 2026.
No published data ranks security or AI-governance objections by how long they stall a deal. Surveys confirm that security reviews matter and that stalls are common.
Proxy evidence
- In Conveyor’s survey of 100+ security and compliance professionals at SaaS companies, nearly 80% said security questionnaires are important or critical to closing deals.Conveyor, n.d. · Vendor survey · 100+ security and compliance professionals at SaaS companies
- Forrester’s State of Business Buying 2024 reports that 86% of B2B purchases stall at some point.Forrester, 2024 · Analyst survey · Sample size not stated in the press release
How to measure this in your team: Tag security and AI-governance objections and review requests. Report the median days added from request to sign-off, by questionnaire type.
Which buyer roles raise which objections (CFO, CISO, procurement)?
No reliable published benchmark exists as of October 2026.
No published dataset maps objections to buyer roles. Benchmark data does show that when senior stakeholders get involved matters for outcomes.
Proxy evidence
- Ebsta’s H1 2024 benchmarks report win rates 42% lower when the C-suite is engaged late, and 14% higher when the senior finance persona is engaged by mid-stage.Ebsta, 2024 · Vendor platform data · $57.3B of revenue analyzed, compared with 2023
How to measure this in your team: Tag who raised each objection by title and role. Report the objection mix by role and its relationship to win rate.
Which objections lead to the biggest discounts?
No reliable published benchmark exists as of October 2026.
We found no published data linking objection types to discount depth, and no credible proxy.
How to measure this in your team: Join objection tags to the final discount on closed-won deals. Report the median discount by objection type against deals with no objection.
How do objections differ by industry (SaaS, fintech, healthcare, manufacturing)?
No reliable published benchmark exists as of October 2026.
No published study compares objections by industry. Win-loss data shows that loss reasons vary by company size, which suggests segment matters.
Proxy evidence
- Klue’s win-loss interviews found price mattered less as a loss reason in enterprise (5,000+ employees) and SMB (under 200 employees) deals. Product issues rose sharply in enterprise deals.Klue (Adam McQueen), 2024 · Vendor platform data · 3,400+ buyer win-loss interviews, mostly late-stage deals
How to measure this in your team: Report the objection mix and objection-level win rates by the buyer’s industry code, with at least 30 opportunities per cell.
Which objection types do reps handle worst in practice?
No reliable published benchmark exists as of October 2026.
No one publishes practice-session data by objection type. Live-call research describes how average reps respond to objections differently from top reps.
Proxy evidence
- In 67,149 demo calls, average reps answered objections with a monologue averaging 21.45 seconds and sped up. Top reps paused longer and asked clarifying questions first. Gong notes this is correlation, not causation.Gong Labs (Chris Orlob), 2018 · Vendor platform data · 67,149 recorded demo calls
How to measure this in your team: Score practice responses by objection type for clarity and accuracy. Report the lowest-scoring types and the change after reinforcement.
Which buyer personas (CFO, CISO, procurement) do reps find hardest?
No reliable published benchmark exists as of October 2026.
No published difficulty data by persona exists. Benchmark data shows that senior-stakeholder engagement separates top performers from the rest.
Proxy evidence
- Ebsta reports top performers are 250% more likely to have the C-suite engaged early, and 241% more likely to engage the economic buyer before presenting a solution.Ebsta, 2024 · Vendor platform data · $57.3B of revenue analyzed, compared with 2023
- Gong’s discovery-call analysis found that asking too many questions sharply harms sales conversations with C-suite executives.Gong Labs (Chris Orlob), 2017 · Vendor platform data · 519,000 recorded discovery calls
How to measure this in your team: Report practice scores and live-call outcomes by the buyer persona being simulated or met.
Summary: the best available figure for each question
8 of the 10 questions on this page have no reliable published benchmark as of October 2026.
| Question | Best available figure | Source | Year | Strength |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23. What are the most common B2B SaaS sales objections, ranked by frequency? | Dismissive 49.5%, situational 42.6%, existing solution 7.9% (cold calls only) | Gong Labs (Armand Farrokh) | 2024 | Moderate |
| 24. Which objections correlate most with lost deals? | No objection-level data; price is the 3rd most common loss reason | Klue (Adam McQueen) | 2024 | Weak |
| 25. What share of deals lost “on price” show a different root cause? | Budget cited in <10% of price losses; CRM reasons match buyers 15% of the time | Klue (Adam McQueen); Clozd (Nate Bagley) | 2024; n.d. | Moderate |
| 31. How often is the incumbent displaced when the buyer says “we already use X”? | No displacement data; existing-solution objections are 7.9% of cold-call objections | Gong Labs (Armand Farrokh) | 2024 | Weak |
| 32. Which security and AI-governance objections stall enterprise deals longest? | No data; ~80% of security pros call questionnaires critical to closing | Conveyor | n.d. | Weak |
| 37. Which buyer roles raise which objections (CFO, CISO, procurement)? | No role data; win rates 42% lower when C-suite engaged late | Ebsta | 2024 | Weak |
| 38. Which objections lead to the biggest discounts? | No published data | — | — | None |
| 39. How do objections differ by industry (SaaS, fintech, healthcare, manufacturing)? | No industry data; price matters less in enterprise and SMB deals | Klue (Adam McQueen) | 2024 | Weak |
| 52. Which objection types do reps handle worst in practice? | No practice data; average reps monologue ~21 seconds after objections (live calls) | Gong Labs (Chris Orlob) | 2018 | Weak |
| 60. Which buyer personas (CFO, CISO, procurement) do reps find hardest? | No persona data; top performers 250% likelier to engage C-suite early | Ebsta | 2024 | Weak |
Widely repeated figures to treat with care
- Gong objection-handling behaviours. The demo-call analysis behind the pause and monologue findings was published in 2018. Buying behaviour has changed since, so treat it as directional.Gong Labs (Chris Orlob), 2018 · Vendor platform data · 67,149 recorded demo calls
Methodology
Each question comes from Revspire’s list of buyer questions that lack a data-backed public answer. For each one, we searched for published evidence in October 2026 and opened every source cited here. We preferred primary research from analysts, research firms, academic studies and large vendor datasets that state a sample size and method.
Every figure keeps its original wording, date and sample. Vendor numbers are labelled by evidence type (vendor survey, vendor platform data, sponsored study or single-customer case study). Case studies describe one company and are not benchmarks. Where we found nothing reliable, we say so and show proxy evidence from adjacent fields, clearly marked.
Revspire has not published benchmark data, and no figure on this page comes from Revspire customers or the Revspire platform.
How evidence strength is graded
- Strong
- Independent or peer-reviewed research with a disclosed method that answers the question directly.
- Moderate
- Disclosed-method analyst, research-firm or large vendor dataset that answers the question directly but has limits (vendor-run, self-reported, or partial scope).
- Weak
- Indirect proxy, undisclosed sample, single-customer case study, or a figure more than ten years old.
- None
- No published evidence found.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most common sales objection?
In Gong’s analysis of 300M+ cold calls, dismissive objections such as “not interested” or “send me some information” were the largest group at 49.5%. The top five objections made up 74% of the total. No equivalent ranking is published for late-stage deals.
Are deals really lost on price?
Often not. Among price losses in Klue’s win-loss interviews, budget constraints came up less than 10% of the time, and confusing pricing structure contributed to more than 40%. Clozd found CRM loss reasons matched buyer interviews only 15% of the time.
How should reps respond to an objection?
Gong’s 2018 demo-call analysis found top reps paused, asked a clarifying question and kept the conversation two-way, while average reps launched into a monologue of about 21 seconds. It shows correlation, not causation.
Related on Revspire
Revspire’s AI Playbook Engine holds objection plays, and AI Sales Training & Coaching lets reps practise them with objective scoring. Together they produce the objection-level practice data this page shows is missing.
Sources
All 10 sources were opened and checked on 2026-10-15.
- 6sense. 2025 B2B Buyer Experience Report. 2025-11-01. Vendor survey; Nearly 4,000 buyer responses plus a 766-response companion survey.
- Challenger Inc. (research by Matt Dixon and Ted McKenna). How to Overcome Customer Indecision Using the JOLT Effect Approach. 2024-02-22. Vendor platform data; 2.5M recorded sales conversations.
- Clozd (Nate Bagley). 5 Lies Your CRM Is Telling You About Your Buyers. Undated post, accessed 2026-10-15. Vendor platform data; 1,000 closed-lost deals compared with buyer win-loss interviews.
- Conveyor. B2B SaaS Customer Trust Benchmark Report. Undated page, accessed 2026-10-15. Vendor survey; 100+ security and compliance professionals at SaaS companies.
- Ebsta. H1 Update 2024 B2B Sales Benchmarks. 2024-07-01. Vendor platform data; $57.3B of revenue analyzed, compared with 2023.
- Forrester. Forrester: To Master B2B Buying Mayhem, Providers Must Prioritize Buyers’ Needs (The State of Business Buying, 2024). 2024-12-04. Analyst survey; Sample size not stated in the press release.
- Gong Labs (Armand Farrokh). We Found the Top Objections Across 300M Cold Calls. 2024-07-31. Vendor platform data; 300M+ cold calls.
- Gong Labs (Chris Orlob). Deal-Closing Discovery Calls. 2017-07-05. Vendor platform data; 519,000 recorded discovery calls.
- Gong Labs (Chris Orlob). Handling Sales Objections. 2018-03-12. Vendor platform data; 67,149 recorded demo calls.
- Klue (Adam McQueen). Beyond the Price Tag: The Real Deal-Breakers, According to Your Buyers. 2024-10-10. Vendor platform data; 3,400+ buyer win-loss interviews, mostly late-stage deals.