Course 08 · Lesson 4 of 6
All other objections
On this page
A lookup by group. "Gist" is what to say, shortened; the Top 15 and the entries above are the word-for-word ones. Every answer still ends in a question.
Brush-offs (1 to 8)#
Probe: "Is it the timing, or is it that this isn't a problem for you?" All first call, GREEN.
| No. and objection | Gist | Never |
|---|---|---|
| 1. "Not interested." | "Fair enough." Founder's recruitment team posting was "dead inside a fortnight". "Is that a problem you've got, or not one at all?" | Argue; ask a third time |
| 3. "We're fine as we are." | "The damage from going quiet doesn't show up when you stop posting. It shows up three months later, and by then you've decided it's the market." Ask how their LinkedIn looks this month against the spring | Fear ("falling behind"): banned |
| 4. "We already use a tool." | "Schedulers publish what someone has already written. They don't get anyone outside marketing to write anything." (see 54, 55) | Name or criticise their tool |
| 5. "There's no budget." | What they spend now on staying visible, in tools, fees and people's time, can be spread across several lines: "What does it add up to for you?" | Discount or hint at a special arrangement |
| 7. "LinkedIn isn't where our clients are." | Referrals check you out before they call; roughly 5% of buyers are in market at any one time (LinkedIn B2B Institute estimate); LinkedIn is where you stay remembered | Claim LinkedIn will produce leads |
| 8. "How did you get my details?" | Name the trigger and where you found them; offer to stop contact. If they object, stop and record it the same day | Be vague; contact anyone from a bought list (RED until D20) |
Holly and AI (10 to 15)#
Probe: "What's the worst thing you can imagine it doing?" Suggest for everyone, Observe for regulated firms and any firm that asks (D8). Never say Holly replaces people or that its output is undetectable.
| No. and objection | Gist | Never |
|---|---|---|
| 10. "What if it says something stupid?" | "It will sometimes draft something you'd never say. That's why it asks first." Rules check every post; one-click rewrite; approval chain for a second pair of eyes | Promise it never errs or that the rules check catches everything |
| 12. "Built on ChatGPT or Claude?" | "All the AI in Maktura runs on Anthropic's Claude. The value isn't the model": voice per person, rules, approvals, Holly. Anyone can download what Maktura holds about them from Settings | Lead with the model; promise multi-model support (D23) |
| 13. "Will our data train your model?" (AMBER) | Each voice is built from the person's own writing, for your workspace; pause learning or mark "don't learn from this"; exact provider handling "in writing from our team" | Improvise; promise a separate instance; say "anonymised" (D27) |
| 14. "Will people tell it's AI?" | "I won't tell you it's undetectable; nobody honest can." LinkedIn's "seems like AI slop" button (30 July 2026): flagged posts see roughly 40% fewer views, by LinkedIn's figures as reported by TechCrunch and Moneywise. LinkedIn says refining your own words with AI is fine. Answer: voice from your own writing, a person approving | "Undetectable", "beats the algorithm"; "360Brew" figures as fact |
| 15. "Must we tell people posts are AI-drafted?" | Holly identifies itself as AI; drafts are attributed "Holly, in [name]'s voice"; a person approves and stays responsible; public disclosure is their policy decision, "I can't give you legal advice on it" | Promise a watermark or disclosure feature (D9) |
Voice and content (17 to 20)#
Probe: "When you picture a post going out under your name, what would make you wince?" All GREEN.
| No. and objection | Gist | Never |
|---|---|---|
| 17. "I haven't got any writing." / "Old posts were AI-written." | Emails, client notes and the five-minute guided interview all work; mark AI-written posts "don't learn from this" | Say the cold start is solved |
| 18. "Won't everyone sound the same?" | Found in early testing: firm-level voices came out too alike, so every person has their own voice | |
| 19. "My content won't be good enough." / "I'm better talking than writing." | "Turning up is most of it." Morning list of the day's best stories, each a tap from a draft; ideas from meetings; guided interview from how you speak | Promise engagement levels |
| 20. "I don't want to sound like I'm selling." | "The people who do this well are useful in public; they don't ask for business." Voice from how you talk, rules over it, you decide | The satirical register |
Adoption and people (23 to 31)#
Probe: "What happened the last time you asked the team to do this?" All GREEN.
| No. and objection | Gist | Never |
|---|---|---|
| 23. "I don't have time." / "Billers, not writers." | "That's who it's for. There's no blank page." Draft in your voice from today's news, approve between calls | Quote time savings as fact |
| 24. "One more thing to manage." | See only what needs you; approvals per person, in stages; team oversight in one place: "You stop being the nag and start being the coach" | |
| 25. "Employee advocacy died." | Reshared company posts earn far less: personal posts earned about nine times the engagement in one 517,000-post study (DSMN8, 2026: vendor data and a competitor; never name in marketing). Some suites now adapt captions to a voice, "so ask them how theirs works". Ours drafts original posts; built for firms under a couple of hundred people | Claim our participation beats theirs |
| 26. "Only a fifth of my people will post." | "You may be right at the start." 19,727 companies: only about 6.5% of employees shared content (8.8% staffing and recruiting, 8.5% consulting; DSMN8). Start with those who will post; seats added later come in at the account's band; then the anti-gaming sentence from 70, word for word | Promise a participation rate; quote LinkedIn's old "2 to 3%" |
| 27. "We just want scheduling." | "Then you'd be paying us to be a scheduler, and you'd be right to leave within a year. I'd rather say that now than at renewal." | Pretend scheduling alone is worth the price |
| 28. "This replaces our marketing person." | Boss: "It doesn't, and we'd be the last company to say so: we have our own marketer." Marketer: it takes the chasing; the voice, bar and plan stay yours | Say it replaces a team, hire or job; name our marketer |
| 29. "Partners will never accept AI in their name." | They get a draft built from their own writing that they approve or change | |
| 30. "People will feel monitored." | Maktura works only with what each person connects and drafts or publishes through it; it "doesn't watch anything anyone posts outside Maktura"; own LinkedIn by link, no shared password; each person sees their own compliance record; tell the team what it is for | Describe off-platform monitoring |
| 31. "Not listening to client meetings." | Connecting calendar and calls is optional; transcripts deletable any time; set a firm rule first, regulated firms often leave them off | Describe transcript storage (route to John) |
Proof and value (33 to 38)#
Probe: "What would you need to see to be confident this works for a firm like yours?"
| No. and objection | Gist | Never |
|---|---|---|
| 33. "We need to see it at a firm like ours." (AMBER, D4) | "I can't show you that: there isn't a firm like yours using it yet." Offer an introduction to John, who is setting up early-firm work | Imply early firms exist; promise terms, a free period or a discount |
| 35. "How much time does it save?" | Labelled illustration: most of an hour a day down to ten minutes is about 190 hours a year; "What do you charge an hour?" Compare with one licence for a year (£828 at Spark) | State the ratio yourself; multiply by headcount |
| 36. "Impressions are vanity." (AMBER outside Maktura) | "Agreed." Maktura shows who posted, what worked, a plain-English verdict per post, by person and voice | Promise PDF reports, share links, scheduled emails or Slack digests until D1 clears |
| 37. "Social never produces anything." | Often sporadic: Buffer's study of about two million posts found the biggest gain from one post a week to two to five (vendor data and a competitor; never name in marketing). Optional (AMBER, Alex to re-confirm; proves the method only): a founder built about 30,000 followers and three to five inbound enquiries a week by his own figures, writing his own posts | |
| 38. "Hot and warm people are my leads?" (AMBER) | "Often true, which is why you look at who's engaging, not how many... so you know who to talk to first." Warmth scores spoken and on screen only | Leads, prospects, candidates; "every like becomes a named lead" |
Engagement data and LinkedIn (40 to 44)#
Probe: "Who in your firm will ask about this, and what will they need to see?" Until D1 clears, only GREEN wording is used.
| No. and objection | Gist | Never |
|---|---|---|
| 40. "Export engagers into our CRM?" | "No, that isn't something I can offer you." Ask if it is a condition of buying; offer a written answer | Mention any CRM push; suggest copying names by hand |
| 41. "See who engages with competitors' posts?" | "That's not something I'll sell you." Offer Watch: named competitors, daily news movement, 30-day trend, simple risk level | Describe tracking other accounts' engagers (RED until D1) |
| 42. "Will LinkedIn restrict my account?" | Publishing runs through LinkedIn's own connection; no shared password; no automated likes, comments, connections or messages; "Nobody can promise what LinkedIn does next, and I won't." | "LinkedIn approved", "official APIs only" |
| 43. "Can it reply or message for me?" | "No, and that's deliberate." Comments land in one inbox; you reply from one place | Describe automated replies, likes or messages |
| 44. "Which platforms?" (AMBER, D13) | "LinkedIn first. Ask me about any other platform and I'll get you a straight answer on where it stands." | List X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube or Facebook as live |
Governance, security and terms (46 to 52)#
Probe: "Who can say no to this, and what do they usually ask?" All GREEN.
| No. and objection | Gist | Never |
|---|---|---|
| 46. "I won't be able to prove who approved it." | "Every action is logged: who drafted, who changed it, who approved, when it went out." Rules check before anything goes out; a few seconds to undo an approval | Say nothing can ever slip through |
| 47. "We don't have a social media policy." | Probably part of why people don't post. Write a short one, upload it (regulated: once data processing terms are in place); it becomes rules. SRA-regulated: its warning notice on offensive communications expects firms to assess social media risk and consider a policy | Offer a template unless in the give-get table |
| 48. "SOC 2, ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials?" | "No, and I'm not going to tell you we are." Send the security questionnaire for written answers; "If certification is a hard requirement, tell me now." | Claim any certification, penetration test or "enterprise-grade security" |
| 49. "Put it in writing." / "Where is data held?" / "GDPR compliant?" / "Send your DPA." | Written terms from our team, routed to John the same day. Built in now: download or delete from Settings, admin erasure, cookie and analytics consent controls | Answer hosting or controller questions from memory; "GDPR compliant"; send the legal pack (D27) |
| 50. "What if we leave, or you go under?" / "Tiny team." | "It's a small team, and I won't pretend otherwise." Data is yours: download or delete from Settings; export and deletion on leaving are in the data processing terms, in writing | Say a developer is hired; inflate the team; mention funding, ownership or salaries |
| 51. "Who owns the content and voice if someone leaves?" | "That's a terms question and I want you to have it exactly right, so I'll get you the answer in writing." | Give any view on ownership (D27) |
| 52. "Can I read your terms before I pay?" | "Yes, and you'll have them in writing before you're asked to pay anything." | Take payment if the Terms of Service are not yet published; check with John first |
Competitors (54 to 59)#
Probe: "What made you look beyond what you've got?" Answer only when the buyer names them; prices and dates are in Chapter 9. All GREEN.
| No. and objection | Gist | Never |
|---|---|---|
| 54. "We use a scheduler or suite." / "Locked in." | "Keep it, and don't rip anything out mid-contract." Maktura is for the people whose own networks bring the work. Labelled value: schedulers about £75 to £190 per user a month; a team's several tools about £300 to £1,000 a month (commercial model v6) | Disparage the incumbent; claim to replace every suite function |
| 55. "Hootsuite and Sprout have AI assistants now." | "They have, and they're good companies." Ask how theirs drafts for fifty people in fifty voices and what it may do on its own. Ours: four autonomy settings per person, rules before anything goes out, approval chains, every seat | Claim their assistants can't do something undocumented |
| 56. "A LinkedIn writing tool is $39 a seat." | Fine for one person. For a firm ask: can compliance stop a post, who owns drafts if someone leaves, does any plan include automated connection requests or messages? | Call any tool illegal or unsafe |
| 57. "We use an agency or ghostwriter." | "Keep them if they're good." They can't sound like twenty people every week. Labelled value: agency retainers about £3,000 to £15,000 a month; ghostwriter about £1,800 a month for three posts a week for one person | |
| 58. "We were going to hire someone." | Hire for strategy, brand and campaigns; give that person Maktura to run the voices. Labelled value: twelve licences at Spark £828 a month, £9,936 a year, against a hire of about £40,000 | Say it replaces a hire |
| 59. "We'll just do it ourselves." | "You might be right... don't buy this" if the team will post twice a week every week. Founder's team lasted a fortnight. "Mandates don't survive a busy Tuesday. Systems do." |
Scope (60 to 63): concede fast#
| No. and objection | Gist | Never |
|---|---|---|
| 60. "Does it do video?" | "Not today. Video is planned, and I'm not going to give you a date." | |
| 61. "Does it make images?" | "No, deliberately. Use your own images or Canva." Maktura handles library, cropping, ordering, alt text | Claim a Canva integration |
| 62. "CRM or ATS integration?" | "CRM connections aren't something we're offering at launch; tell me which one you use and I'll note it." Escalate to John the same day | Say integrations are coming; name a system |
| 63. "Watch showed a strange number." (AMBER, D12) | "Alert figures aren't reliable yet and the team is fixing it. Use the trend and the risk level, not the multiplier." Get a screenshot; report to Dom Watts | Explain alert multipliers |
Price (66, 68, 71, 72, and the quick table)#
Probe: "If price weren't a factor, would this be the right thing to do?"
| No. and objection | Gist | Never |
|---|---|---|
| 66. "You gave other people £69, so you do discount." | "The founding bands aren't discounts. They're the order seats are sold in": first 250 seats at £69, next 250 at £89, then £120, then £150. The band open when you sign is your rate; an order across a band boundary is confirmed by John before payment | Quote seats remaining except from live billing data; give Standard (£250) unless asked |
| 68. "No free trial?" / "A pilot?" / "Money-back guarantee?" (AMBER, D17) | No trial at launch; payment at sign-up; no guarantee. Show exactly how it works first; a formal pilot is John's decision. "Nothing rolls over without a conversation." Law firms: a paid, scoped pilot at the published price (D17) | Hint at any trial, unpaid pilot, proof of concept or guarantee |
| 71. "Per-seat maths is worse than hiring two marketers." | "If you bought a seat for everyone, it might be. So don't." Start with those who will post; seats added later come in at the account's band; anti-gaming sentence from 70; very large teams: Standard steps down with volume | Quote Standard steps between £250 and £100 (D14) |
| 72. "We're too small." / "I'm a freelancer." | "Yes. It's one licence per person, the software all in, the same Holly." Clients' accounts too: see 86 |
| They ask | Say |
|---|---|
| Whole thing? Holly extra? | "One subscription, and the software is all in: every feature and Holly in every seat." Never "no add-ons" |
| Per platform or person? | "One licence per person." Never "covers six platforms" |
| Company page? (AMBER) | Don't volunteer. If asked: "Let me confirm that for you in writing." If a price is confirmed: "the first licence includes one company page connection; every other company page connection is £50 a month in total." |
| Annual discount? | "The annual discount applies at Standard only, not on a founding rate. For most team sizes the founding bands are the lowest per-seat price we offer; for 400 or more people Standard's volume price can be lower, so talk to us." (D14, D15) |
| Band closes / after the bands? | "Your rate doesn't change when the band closes." Then the D18 wording as in 69. "After the four founding bands, it's £250 a licence, stepping down in stages to £100 for 400 or more." No intermediate steps |
| How long? Seats left? | "Founding rates close on 31 December, or when the band fills." Seats only from live billing data |
| Pause or miss a payment? (AMBER) | "A pause or cancellation gives up the founding rate. So does a missed payment that isn't put right within a short window; the window is in your terms." |
| Invoice? (AMBER, D17) | "Payment is normally taken at sign-up. If your accounts team needs an invoice, I'll get John to confirm how we handle it before you commit to anything." |
| VAT? Card? | "I'll confirm the VAT position and payment methods in writing with your quote." |
| Buy myself? | "When you're ready, we'll set you up and take payment at sign-up." Never "buy it on the site" until John confirms checkout |
| Paid for referring? (AMBER, D19) | "Yes. Commission is set out in your partner agreement." No figures |
| Charity? Outside the UK? | Charity: "Let me take that to John." Overseas: "Our terms are UK only at launch. For a larger team overseas, our founder looks at it case by case." |
Buying process and indecision (74 to 78)#
Probe: "On a scale of one to ten, how sure are you this is the right move, and what would make it a ten?"
| No. and objection | Gist | Never |
|---|---|---|
| 74. "I need to talk to my business partner." | "What will they ask you that you'll find hardest to answer?" Offer to join for fifteen minutes; else give one sentence: everyone visible on LinkedIn, in their own voice, inside our rules, with Holly doing the heavy lifting, and a person approving every post | |
| 75. "Which plan? How many seats?" | "If I were in your seat, I'd start with the five or six people who'll actually post, Holly at Suggest (Observe if you're regulated), approvals on, and your policy uploaded in week one (regulated: once the data processing terms are in place). Then we review it with you at 30 days." | Present every option; recommend the whole firm on day one |
| 76. "IT and compliance need to look first." | "Good, let's bring them in early, not late." Anything in writing comes from our team; ask who signs off; build a mutual action plan (Chapter 06, Sales method) | |
| 77. "A demo? An NDA?" (AMBER, D3) | The demo offer. An NDA is needed before any demo unless John waives it in writing at booking | |
| 78. "What if we buy it and nobody uses it?" | "Start small with the willing, agree two or three things you want to see by day 30, and review it with us then... you'll know in a month, not a year." | Promise adoption or results |
Law firms (79 to 82)#
In the SRA's June 2025 study of small firms, 76% found technology through colleagues or competitors and only 21% adopted after a provider approached them; cost (25%) and data breach risk (15%) were the top barriers. Expect three to six months, a COLP, an IT questionnaire and a partner decision. No law firm references yet. Probe: "What would your COLP need to see?"
| No. and objection | Gist | Never |
|---|---|---|
| 79. "The SRA or our COLP won't allow it." | Bring the COLP in. The SRA's August 2026 warning notice on AI says solicitors stay accountable for AI output, so: Holly at Observe, a person approving every post, policy as rules, approvals in stages, every action logged | Say Maktura is SRA-compliant or approved; promise templates or an evidence pack |
| 80. "Follow up the people who engage?" | "Carefully." For firms acting for the public, SRA Code of Conduct paragraph 8.9 covers unsolicited approaches targeting individuals. Maktura is for visibility and replying to commenters, not approaching individuals who engaged | Suggest engagement as a source of consumer clients |
| 81. "Our people might put client information into it." | A policy question first. Law Society guidance "Generative AI: the essentials" (updated September 2025) says not to put confidential client data into AI tools. Upload the policy once data processing terms are in place. Don't connect client meetings | Promise the rules check detects client names or matters |
| 82. "A paid pilot, and pay on invoice." (AMBER, D17) | "Let me take both to John now." Recommended route: a paid, scoped pilot at the published price, success criteria agreed in writing | Agree a pilot or invoice terms yourself |
Recruitment (83 to 85)#
Lead with visibility, voice, governance and Holly; never with engagement as a source of candidates or clients. Probe: "Which consultant would you want posting first, and why?"
| No. and objection | Gist | Never |
|---|---|---|
| 83. "Use engagers as a candidate source?" | "No, and I'd steer you away from it... isn't something we support." Use Maktura to be visible and reply to commenters. If they ask why, use 39 | Describe engagers as candidates or talent |
| 84. "Consultants will leave and take their audience." | Their network is theirs; what stays is the system: calendar, campaigns, rules, templates, results history, and a first-week setup for the next consultant | Promise the firm keeps a departing consultant's network, drafts or voice (see 51) |
| 85. "Post jobs? Do links work?" (AMBER) | "You can publish any post you write, including one about a role, to your LinkedIn, with an exact preview first." Test a link post first: the summer link fault is not confirmed fixed | Promise job-board, ATS or vacancy-feed connections |
Agencies, freelancers and the product today (86 to 90)#
| No. and objection | Gist | Never |
|---|---|---|
| 86. "Several clients? Clients won't log in." | Workspace per client; voice per person or client; clients sign off by link without logging in; nothing goes out until your own approver agrees | |
| 87. "What does it cost me as an agency?" | "There's no published agency price. Talk to a human and we'll build something around the way you actually work." Set up a call with John | Quote an internal figure; say extra clients are free |
| 88. "Doesn't this replace us?" | "It replaces the typing, not the agency." Clients pay for judgement, strategy and taste | Promise margins |
| 89. "It's slow." / "It got stuck." | "Can you show me where it happened? I'll get it to the team today." Report to Dom with what and when | Blame the user; promise a fix date |
| 90. "Your website says something different." | "Thank you for spotting it. What I've told you is the current position." "Locked": rate-you-keep and rolling monthly wording as in 67. "No add-ons": "The software is all in." "61 features": "We don't quote feature counts." Post attribution: "That line is wrong. It doesn't attribute clients to posts." "Pulse": "Pulse was Holly's working name." Log every mismatch to John |
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