"I'll wait until the summer": how to handle the not right now sales objection without killing the deal

Sunny Ray · Jul 5, 2026 · 5 min read

Sometimes the best answer to "not right now" is "don't rush it." And you still get the interview the next day.

On July 2, Charles and I were on a sales call with a coach who works with founders. He liked everything he heard. Then he said it:

"I will wait until the summer"

Here's how to handle the not right now objection, in short. First figure out whether it's a timing objection or a priority objection. If it's priority, you have a selling problem. If it's timing, and the reason is real, respect it, keep one non-sales touch on the calendar, and let the next step happen on its own clock. We handled the same objection two different ways on that call, and I think both of us learned something.

The call

The prospect was about two months into a six-month engagement with another firm, focused on inbound authority. He'd just been handed a new sales page structure and a video sales letter framework. He had budget, but he was spending it. And, more important, he was spending attention.

His reasons, from the notes: budget and attention were both constraints, not just money. He wanted to finish what he started with the other firm before adding another vendor. He also worried about lead quality from a podcast strategy and pointed out that our own YouTube numbers were small.

That's a lot of objections. But underneath them there was a buying signal hiding in plain sight: he had a list of about 50 people he wanted to interview. He already believed in the show-as-pipeline idea. He just didn't want to start it this month.

Charles's answer: momentum

Charles went for urgency, and he said why:

"Lack of momentum is the killer of businesses, right?"

He's not wrong. Markets move. Pipelines take time to build, and every month you wait is a month of meetings that don't happen later. Charles also offered a lower-ticket deal to keep the door open.

Momentum is the right argument when "not right now" is really "I haven't decided this matters." When a prospect delays because they're scared or because the pain isn't sharp enough yet, urgency helps them see what waiting costs.

The prospect held firm anyway. Which told us it wasn't that kind of objection.

My answer: don't rush it

I took the other side:

"Like, I don't think you need to rush it."

His reason was real. He was halfway through a program he'd paid for. Quitting it to start ours would have meant two half-finished systems and no clean read on either. If we'd pushed him in, the most likely outcome was a stressed client who blamed us for whatever didn't work.

One of the objection-handling guides I trust says the same thing: ask one light clarifying question, then respect the answer. It also warns that jumping straight to a discount signals your original price wasn't real. A discount doesn't fix a timing objection. It just makes the later deal smaller.

Two closers, one call, opposite answers

You might think two people on your side disagreeing in front of a prospect is a mistake. I don't. It only works if it's honest, and it was. Charles believed momentum mattered. I believed this particular buyer would be a worse client if we rushed him. Both were true in general. Only one was true for him.

What the prospect saw was two people who weren't reading from a script. One pushing, one listening. That's more credible than a perfectly aligned pitch, because it shows him we'd tell him the truth when it cost us the deal this month.

The trick is that the disagreement has to be about him, not about us. The moment it turns into which of us wins the argument, you've lost the room.

Timing objection or priority objection? How to tell

This is the part I'd tattoo on a new closer.

A priority objection sounds like "not right now" but has no date and no reason. "Let's revisit next quarter." "Things are busy." Push on it, gently: what changes next quarter? Usually nothing, and the honest answer is it isn't important enough yet. That's on you to fix by showing what it costs.

A timing objection has a specific reason and a specific end. "I'm finishing a program with another firm, I'll be ready in the summer." You can check it. You can calendar it. And pushing on it makes you look like you didn't listen.

Our prospect gave us a reason, a date, and a buying signal. That's a timing objection. Treat it like one.

Keep a non-sales touch on the calendar

Here's why the relationship survived the "no." His interview on my show was already set for the next day.

We confirmed it on the call, tested the streaming setup live, and promised him a bio and 21 interview questions tracking the arc of his career within the hour. The sale was paused. The relationship wasn't.

That's the move. When the deal has to wait, keep one thing on the calendar that isn't a sales meeting and that gives him something. An interview. An intro. A useful document. When summer comes, you're not a vendor following up. You're the person who already made him look good.

The same call had one more thing worth keeping. Someone on our side told him why we built this at all:

"I've done maybe 50 conferences myself. I've done Google ads, Facebook. I do streams every day. I do blog. I do everything, right? But nothing produces results like the cold email outreach machine that Charles has built."

That's the kind of line you can only say if you're not desperate for this month's deal.

When you're ready, we'll be here, and you don't have to rush it. Start when you're ready.

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