“I’ll think about it and get back to you”
is one of the most common phrases a salesperson hears—and also one of the most frustrating.
The common mistake is to treat it as a polite rejection, say “That’s perfectly fine, I look forward to hearing from you,” and end the conversation there.
But after thousands of conversations, I’ve learned that this phrase is almost never really about “thinking.”
People don’t actually “think” about purchasing decisions the way they solve a math problem.
They feel something—uncertainty, pressure, confusion—and look for a polite way to exit the conversation without confronting it directly.
And that’s exactly where the gold lies: beneath the generic phrase, there’s always a specific reason.
Three Things That Really Hide Behind the Phrase
- Fear of making the wrong decision: It’s easier for someone to postpone a decision than to take responsibility for a possible mistake. This is especially true in B2B purchases, where the decision also affects others in the organization.
- Lack of clarity: The client didn’t understand something in the proposal—perhaps a professional term, perhaps the pricing structure—but doesn’t want to admit it out loud, because it feels like admitting weakness.
- Need for additional approval: There’s someone else who needs to agree—a partner, spouse, manager, accountant—and the client didn’t say this explicitly, sometimes because they themselves didn’t realize it until this very moment.
- Unspoken financial concern: The price is fine, but the timing isn’t—and timing is a topic many people are embarrassed to raise directly.
How to Discover What’s Really Happening
Instead of accepting the phrase as is and closing the conversation, there’s one question that opens everything up: “I’d be happy to—just so I know how to follow up properly, what exactly would you like to think about?” This question doesn’t pressure, but it invites the client to reveal the real reason—and sometimes they discover it themselves while answering, in real time.
Another technique that works well is to give the client several focused options instead of an overly open question: “Is it more a matter of timing, budget, or is there a point in the proposal we should go over together again?” When you give the client directions to choose from, it’s easier for them to point to the right answer—instead of trying to formulate it from scratch.
What to Do with the Answer
Sometimes the answer reveals an objection that can be addressed immediately, in that same conversation.
Sometimes it shows that the client simply isn’t ready yet—and that’s perfectly fine, not every conversation needs to close in that moment.
The difference is that now you know exactly what to follow up on, when, and from what angle—instead of sending a generic reminder in another week and hoping for the best.
Hesitation is not a wall.
It’s a sign that there’s something else that hasn’t been said.
Your role is not to convince by force—it’s to help the client find the words for what they’re really feeling, and then give them the information they actually need to make a decision.
That’s the difference between a salesperson who pushes and a salesperson who guides.
