Handling: "I need to speak with my wife"

Today, I’m going to explain how to handle the objection: “I need to speak to my wife.”

Author

Dan Cons
September 07, 2025

In this newsletter, I’m going to explain how to handle the objection: “I need to speak to my wife.”

The “wife” objection is one of the most common you’ll hear. If you don’t handle it properly, the deal usually stalls. 

When you handle it well, you’ll either get to the real objection or get all of the decision-makers on a call to keep things moving.

Unfortunately, most salespeople struggle with this objection because they don’t figure out what the prospect actually means, and whether it’s genuine or a cover for something else.

It could be:

  • They want to run it by their wife out of respect.

  • Their partner is more involved in financial decisions than they first let on.

  • They’re not 100% sold (e.g. they think it’s too expensive) and are trying to delay making a decision.

The key is working out which one it really is, because each scenario requires a different approach.

But don’t panic, here’s how to address the “I need to speak with my wife” objection with confidence.

Step 1: Acknowledge

When your prospect says they need to speak with their wife, the first thing you should do is acknowledge it. 

Say something like:

“Ok, cool, no worries.” or “Yeah, no problem, I can see why you’d want to speak with her about this.”

Acknowledging their concern matters for two reasons:

  • It gives you a second to process what they’ve said so you can respond, not react.

  • It makes them feel heard, which lowers their defences and makes it easier to have a calm, grown-up conversation about what’s really going on.

Step 2: Isolate

Next, make sure that “speaking with their partner” is the only thing holding them back. 

Ask:

“Aside from needing to speak with your wife, is there anything else stopping you from wanting to go ahead? And you’re confident this can work for you?”

Here’s where most people go wrong. They assume the partner is the real objection, but often it isn’t. It could be price, trust, or them not fully believing in your solution. This step gets the reservation out in the open.

If something else does come up, isolate it and handle that objection instead. Otherwise, if nothing else surfaces, you know the partner really is the only hurdle.

Step 3: Clarify

Assuming they say there’s nothing else, you want to work out whether speaking to their partner is just a courtesy or if they’re genuinely involved in the decision. 

Ask:

“Out of interest, is this more of a respect thing, where you’ll just let them know what you’ve decided? Or do you actually need their input to decide if this makes sense for you?”

 

If they say it’s just respect, you can follow up with:

“Got it. Out of interest, what would you do if they pushed back and said no?”

This is about getting clarity on where they stand. If they’d go ahead anyway, you know the decision is in their hands. If they’d hold off, then you’ve uncovered that their partner does have input, and you switch to handling it as a joint decision.

Step 4: Respond

At this stage, how you respond depends on what they told you in the last step.

👉 Scenario 1: It’s just out of respect
 

If they’ve confirmed the decision is theirs to make, respond by showing some benefit of acting now, like:

“OK, great. If that’s the case, why don’t we just get this sorted now while we’re both here? You’re already on the call, I can process everything in a few minutes, and it means you don’t have to revisit the whole conversation again later. Then when you see her, you can simply let her know you’ve already gone ahead with X agency.”

👉 Scenario 2: Their partner has real input
 

If their partner genuinely is part of the decision, respond by reframing why they should be included:

“Since they’re involved, it makes sense for us all to get on a call so I can answer their questions directly. Otherwise what usually happens is you’ll go back, they’ll have questions you can’t fully answer, nothing moves forward, and then we’re back on another call in a few months because nothing has changed.”

Step 5: Ask

Once you’ve responded, you need to lock in the next step:

Scenario 1 (respect):

 “So what do you say, shall we just go ahead and get started now?”

If they push back:

“No worries, how long do you think you’ll need to run it by her, a day or so? What I usually do in this situation is set up a follow-up call once you’ve had the chance to chat, so we can get a yes or no and not leave it hanging. Does tomorrow or the day after work better for you?”

Scenario 2 (real input):

“With that in mind, when makes sense for us three to hop on a call this week?”

And whichever outcome it is, except for the “verbal yes”, always finish with:


“Perfect, I’ll send the invite through now so it’s in the calendar. Before we shoot, what concerns (if any) do you think they’ll have, so I know what to prepare for our next call?”

If something else does come up at this point, this is the real objection, so isolate it and handle that one instead. If there isn’t anything, end the call and live to fight another day.

Summary

When you hear “I need to speak to my wife,” don’t just accept it at face value. Take the time to figure out what it actually means. Sometimes it’s genuine. Sometimes it’s just a stall. The key is to clarify which one you’re dealing with, and then respond accordingly.

Cheers ✌️