Objections are concerns your customers tell you as reasons why they can’t move forward and buy a car from you today.
Objections represents opportunities for you to clarify any misconceptions about the car or the terms your customers may have, help them move forward, and close the sale .
Your ability to work with objections is very important. Objections are not rejections.
The key is to be prepared and able to smoothly handle any objection.
Objection Handling Process
Here is a simple four step process to handle objections.
- Identify
- Restate to confirm
- Question to clarify and understand
- Isolate
- Address or Bypass
- Confirm
Optional Method to handle objections: Feel-Felt-Found
We will have separate posts with specific objections and the application of this objection handling process and methods.
Important points to keep in mind:
Always think of the three elements of sale when your customer brings up a reason why he or she can’t move forward: People, Product, Price.
Using above processes will help you determine if you are dealing with an excuse or a legitimate concern.
Always show empathy and strive to understand what your customer is saying.
Repeat back to the customer the concern he or she voiced. This is a very effective step to find out if the customer is giving you an excuse just to get out of the process. People will say the strangest things without even hearing what they are saying. You need to repeat back to them so they can hear what they just said. Just doing this may help you eliminate an excuse. You should repeat back with an intention to understand, clarify and confirm not to mock what they said.
Once you confirm that you are dealing with an objection, ask questions to understand.
If your customer is giving you excuses and vague answers, you may be the reason they don’t want to move forward. It may be time to turn.
It may be or may not be. You don’t want to turn a customer without digging a little deeper. What may be another other reason for your customer to give you an excuse? Hint: One of those three elements of sale. Here is a one example: Customers tell you that they are interested in looking at certain new models you have since they either saw a commercial or one on the road. They clearly are not familiar with the model in general but they seem to like it and want it. They even say this is the only model they would buy. So you take them to where those models parked and start showing them. After a few minutes of looking at cars, you notice that your customers seem to be standing off and not inclined to pick one from your selection. When you ask them which one they like, they start asking for a color you do not have and give you an excuse that they need to leave. You don’t have the one in the color they want anyway. As a new salesperson, without using the process above, you may give them your card and get their contact information. Let’s say in couple days you receive one in the color they wanted. You call them and enthusiastically let them know that their car has just arrived and ask when you can get together. Their response is “Thanks, but we already made a purchase.” You ask politely “OK, just out of curiosity, where did you buy your new model?” and they say “Oh! We ended up buying this other make model.” Yes, “another make model” that is not even comparable to the one they were looking at with you. What do you think had happened that day? Hint: It was about one of those three Ps: People, Product, Price. In this case Price. You see, while you were enthusiastically showing what you had in stock, they had a sticker shock. They had just realized that they could not afford that particular model. They could not get themselves to tell you that either so they made up an excuse. If only you just had followed the process you might have made a deal. They would have been driving either the model they were looking at because you showed a way to make it affordable or another model you have that was more affordable.
Another important step is isolating the objection. Many salespeople in their rush to overcome an objection, forget to isolate it first. What does that mean? You want to know if your customer has concerns other then the one he or she just voiced. Is this concern the only one that stops them from moving forward? If not what are the others? If it is and if you can address the concern, will they be moving forward? Remember getting commitments? Use this step to get another commitment from your customers. You don’t want to handle the objection just to face another one right after that.
After identifying, repeating and isolating the objection you must either address it or bypass it. Why would you want to bypass an objection? Because it is not the right time to handle it and you want to wait for the right time. Here is an example: After picking a car out your customer raises an objection to the price of the car. You confirm that it is not an issue of affordability but the deal. You have not even have the opportunity to present and demonstrate the features and benefits of your car. Any attempt to handle a price objection will cost you gross or the deal at this time. You bypass the objection by simply saying “I don’t expect you to buy a car from me if the dollars and cents are not right and I want to make sure we work it all on the right car that will do the job for you. Do you thinks this is the one?” You acknowledge and agree with the objection but instead of trying to handle it, bypass it by changing the conversation to the product. Notice also that you finish with a question about the product that will elicit a “yes” answer as mentioned in post about persuasion.
There are different ways to address different objections. Addressing means eliminating them so you can move forward.
Finally you must confirm that your customers are satisfied with the way you addressed their concern, the objection is eliminated, the roadblock to sale is removed and they can move forward.