Finding a buyer’s true objection can clear the way for a sale
Editor’s note: This is the final blog in a series about asking for the sale. In this installment, Steve Lemco explains how to find true objections to a sale.
Your customer is sitting at your desk. Now what? He wanted your card because he’s leaving and coming back another day, so you led him to your desk to get him a card and go over some details. Now it’s time for Sherlock Holmes to find the true objection, so he can solve it.
I say true objection because there are false objections in this world, and unfortunately, too many salespeople believe the false ones. They will either accept a false objection at face value, or try to overcome an objection that isn’t real.
When I ask a group of salespeople what are their customers’ most common objections are, the number one answer is always that they want to talk to their wife or husband first. Usually “just shopping around” is second, followed by they “want to think about it for a while,” or they’re waiting for something like a tax return, or to sell something first. I’m sure you’ve heard ‘em all.
The problem: none of these objections are real. They’re symptoms of the objection just as a cough is a symptom of a cold. It isn’t the cold. It’s pointless to fix the cough if you don’t eliminate the cold.
In other words, what are they going to talk to their spouse about? What are they hoping to save by shopping around? What are they waiting for? Chances are all the real answers are the same. It’s the money.
Think how many products would move if you didn’t charge the buyer. Even a bad salesperson could get customers to buy two at that price.
As I explained in my July 2012 blog, if a customer says he wants to talk to his wife, it isn’t the wife this man wanted to talk to — he talks to her every day. What he’s saying is he wanted to talk to her about the money. The money was the issue.
If you want to sell all of your store’s inventory in one day, stand on the street corner with a sign saying, “Everything in stock is free. Limit one per customer.” The first person who saw the sign and who was even remotely interested in your product would U-turn and rush in. They would then tell all their friends who would tell all of their friends. You would have multi-level marketing at its purest. Within a few hours there’d be a line around the block.
I doubt that any of those people would say they wanted to shop around first to see if they could beat the price. What would they be looking for? Maybe they could find a place that would pay them to take it home? No, I don’t think you’d get a single objection.
What I’m saying is: if you solve the money issue, you solve most objections and can ask for the sale.
My purpose here isn’t solving objections — it’s getting your customers to tell you what the true objection is, then you can worry about solving it.
When customers want to talk with their husbands or wives first, shop around, think about it, or wait on something else, they’re giving you the symptoms of the true objection — which is almost always money.
When you ask what’s stopping them from making a buying decision, and you get one of these reasons, or a different symptom, it’s always important that you agree with them. It shouldn’t be difficult to understand what they’re saying and why they are saying it. Everybody has the right to talk to his or her spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, or parents first, or shop around, take their time and think about what they want to do, or look for a better deal.
But where will they focus their attention when it comes to making a buying decision? The money. The same holds true with almost every objection the customer gives you. Or I should say the symptom of the objection.
Most all symptoms from objections work the same way, so I’ll use, “I have to talk to my wife first” in the following role play. You can apply this conversation to the majority of the symptoms you hear.
“Rick, I understand that you need to talk to your wife first. I would want to do the same. Let’s say you and your wife are sitting on the couch deciding whether or not to get one. Are you going to base that decision on the price, the down payment, or the monthly payments?”
The majority of the time you will get, “the monthly payments.”
It doesn’t matter what the answer is. You now have the true objection, and you can go about solving it.
For now, focus on finding out what the true objections is. We’ll deal with overcoming the objection later.
Sit down with your customers and ask something like, “I know you’re interested in it, WHAT’S stopping you from buying today?” If you do that with every customer you have, then you can say you ALWAYS ask for the sale, which will put you miles ahead of the average salesperson. It’s words mixed with desire.
Steve Lemco is the youngest brother of the late Ed Lemco and has been doing sales training and hiring for motorcycle dealers since 1983. He is the author of two sales books, the new “Motorcycle Sales Made Easy” and “You Gotta-Wanna.” Steve has trained in every state in the U.S., as well as England, France, Australia and New Zealand. Steve incorporates motivational boards and games along with his training and hiring because he believes the best way to get the job done is to make it fun.
Contact: stevelemco@aol.com
Website: www.stevelemco.com
Phone: 253/826-6110
