Any Objections?

In recent months, I've suggested that salespeople in some of my client dealerships keep a list of any objections that they got from clients and then seek out ways to answer those objections. Shortly after I suggested this at one dealership, a salesperson told me that he'd lost a customer because she had objected that the bonnet was angled too steeply and this meant that and she couldn't see the front of the car as well as in her current car. The salesperson admitted that he was stumped by this.

I asked him about a dozen questions which led him to discover that the vehicle's steep bonnet angle provided six clear benefits to the customer ( we have since discovered a seventh benefit ). With accompanying diagrams, we typed up the list of benefits to show to customers who express a similar concern in future. Additionally, we listed two ways to address the customer's concern about being unable to see the front of the vehicle when parking.

Will this technique overcome the objection 100% of the time? Not necessarily, but it is likely to improve our chances of not losing the sale to that objection, and create a positive impression with your customer that you care enough to have done some research and preparation, and displayed some 'real world' product knowledge. If we can show seven positive attributes of that feature and two ways to overcome the perceived negatives, we at least improve our chances of keeping our customer.

As a sales professional, you shouldn't stand by helplessly when clients object. According to Neil Rackham in his book 'SPIN Selling,' 80% of objections in major purchase situations are created by the salesperson. If you are losing sales to a particular objection, write it down, and seek out ways for answering it to your customers' satisfaction in future. For ideas on specific objections, contact me at Auto via our Contact page and I may post your question and some answers on our Q&A page.