They’re Not Singing A Cappella

Your customers don’t sing a cappella-there is always music accompanying their lyrics, but we salespeople get so hung up and hell-bent on what the customer is saying that we miss the intent behind it. We get bogged down when a customer lyrically demands our rock bottom price, to only have their trade appraised, to not demo or come inside, nor buy right now, and we miss the true meaning behind their objections.  What a customer says often has nothing to do with what they mean. A lyrical objection is the bravado of a customer protecting himself from making [another] mistake. We reach an impasse in our sale when we only hear the lyrics and miss the music. Amateur salespeople only hear the lyrics-professional salespeople delve deeper to find the meaningful music behind the lyrics.

Lyrics: “I want your lowest price.”

Music: “I don’t want to be taken advantage of, again.”

Lyrics: “I don’t want a used vehicle.”

Music: “The last used car I bought gave me nothing but trouble.”

Lyrics: “I’m not doing anything until you tell me what my trade is worth.”

Music: “I made a mistake buying this vehicle.” or

“I’m upside down and don’t know what to do.”

Lyrics: “I don’t want to demo today, we’re just going around to all of the car lots.”

Music: “If I drive it, I’m afraid I’ll want to buy it.”

Lyrics: “ I don’t need to come in, just give me your card.”

Music: “I don’t trust you.” My “No” is really a “Know”

(I don’t know: if I trust you (or the dealership), if the vehicle is the right fit-because you didn’t know enough about it to convince me, if I can get approved or if I can afford it)

Lyrics: “I’m not buying today.”

Music: “You haven’t given me an emotional reason why I should.”

Customers write their lyrics from past experiences and favorably compose their music for future ones. You be the maestro. 

I’ll see you next time on the blacktop. 

Most Objections Have Options

It’s been said that nothing in life is guaranteed, yet one thing is certain in sales: There will always be objections. In the sales profession, objections are a necessary evil. After all, if there were no objections there wouldn’t be a need for salespeople; thankfully the products do not sell themselves and need advocates like you and me, to favorably demonstrate the advantages we have over our competitors’. Look at objections not as roadblocks but rather as detours. If you were traveling to Disney World on a family vacation and 400 miles into the trip you ran into a “Road Closed” sign would you turn around and go home? Of course not, you would search for an alternative route and continue on your trip. Although the trip may take a little longer, you know you will eventually get there.  The Road To The Sale will be full of “Road Closed” signs, but it is up to you, Sales Professional, to find unconventional routes in order to complete the sales journey.  Most objections have options.

Some customers give objections as a means of stalling; they will give an objection trying to freeze the obligation of having to make a buy/not buy decision, while other customers give objections by saying No when in fact they may be saying Know. They cannot make a decision because they don’t know enough about you, your dealership, or the product you represent. When a customer gives you an objection, ask yourself is it a wall or a hall? Is the objection one that you reach an impasse and can go no further or does the objection have an alternative route-simply, does the stated objection have any options? If the customer’s objection has options, the sale still has a heartbeat. In order to get a proper diagnosis, some surgeons have to do exploratory surgery. You are a surgeon on the black top and when you are faced with an objection it is up to you to do exploratory surgery and bring a solution to your customer’s transportation problem. A salesperson is viewed as being pushy when he gives his customer only one option-to buy or not buy, instead of exploring a client’s objections and recommending alternative options in an effort to bring closure to a sale.

When faced with a major health crisis, doctors give their patients their options; when confronted with a problem in the cockpit, pilots weigh their options; when a country is faced with a crisis, Presidents seek their options. Your career is no different; it is life or death [to your paycheck;] the possibility to crash and burn does loom; an all-out war of rejection and adversity is waged every day on the black top. The best defenses to objections are options.