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.

You’ve Got A Big Ole’ But!

Man you’ve got a big ole’, good lookin’, juicy But!  To get a But like that, it must’ve taken many years of hard work to get that kind of But.  You’ve made excuses, exceptions, reservations, and countless other adjectives of limitations in an effort to border why you can’t do something. In short, you’ve allowed your But’s to render your potential impotent.

The only thing holding you back is your buts-not your past, not your upbringing, not your boss, not your lack of income, not your customers, not the economy, nor the construction in front of your dealership. That pesky little conjunction, a.k.a. the but, is standing in the way of your ultimate success. If you are using but as a reason why you can’t do something, swap it for the word and instead.

·        Last Year You: “I’m in debt up to my eyeballs, but if they’d get the right inventory and start getting some of these customers bought I can get myself out of this mess.”

·        New Year You: “I’m in debt up to my eyeballs and am willing to sit down and figure out what logical steps I can do different in an effort to get myself out of this mess.”

·        Last Year You: “I want to move into management, but I don’t have a shot. They’ve got the golden boy pegged to be next in line.”

·        New Year You: “I want to move into management and know that I’ve got to be consistent in sales, put forward a strong work ethic, and act the role before I receive the title.”

Buts deflect personal accountability, blaming everyone and everything but the one making the excuses, whereas ands link a problem with a probable solution. Ands maintain accountability; buts deflect it.