If you own a home, it can help put yourself in a prospective customers shoes. Investing their hard earned money into their biggest investment, their home, will understandably cause some inner turmoil.

The importance and lasting impact of their decision, in addition to a barrage of advertising and marketing materials, will understandably cause them to fear and question and often complain along the way.

Some of the most common questions are:

1. What is your hourly rate?
2. How long will it take?
3. Can I get a quote over the phone?
4. What guarantee do I get?
5. Can I see photos and references from past work?

You undoubtledly have heard these before and will continue to until you understand your job in sales is to prevent questions from becoming fears and eventually complaints.

The most common fears are:

1. Disappointment
2. Disruption
3. Misunderstanding

The most common Complaints are:

1. No Communcation
2. Slow Work
3. Poor Expectations
4. Too Expensive

As you may have noticed these three categories have a direct relationship with one another. If they question the project completion date, they fear disruption and are more likely to complain about slow work. A homeowner asking about quotes over the phone is concerned about being disappointed and will complain about the cost.

Your success depends on your ability to answer questions to elimate fears and avoid any conflict or complaints. From your experience you should know every possible question a homeowner may ask, now its time to take the next step and have a specific answer tailored to the result you desire for each objection.

In our last blog post we covered the 5 steps you must take in properly handling an objection.

Remeber the 5 steps?

Relate, Identify, Isolate, Handle and CLOSE

I will walk you through the process for what most would agree is the most common objection:

Price Too High

First off you must ask yourself, ‘Why am I getting this objection?’

You must view every objection as if there is a hole in your presentation or marketing strategy that needs revision or improvement.

Did you build enough value?

What does THIS homeowner value?

What did you show them to justify a premium price?

Is your price to high? What are they comparing my price to?

If you can’t answer to yourself the reason a homeowner should choose your service, how can they be expected to make a decision?

So now you have tightened up your pitch, asked the right questions and still got the same objection…………….

Time for the 5 steps:

RELATE- “John, I am the same way too I’m always looking for the best deals. I sometimes even buy something ONLY because it was a great bargain. (story to build rapport) I bought a three year supply of toothpaste from Costco last weekend and should see a return on that investment in about 6 months…”

IDENTIFY- “I have been in this industry long enough to know that there is always a reason someone’s price may be lower than mine, is price your only decision factor?”

ISOLATE-

• Yes- “My prices are extremely competitive, but let’s take a look at the bid to see where your money is going and ways we can agree on the amount of your investment”
• No- “Are you comfortable with myself/company/ service? (if no then handle those objections) Yes? “Great well if you are happy with everything else besides the price, let’s find an amount of work you’re comfortable with”

HANDLE-“John, the industry is very competitive right now, which means I wouldn’t still be in business if my prices and services weren’t competitive. You’ve told me you like everything about myself, my company and the work we wrote up in this bid. I can write three more bids with three different prices if you want to compare what you get for different prices.”

CLOSE-”Which package do you think is best for you?” “When are you looking to get this work started?”

The process in which you implement and follow this system will be just as beneficial as any words that are included. Having a plan for handling objects makes the sales process easy and painless for both the homeowner and your company. Don’t leave another house unless you’ve done everthing you can to earn their business; if you don’t, someone else will.