The Be-Back Bus Isn’t Coming Back!

by Brad Huisken

You have done everything in your power to give the customer a memorable presentation. You have developed a relationship, established trust, shared in the emotional reason why the customer is buying furniture, asked the proper questions to determine what is important to the customer in the selection of furniture, demonstrated the product based on the information learned and have finally asked the customer to buy. Then it happens, the customer gives you an objection. Customers say that they need to look around a little bit, or that your store is the first place they shopped, or they need to talk to the spouse. Believe me it happens to everyone. Rejection. Apparently, somewhere in the sales presentation something went wrong.

If in fact, as we have determined, a sale is made based on trust and value being established, then it also must hold true that a sale is lost due to a lack of either trust, value, or both. Somewhere along the line, we have missed the mark. We end up half a bubble off of plumb. Whatever happened, our job now is to figure out what happened and to solve our customer’s reason for rejecting our presentation and the purchase of the furniture.

Objections
The single most common type of rejection is an objection. If you have been in sales for longer than a New York minute, you have heard, “I need to think it over,” “I need to shop around,” “I’ll be back,” and “We’ll talk about it and let you know tomorrow.” Objections are as common as the hair on your head. By giving you an objection, that customer is telling you that they are not convinced. Something else is going on that the customer may not feel comfortable telling you.

In many situations, a false objection is given as their ticket to get on the “Be-Back Bus.” You are in for a very long day and frustrating career if you spend your working hours standing on the corner waiting for your customers to come back on the be-back bus. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but although the bus always leaves, it very rarely comes back.

Many salespeople give their business cards to their customers in the hope that they will actually come back in to see them. In reality, a business card could very well be a one-way ticket giving your customer the ability to leave, with no insurance that they will be coming back. Granted, in some cases, especially in the furniture business, customers do come back. The point I want to make is that as long as you have the customer in your store; give it your best effort to save the sale.

The real frustration, and a fact that the professional salesperson has to realize, is that up to 60 percent of all objections given are in fact false reasons for not buying. Customers have learned that it is very easy to get rid of a salesperson by giving them the typical “I’ll be back” or “I’ll think it over” objection. I have never walked up to someone who is deep in thought, asked him or her what they were doing, and gotten the reply, “I’m thinking over Joe salesperson’s presentation from earlier today.” I have never seen or heard of a customer going home, turning the lights down low, pouring themselves a glass of wine, putting a little jazz music on the stereo, sitting back in the recliner, when the spouse comes in and says, “Honey, what are you doing?” to hear the response that, “I am thinking about the furniture salesperson’s presentation.” It just doesn’t happen that way. The customer has given you a false reason for not buying in order to get off the hook.

Further, I contend that as much as 70 percent of the time when the customer gives you a false reason for not buying it very well may have something to do with the price. The customer is simply embarrassed to tell you that the price was too high or that the price was more than the customer wanted to spend. I find this to be particularly true in cross gender buy/sell relationships. The man with an ego doesn’t want to tell the sales lady that he can’t afford the piece of furniture that she was presenting. Therefore, the customer makes up an excuse not to buy.

In some cases, the salesperson actually causes the customer to become confused and thus in turn the customer gives an objection. I find that many salespeople in the furniture industry tend to talk in terms of their industry jargon, or industry specific terms that the customer doesn’t understand. Should the customer not understand a word or a phrase that the salesperson stated, many customers won’t admit their ignorance, they will simply say, “I’ll be back” or “I need to think about it.” Believe it or not, many customers don’t know the difference between maple and oak. Some customers don’t know that a Davenport is actually a sofa or a couch. In other words if you, as a salesperson, are delivering presentations using your industry jargon with out explaining to the customer what you said, you may be causing the customer to give you an objection or false reason for not buying.

It is also true that you may receive not one, but numerous objections throughout the process of completing the sale. Your customer may just have several concerns about your products and services. These will all need to be addressed in order to complete the transaction. I certainly wouldn’t purchase anything if I had unanswered questions or concerns about an item or service. Realize that you will encounter objections, and that your customers have the right to have the objections answered in a caring and professional way.

We will be discussing two different types of objections in this article: 1. the stall, and 2. the specific objection. Your quest, in order to handle the objection and to save the sale, is to identify the type of objection that the customer has given you and to solve the situation.

A stall may or may not be true. A stall objection can be identified as the examples I gave you earlier, “I’ll be back,” “I need to think it over,” or “I need to bring my spouse back” among dozens of others. Be very careful though, because a stall could very well be a true objection. If the customer really does need to bring their spouse back in before making the decision, that is a specific objection. You need to be very clever and use specific techniques in order to discover the true reason for not buying while being careful not to intimidate the customer.

A specific is probably true. A specific objection is defined as the customer telling you certain information that they are concerned with, which is probably true. For example things like, “It is the wrong color,” “The length is to short,” “It’s the wrong size,” or “It’s the wrong shape,” could be specific reasons the customer isn’t buying. However, these examples could also be a stall and not truly the reason they aren’t going along with the deal. It’s up to you to figure out which it is.

You will find that in most cases once you discover the objection is a specific reason for not buying, it is usually due to a poor needs assessment. You could have found out what color they needed, what size they wanted, or the shape they had in mind by asking more or better questions during the needs assessment.

Your customer may even have an objection to the price of the furniture. People think that the price of everything is too high until value has been established. The lesson to be learned about price is that any money issue is a specific objection. However, an objection to the price is potentially an objection to one of two completely different issues either value or budget.

The customer may not find enough value in your product or you haven’t created enough value for them to trade their money. If this is the case, they will need to have more value added in order to make the purchase. Remember, everything is too expensive until value has been established and that value is simply perception.

On the other hand, the customer may find the value in the furniture, but simply not be able to afford it. If they can’t afford the price of the product you have shown, it would then be an objection due to a lack of budget.

The strategies and techniques for handling price objections based on value or on budget are completely different. You must first determine which of the two price objections you are dealing with. Many sales and/or profits are lost due to an assumption that the customer is objecting to value when in reality it is a question of budget. You may lose the sale completely or think incorrectly that you need to discount your products if you assume that your customer’s objection is budget when actually the customer has an objection to, or doesn’t see the value in the item.

I find most salespeople handle objections one of two ways, both of which are incorrect. One salesperson may hand the customer a business card and tell the customer to ask for them when they decide to come back. In this case, the salesperson is inviting the customer to leave. The salesperson did not give a presentation with his/her best effort possible. On the other hand, a more aggressive salesperson may start saying things like, “What other information do I need to give you,” or “I told you this or I told you that,” or “If I could get it for you for less, would you buy it today?” The customer may take offense to a salesperson arguing, defending the store and the merchandise. The result in both cases is the customer will probably never come back even if they were intending to come back up to that point.

Remember the following important statement: No customer has never changed his or her mind from a “no” to a “yes” based on the information already given. Just as no trial verdict has ever been changed from guilty to not guilty based on the evidence already presented. In order to re-open the trial the lawyer must present new evidence. Your job as a salesperson is to present new evidence or new information to the customer in order to get the customer to change their mind from a “no” to a “yes”.

The Objection Handling Process
There are seven basic steps to handling objections, both stalls and specifics. Through following these steps, you will be able to determine if your customer is giving you a stall or specific objection and what the true objection is. Once you have learned this information you can then fix it. By fixing it, I mean you will be able to address the customer’s concerns, quite possibly solve the reason they are objecting and make the sale.

1. Listen to the entire objection. The last thing that you would want to do is interrupt the customer in the middle of their objection. They are giving you their concerns, and want and need to be heard. Should you not listen completely, you may just miss the secret to saving the sale. In addition, I believe that most customers have one defensive shield and you will want to repeat back their defensive shield verbatim. Don’t give the customer a new defense that they can come back with. Further, I don’t believe there is anything more important to a customer than being heard.
2. Acknowledge the Objection. By acknowledge, I mean you need to verbally let the customer know that you really heard their concern and are about to address the issue. Through repeating back the objection, “I can understand you want to come back,” or “I can appreciate you needing to talk to your spouse,” or “I understand that you are concerned about price” the customer will know that they were heard and that you can empathize with their concerns.
3. Give agreement. By giving agreement you will let the customer know that they aren’t in for an argument. There is, however, a fine line between agreement and agreeing. Should the customer say that they need to look around, agreeing would be saying, “Yes, you should look around.” By giving agreement the professional would say, “I can understand that you feel you should look around, it’s a big decision isn’t it?” As in every other step in the selling process, this step is designed to get the customer to say, yes.
4. Relieve resistance. Your customer may just have some leftover fear, resistance, or tension in them that will need to be eliminated before the purchase can be completed. You can very easily relieve their resistance and ease their tension by saying, “Before you go, can I ask you a quick question?” By saying before you go, you are letting the customer mentally off the hook, however, you will still have them physically in the store. In this way the customer may be more willing to tell you the true objection. In asking, can I ask you a quick question the customer will always say yes, the issue becomes what is the question? I like to ask, “Did you like the _____?” The answer will be either yes or no. Should they answer no, then you have a chance to clear up any misunderstanding. Should the customer say yes, then reconfirm the beauty of the piece. “It is a gorgeous ______ isn’t it?”
5. Review NA=A/DA. Through reviewing the elements of NA=A/DA (Needs Assessment gets you Answers, so Demonstrate the Answers) you will be able to clarify that you understood  exactly what the customer needed and wanted, and that you demonstrated those needs and wants. At this point, your customer could tell you whether or not the objection that they gave was the whole truth and nothing but the truth. For example, “How did you feel about the colonial look of the furniture?” If they say they liked it then reconfirm how the look will benefit them. Should they say that they are not sure then you can explain the benefit further. Should the customer agree to everything that you showed during the demonstration and confirmed it during this process, then confront them head on with, “How did you feel about the price?” The price will be either fine or too high. Should the price be fine then increase the value.
6. Increase the value. This is the time to pull out your cannon. Remember the customer may have to have more value added in order to complete the transaction. Back in the demonstration step you should have saved your best for last. It is now the time to pull out your most powerful FBA (Feature – Benefit – Agreement Question). Remember that your most powerful cannon may be another company story. For example: I also wanted to mention that we have free fabric protection, or free delivery, etc. Should the price be too high then address the price.
7. Address the price. Now, and only now, is the time to address the price issue. It is also the time to determine whether the price concern is in fact a question of value or budget. The following question is the single most effective way to determine which price objection you need to address.

Is the price of this particular ______ too high, or is it more than you wanted to spend today?

“Is the price of this particular item too high,” will tell you if it is a question of value.

“Is it more than you wanted to spend,” will tell you if it is question of budget.

If they respond that the price of the item is too high, (value) then it is time to add value with your most powerful FBA or company story.

Through “is it more than you wanted to spend today,” they will tell you if it is a question of budget or money.

If they respond that the price of the particular item is too high, it is up to you to fix it. How you fix it is different for every customer. You may need to show them a less expensive item, or add value to the item.

Sell the lower-priced item on its own merit, with its own FBAs that fit the needs of the customer. They may ask you, “Does it have this?” or “Does it have that?” The only answer is “No, unfortunately it doesn’t”. You certainly wouldn’t want to say, “You get what you pay for,” or any other condescending statements liable to make your customer uneasy. If they really want the features and benefits of the higher-priced item, figure out a way for them to have it. A little value and creativity can go a long way.

If they respond, “It is more than I wanted to spend,” you will know that the item is not within their budget. Now is the time to ask the question, “How much did you want to spend?” Their answer will tell you what you need to do next. They will say, “I didn’t want to spend over ‘X’ amount of money.” You can then show your customer an item that fits their budget and make the sale.

A key to handling objections is to realize that you may uncover the true objection at any point during the objection-handling process. Once the true reason for not going ahead with the transaction has been determined, the only answer is to fix it. You will either need to add value with a new reason to buy, (add some additional or your most powerful FBAs, or sell the store more), or address the price issue and close the sale again.
Will this process work every time? No, but I assure you that you will handle more objections and close many more sales with this method than saying here is my card — or “What would it take for you to buy this furniture today?”

Author, trainer, consultant, and speaker Brad Huisken is president of IAS Training. Brad authored the books “I’M a salesman! Not a PhD.” and “Munchies For Salespeople, Selling Tips That You Can Sink Your Teeth Into.” He also developed the PMSA Relationship Selling Program, the PSMC Professional Sales Management Course, The Mystery Shoppers Kit, The Employee Handbook and Policy & Procedures Manual, The Weekly Sales Training Meeting video series along with Aptitude Tests and Proficiency Exams for new hires, current sales staff and sales managers. In addition, he publishes a free weekly newsletter called “Sales Insight” For a free subscription or more information contact IAS Training at (800) 248-7703,
www.iastraining.com or fax (303) 936-9581.

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