Are You Winning Or Is The Customer?

It is one of the most difficult skills in real estate to master, the skill of objection handling. Many sales professionals struggle terribly to know how and what to respond to with a customer and their defense. So, ask yourself, are you winning or is the customer?

 I am always reminded that we as agents need to have the mindset of a child. When my kids were growing up and even to this day they are relentless when it comes to getting what they want and won’t take no for an answer.  How many of us know what I am talking about and have those kids?

Let’s first start with the awareness factor. The skill of knowing whether the customer is responding to you with an objection, stall or condition. So what is the difference?

Let’s start by recognizing the Stall or what I say is the statement they use to get you to go away. Classic stalls are “we will call you” or “we will talk about it” or “we want to interview others.” All of these statements are what the customers use to get you to go away and keep from you the “truth” or the real reason they chose not to do business with you at that moment in time. Your job is to be aware of the stall and owe it to your self to dig deeper and probe more to get to the truth and handle what is holding them back. In all my years experience the stalls usually come out when they are not sure they trust or like you. They don’t like your listing price or they don’t feel your marketing plan is good enough or they want a concession in your fees. Most agents hear the stall and pack up and leave and lose the business. Most top producing agents are like “children” and probe, dig and stick around to fight for the business.

Now that you recognize a stall let’s look at the next important item, the Objection. The objection is normally the “truth”, what they are running to (pleasure) or what they are running from (pain). The customer uses a stall to buy themselves some more time or get you to leave and hide what their “truth” or what their real reason is. So how do we get to the truth? Using the 5-6-7 technique is how! Most agents don’t probe and question more than once. The best of the best learn to probe and dig deeper and ask questions at least 7 times. The 5-6-7 technique is as simple as “so why is that so important?” Or “interesting can you tell me more?” For at least seven questions deep. This allows you to get to the heart of their reason for buying or selling and identify the truth or objection source. If you don’t help them identify their pain or pleasure then you can’t move a customers emotional meter and you then offer them the solutions.

The final piece to this skill is the condition. A condition is something that takes agents out by the knees if they are not aware of the condition well in advance of meeting with the customers.  Here are the classic conditions. 1) There are other decision makers involved. 2) They can’t net as much money as they hoped. 3) They are not certain what they are doing next or going to buy. Every agent should know if these factors are a concern prior to meeting with customers and be prepared to handle all three or you just won’t get the customer's business. The trick is to ask them in advance of getting together.

So there you have it. The three most important factors to objection handling and being aware of the difference between a stall, objection and condition. Having the skill to be able to handle any one of them at any time and win the sales war like your own relentless children!