Sales trainers teach dozens of tactics to overcome price objections. Here is what most of the tactics have in common:
- They are only deployed once the price objection is raised.
- It involves a phrase that’s supposed to either: a) make the prospect OK with a higher price; or b) give them a lower priced solution.
If your strategy for overcoming objections doesn’t kick in until the price objection is raised, it’s often too little, too late. Smart dealers deploy their strategies for overcoming objections, price or otherwise, long before the prospect ever sets foot in their store.
Let’s look at some of these strategies. I’ll use price objections as the example, but these work for any objection. To demonstrate, let’s look at a case study of a dealer named “Cody,” a composite of many floor dealers I’ve coached.
The unspoken question
Cody knows that every prospect has an unspoken question on their mind: Why should I buy from you versus every other competitive option available to me, including doing nothing or buying something other than flooring with my money?
There are hundreds of non-flooring products competing for his prospect’s expendable money: vacations, TVs, new cars, etc. Cody knows that dealers can lose sales to Best Buy as well as other flooring stores, and that the dealer who can answer the unspoken question more effectively than his competition will win.
Online
Cody knows that for most prospects their floor buying journey begins online. He also knows that what others said about him was far more impactful than what he said about himself, so he put systems in place to generate ongoing reviews, including working with my company to help him make this happen. When his prospects Google “flooring near me” they see his store listed with over 500 glowing reviews, dwarfing the reviews of his competition.
Cody knows that virtually every flooring website has the exact same messaging: Here’s our name, here’s what we sell, here’s how to find us. He took a different approach via unique selling propositions that made him the obvious choice. He streamed his reviews onto his website. He created compelling videos that positioned him as the flooring authority in his market. He included lead capture devices, including an offer for his Perfect Floors Guide (something I created and provide to my clients). The ad to get the prospects to opt in for the Perfect Floors Guide uses language designed to create curiosity and FOMO (fear of missing out), making it an irresistible offer. As a result, he gets a steady stream of opt-ins. The opt-ins get enrolled into a 79-day automated email sequence that further educates them on flooring, and why he is the flooring authority in his market.
By the time the prospects walk into his showroom, they already see him as totally different than his competition. They already want to buy from him. He has already overcome 80% of the price objections.
In the next installment, I’ll discuss what happens when the prospect enters the showroom.
Jim Augustus Armstrong is the founder and president of Flooring Success Systems, a company that provides floor dealers with marketing services and coaching to help them attract quality customers, close more sales, get higher margins and work the hours they choose. For information visit FlooringSuccessSystems.com.
