Published September 9, 2020 | Updated February 11, 2022
Does money talk stall your sales conversations? If a sale runs into trouble when the financial aspect of the deal comes up, one of four objections is often the leading culprit.
Do any of these quotes sound familiar?
“The rate is too high.”
What is the difference between a 12% interest rate for 60 months and a 3% interest rate for 36 months on a $20,000 purchase? The 12% rate is about $140 CHEAPER per month. Rate is just a component of financing, but it is the payment amount that matters most. Term and residual (for FMV deals) are far more impactful to payment than rate.
“It’s too expensive.”
Danger. This objection is rooted in not knowing what too expensive was before you prepared the quote. That’s the first problem. Beyond that, if you’re working backward to how much is too much, you’ll need to understand how they are paying. Rarely do customers say, “That’s $219 per month more than I thought so…no thanks.” Instead, they say, “I was expecting it to be around $30,000 instead of $50,000.” If you structure your deal right, you’re talking payments instead of sticker shock.
“Your competition is cheaper.”
Are you comparing apples to apples? If you are, you’re commodity selling and hoping the brand will pull you through. And that’s a less-than-optimal technique. Instead, build a bigger solution. Suggest a differentiated payment structure. Offer added value that sets you apart.
“This looks great, but we can’t move forward until I get approval.”
All that time selling, but in the end, you’re selling to too few people. Most of the time, this indicates that you haven’t identified the buying group before building your solution. Perhaps even more troubling is that after all your efforts, now, for the first time, the proposal will go in front of a financial person. All that spells trouble for your deal, and you’ve gone from driving a solution sale to hoping for an order.
Most financial objections, like most sales objections, are indications that you left some work on the table early in the process and rushed into the quoting phase. The objections are simply the symptoms. The missed opportunity to discover people, process, and need is the illness.
LEAF has the financing options and expertise that let you overcome sticker shock and keep sales conversations moving forward.
