Customer objections are an inherent part of a sales job – especially when you’re selling cars. Rarely will you encounter a customer who has no concerns, delays, or qualms. But how can you make the most of those moments and learn to overcome them? In this article, we’ll explore the skills, tips, and tricks you need to manage those customer interactions and land the sale.

What Skills Are Needed to Handle Objections? 

Objection handling is a fundamental aspect of any sales job, and as part of the job, it’s important to have a particular skill set that can help you communicate effectively. Here are six key pillars within that skillset:

1. Empathy: You have to be able to put yourself in your customers’ position and truly understand their point of view – including their objections. This ability to connect is fundamental to having a constructive sales conversation.
2. Transparency: As a salesperson, your communication needs to be clear and honest. Customers don’t want to sense that they’re being tricked or convinced to do something for other reasons, or that they aren’t being shown the full truth. 
3. Listening: In order to land a sale, it’s essential to offer the perfect solution to the customer. And the only way to do this is to have excellent listening skills so that you can understand what they need. 
4. Body language: Being able to interpret body language when you’re communicating with a customer is important so that you can get a sense of what they are thinking or feeling, without them even expressing it. 
5. Patience: Having patience is a way of showing respect for your customers’ needs and decision-making process. After all, rushing customers will only make them uncomfortable and cost you the sale.¹ 
6. Ask Questions: One key way to demonstrate you’re listening, empathizing, and learning more about the customer is to ask questions. In a broad report that looked at sales reps among several industries, the best performing sales reps respond to objections by asking questions, and they are spending 54.3% of their time doing so, compared to the average performing sales reps who are only spending 31% of the time asking questions.⁵ 

Common Customer Car Sales Objections

Most customer objections will fall into a few buckets that tell you what the real hold-up is. Let’s start by examining a couple of common customer statements that have to do with timing, such as: 

Timing Related Objections

• “I’m not ready to buy today”¹ 
• “I need to do more research”¹
• “I need to think about it”² 

These three statements can all indicate that the customer has unresolved doubts or reservations about the product or purchase. 

• Empathy: One way to overcome this is to demonstrate you understand their decision-making process, while gently demonstrating that time is of the essence and waiting longer to make a decision can hinder the offer.² 
• Position as a Resource: Additionally, 92% of customers tend to trust recommendations and advice from people like friends and family⁶, so positioning yourself as a resource they can come to with honest questions will help build the trust needed to close a sale.¹ 
• Get to Root Issue: Get to the underlying issue that is causing them to delay decision-making. Is it familial pressure, the particular vehicle, the time of year, or the financing? Always ask more and dig deeper so you can provide solutions and answers to any of those lingering questions.³ 

Financing & Cost Objections 

• “The monthly payment is too high”² 
• “I can get it cheaper somewhere else”¹ 
• “I don’t understand all of the financial details”² 

If the customer’s financial concern is related to understanding the payment terms or other financial details, this can be easy to solve. Financial terminology is often complex and intimidating. To help your customers move through the process, 

• Simplify: Break it down into smaller, more comprehensible explanations. Use visuals to convey your point and take time to walk through it with them, demonstrating patience.² 

If the price concerns aren’t related to understanding, you may need to employ a few other tactics: 

1. Cost is typically a main factor in a customer’s decision-making process, so if they express that the monthly payment is too high, break down everything that goes into that monthly payment and demonstrate other loan options or terms that can help them with their budget.² 
2. Always show you are there to help and get the information you need from them, including budget, so you can offer realistic solutions that they can actually agree to.³

Communication Tips to Overcome Car Sales Objections

• Acknowledge and Listen With a Positive Tone: It’s essential to immediately react to their objection in a positive and empathetic way so that the interaction goes down the right path. Maintain poise and a sense of calm. One way of managing an immediate customer objection is to add a positive spin to their point of view. some text
  • Example: If they say they need more time to think about it, you can express that it’s great they need more time, since it shows they are serious about buying. It demonstrates you are supportive and adaptable to their needs.
• Put Yourselves in Your Customers’ Shoes: As we’ve mentioned, empathy is key in sales. Fully acknowledging and understanding where your customer is coming from is essential, and part of that is making the customer feel comfortable. some text
  • Here’s How: Listen to their story, relate to it, tell your own stories, and allow them to get to know you as a person. When you have extra context on their story and needs, you can truly handle objections at a level that will resonate with their individual needs.
• Understand the Underlying Issue: When a customer says common objection statements, often there is a core issue that they are not fully expressing – whether they consciously know it or not. some text
  • Example: To get to this underlying issue, don’t ask direct questions, like, “What seems to be the issue?” Instead, use open-ended questions, listen to pain points, and tell stories of what other customers have expressed or you’ve noticed to see what might strike a chord. Then, you can easily find ways to offer solutions to that core issue and encourage a sale.⁴ 

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At ACV Auctions, we’re committed to helping you boost sales at your dealership by giving you flexible access to quality used car inventory. Our online auctions are available 24/7, including weekends, allowing you to stock up at times that suit your schedule. Each vehicle in our online car auction comes with a vehicle condition report completed by our expert team of vehicle condition inspectors and includes all the details you need to know including engine sound, undercarriage views, OBD II readings and more. Reach out to us today to sign up.

Sources

1. Autocorp.ai. “10 Common customer objections and how to overcome each of them.” Autocorp.ai. Retrieved September 3, 2024. https://www.autocorp.ai/blog/10-common-customer-objections 
2. Lot Lizard. 2023. “Overcoming Objections: Strategies for handling common F&I challenges.” DealerRefresh. Retrieved September 3, 2024. https://forum.dealerrefresh.com/threads/overcoming-objections-strategies-for-handling-common-f-i-challenges.9843/
3. RevDojo. 2024. “Dealing with common customer excuses.” RevDojo. Retrieved September 3, 2024. https://www.revdojo.com/dealing-with-common-customer-excuses 
4. AutoRaptor. 2023. “Overcoming objections in car sales: How to close tricky deals in 6 easy steps.” Auto Raptor. Retrieved September 3, 2024. https://www.autoraptor.com/blog/handling-car-sales-objections-how-to-close-tricky-deals-in-six-easy-steps/ 
5. Costet, Jonathan. 2021. “30 Mind-Blowing Sales Stats That Will Change The Way You Sell.” Gong. Retrieved September 8, 2024. https://www.gong.io/blog/sales-stats/ 
6. Nielsen. 2012. “Consumer Trust in Online, Social and Mobile Advertising Grows.” Nielsen. Retrieved September 8, 2024. https://www.nielsen.com/insights/2012/consumer-trust-in-online-social-and-mobile-advertising-grows/