McCarron: How to Handle Customer Objections

“What’s your problem?” Such a loaded question, isn’t it? It is impossible to convey the meaning in the message of that question without context or tone of voice. Some may initially feel a tone of anger or frustration applied to it, which makes it aggressive and condescending — even accusatory. 

To others, it may come with an inquisitive connotation — a tone that conveys concern and invites the other person to open up and tell a story. Additional words of encouragement would inform the listener that the question was intended to help, not condemn.

But the phrase alone, posed by itself, relays a directness that judgment has occurred and the listener needs to explain their way out of a hole. 

In the tire industry, we deal with a minimum of two questions for each interaction with our customers, usually “What is the problem with the vehicle today?” and “What problem has this caused you today?” 

To deal only with the problem of the vehicle — be it an oil change, tire rotation or bald tires — is to only get half an answer. That leaves half of the problem to rise to the surface later, either during the repair or after. Sometimes the customer’s problem is larger than the vehicle’s problem, which leads to hesitation. This hesitation by the customer has another name: objection. During a repair, it’s a massive inconvenience to “resell” a job or stop and return the vehicle.

A complaint after the sale is named buyer’s remorse — the customer’s lingering questions about the work, after the work has been completed. It could be rooted in a lack of trust. It could be rooted in finances or rooted in deception. The part of the equation in preventing buyer’s remorse is something we control is upfront, at the beginning.

Remember, customer motivation in resolving a vehicle issue is always inclusive of the problem it is causing the customer. The more organized a customer is, the less of an issue maintenance or an unexpected flat tire will be for their personal problems. This usually coincides with their ability to pay for such services without disrupting their time or money. (Yes, people pay for vehicle repairs with their time, too.) 

Having to resell a job is an enormous inconvenience for both parties — you and your customer. When this happens, very likely, trust has been eroded to a point where it isn’t likely to mend itself. Throw in a discount and you have only proven that the original price you quoted wasn’t the actual price. And standing your ground puts you at odds with whatever the customer has as evidence of why the work should stop. Thankfully, this doesn’t happen often. But buyer’s remorse is real. 

An objection early in the process is an invitation, not a stop order. Much of the education in the industry teaches salespeople to solve the objection and provide options to the customer. Money objection? Offer credit. Time objection? Provide some form of transportation. Objections are not one-dimensional. They’re also not always real. Sometimes an objection is a smoke screen for a deeper, different objection that exists that the customer isn’t comfortable talking about yet. 

Before we get to the reasons for objections, we have to first address a bigger concern: missing the objection entirely. I have spent decades working with salespeople, using recording and playback as a tool to improve their skillset.

Even in group settings, the whole group sometimes didn’t recognize when an objection was made by the customer. Generally, the salesperson and the group of salespeople watching were so focused on getting through the script — their own half of the conversation — that they didn’t even hear the objection. They heard “an” objection, but rarely addressed it directly unless it came at the end of the sales spiel. 

Customers do not have to abide by a rule about remaining quiet during a sales pitch. They are free to interrupt at any point. The salesperson or a service advisor — if their skill level is sufficient — must be on the lookout for these objections. They almost always result in the future interruption of services.

If the salesperson talks through an objection, the customer often leaves the objection behind, like a landmine to step on later. This is not intentional. The customer is often in the learner role of a sales conversation. They are deferring authority to the speaker. To object to a missed objection is not a communication skill most customers possess. Some do and are quite good at “circling back.” But most are not. They are just people trying to get their car serviced and problems handled. 

When a salesperson receives formal education, they can practice the skill of knowing when to talk and when to listen in a controlled environment. The next issue is managing those objections. The reason you can’t just solve a problem immediately is that you don’t know why the objection is occurring or if it’s even real. How do you solve a fake problem? You don’t. 

Objections are organized into several categories: the customer doesn’t understand the problem, they don’t believe the solution or evidence presented, they don’t find the necessity of the solution presented or they don’t think the solution is worth the cost. 

Time or money can be an objection and quite frankly, can often comprise the core of most objections. The problem with money as an objection is that the real problem is buried deeper. You cannot sell credit as a solution to a customer who has the means to pay. An objection to price is different from an issue of affordability or just sticker shock.

An objection to time may be about prioritizing the customer’s repair over others. An offer for a ride will not satisfy that objection. Offer too many solutions to a problem that receives a “no” from the customer and the gap eventually becomes too wide and deep to overcome. A skilled advisor must be selective in their offered solutions. 

The key? Keep the customer talking. Have the customer explain the objection more deeply. Spend time drawing the real issue to the surface and you’ll eventually have a real problem to solve. (How often has a price objection turned into a customer saying, “I don’t need another credit card?”) 

Objecting to price isn’t always about affordability. It could be disbelief that the price is accurate. It could be an attempt by the customer to buy some time so they can organize their thoughts on shifting around some priorities. Don’t try to think for customers. Help them consider the situation and ask questions about blind spots. Call out any emotions you may see. It’s OK if the customer corrects you. Putting emotion on the table helps clear the blockage that emotion is causing. 

Many service advisors often think that customer price objections can be solved with a discount. You’re not solving anything by discounting. You’re moving the problem forward to the next visit. And a time objection that results in you “squeezing someone in” now becomes the norm that you should always be able to do. The next thing you know, you’re trying to get 10 oil changes done by noon and everyone is stressed out. By the way, your afternoon will be dead, too. That’s just how it works. 

Diagnosing a problem with a vehicle accurately is a challenging task in and of itself. Some squeaks are easy to identify. Some are harder to find. Diagnosing the problem the customer is having today is similar. They’re squeaking over price, but greasing the solution with a discount can create a comeback. It also creates an expectation next time: “Your price isn’t your price until I squeak.” 

Instead of explaining why a repair is expensive, get the customer to continue talking. You can start by agreeing that several hundred dollars is a lot of money. That’s an easy agreement — common ground. Find an appropriate question to ask that lets the customer continue to think out loud. There are literally a thousand questions or more you can use to ask a customer to explain their objection. However, it’s not practical to memorize a handful of automatic responses or questions. This will seem scripted and disingenuous. Just talk to them. If you were on the other side of the counter, wouldn’t you have some questions before dropping $600 on a repair you know nothing about or how to do yourself? Would you just trust the other person blindly? Help them think through the issue. Don’t try to solve anything until you have a direct answer from the customer that their objection even has a problem you can solve. 

Many of you have probably noticed a little more reluctance on the part of the customer to spend money on vehicle maintenance or repairs. The COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 era of easy sales is officially over. Customers are simply more conscious about where their money is going. If you push them too fast, you won’t solve the problems the customer brought to you in the first place.