Selling RV's; Overcoming Objections

There's a sale made every time a customer comes in contact with a salesperson. They sell us on "why they can't" or we sell them on "why they should." The customer is often the better salesperson!

When purchasing a big ticket item such as an RV, there are a few common objections that come in to play.

Some of them are:

• · "We just started to look and this is the first place we stopped."
• · "We never make a decision like this on the spur of the moment."
• · "I have to pick my daughter up at the airport." (A classic!)
• · "We need to check with our banker before we do anything."
• · "We need to check with our financial advisor first."
• · And the age old “I want to think about it!"

Of course there are ton's more to throw into this magical "smokescreen."

I teach a "10 Step" selling process, which I won't go into in this blog, but I will cover one important part of the selling process prior to overcoming the objections, no matter what they are.

That important step is to get a "committment" prior to working numbers of any kind. Getting this committment is a good way to find out what might be standing in the way early on.

Let's say you are selling a new Motor Home. One step is to take the Motor Home out on a test drive with the customer. When you pull back on the lot, tell them to park the RV over in the "Sold Row." There probably isn't a "Sold Row," but they don't know that, and you are looking for their reaction to that statement anyway. If they don't say anything about it, it's a good posibility that you have a good shot at their business. Once they park the RV, ask them (4 questions) and wait for their responses before moving to the next one.

Here are the questions:

• "Do you have any lingering questions?"
• "Do you like the RV?"
• "What surprised you about this unit?"
• "If there were ONE thing that would keep you from moving forward, right now, what would that one thing be?"

It's the last question that really matters the most. No matter what the answer is to that question, follow it up with this. "I understand, and I agree that's important."

It's more than likely that their answer to that last question will be "it depends on if you can get the money right!"

If the answer is "the money," then follow it up like this. "I understand, and I agree that the money is important to you, but other than money, would there be anything else? In fact no matter what their answer is to that last question, always follow it up with the same response. “I understand, and I agree...other than that, would there be anything else?"

Let me be very clear about this:

Let's say you ask them the fourth question "If there were one thing that would keep you from moving forward right now; what would that one thing be?" and they answer "money!" You then ask them again, "I understand and I agree that money is important, but other than money, would there be anything else?" This time they say, "We don't like the color of the couch!" This time you say, I understand, but other than the money and the couch, would there be anything else?" If there is another answer again, just add it to your question again and keep going until there is absolutely nothing else!

After that series of question you take the customer inside to work the numbers. Remember this; "you sell on your feet and negotiate on your seat!"

When you are presenting numbers to a customer, you ask them to give you an OK at the bottom of the sales order, or worksheet. Typically this is where most salespeople fall apart. The customer will throw out one of the objections similar to what I mentioned in the first few paragraphs. The key here is to "isolate" this objection. You need to make sure it's the only thing keeping them from moving forward. Once you get that objection isolated, you can work on overcoming it. You will be unable to overcome an objection, if it isn't the real reason, or there are more to follow. In other words, you must get the customer to admit, there is nothing else. Once you've gotten that answer from him/her, you can go to work to solve the dilemma.

For those that have further questions, please ask in the comment section and I will be glad to answer.

In the meantime, happy selling!