Objections are rarely great news, but they indicate interest and are an opportunity. As leasing professionals, it is our job to find opportunities in every situation, even the difficult ones. We all want to be as customer centric as possible.
Your community weaknesses are typically your objections. Sure, they aren’t fun to deal with, but we all have them. The trick is approaching them with the right mindset. That mindset being that objections are actually good news. You are getting objections because your prospect is interested. If they weren’t, they’d simply move on to another community.
When a prospect evaluates your weaknesses, he weighs them against your strengths and then decides how significant they are. You need to ensure that your strengths make the weaknesses a non-issue. That means you have to become a problem solver with great credibility.
The trick to overcoming objections is preparation. This is not the time to wing it or cross your fingers and hope the prospect doesn’t ask the question. Be prepared and confident with a thoughtful and respectful response. Let’s run through a few tips.
- Your prospect is the most important person in the room.
Whether it is over the phone, in person, or even email, treat every prospect as if she is the most important person in the room. When you give your prospect your undivided attention, you build a stronger relationship. Your prospect knows you sincerely want to help.
- Focus on the prospect’s needs to establish trust.
Ask your prospect what problems he wants to solve. Or what are his goals with a move? The sooner you focus on the prospect’s needs, the sooner he trusts you, and the sooner he concludes you have his best interest in mind.
- Listen carefully and never make assumptions
Listen carefully so you can determine which points are most important to your prospect. One of the biggest complaints I hear is that leasing professionals offer boilerplate solutions before they have listened to the prospect’s problem. Even if the stories are nearly the same, prospects want to tell you their story.
- Offer information and educate the prospect
Listening carefully gives you the ability to offer information and then a solution to your prospect’s problem. The more you educate the prospect, the more she believes that you understand her problem and have the skills and qualifications to solve it. This also creates incredible loyalty.
- Explain the benefits of living at your community.
Don’t forget the benefits! Especially the things that can’t be seen or touched. Prospects want to know all the great things about choosing your community for their home, so don’t be afraid to humble brag a little.
- Do not pressure the prospect for a decision.
Lastly, never apply pressure for the sale. This will ruin all the credibility you just established when overcoming objections. Allow the prospect to make his own decision after you’ve done everything you can to educate him. Keep the line of communication open and be incredibility responsive now and in the future.
Presented by:
Misty Sanford, Founder
North of Creative