Handling Sales Objections – I’m Waiting For My Tax Return

Welcome to Prepare to Win. Today we're going to continue talking about our soft skill sets. We're going to talk about overcoming objections and we're going to talk about one everybody's hearing right now I'm waiting for my tax return. Stay tuned. Hi, I'm David Lowe, the Automotive Sales Coach, and thank you so much for joining us for Prepare to Win this podcast. All of the episodes we do is really dedicated to help you live and work with excellence. I have that joy, peace and satisfaction. Today we're going to continue talking about our soft skill sets. There's hard skill sets how to run the computer, how to use the program. The soft skill sets are those communication tools, customer service tools and, of course, they're closing, negotiating tools. They're really people skill sets. One of those soft skill sets that we use all the time in life and in sales is overcoming objections. We're interrupting the normal flow of our episodes. This is why I'm coming to you without grace this week. I wanted to get this to you right away because we're in the midst of that tax season.

People have been asking what do we say when we hear I'm waiting for my tax refund? I want to walk you through that today. It won't be so much as living with excellence today, as it will be working and selling with excellence today. However, I believe the same path that we take to overcome objections when we're selling anything is the path we would take when we have a relational dispute, a relational negotiation, when we want to reach a win-win decision with somebody in our life and our personal life. We talked about it before past episodes. What is an objection? It's simply a reason for not moving forward. A condition is something that must be met, but most objections can be overcome. There's a statement of a feeling. I feel like I shouldn't do this right now. I feel like this is right. It's really a statement saying I'm going to choose to decide later. We talk in an automotive sales coach and on the dealership playbook. Really, what people are saying is I'm not sold yet.

When we get to an objection like that we've talked about it in a prior episode and we talk about we always want to use empathy to absorb that. Empathy says I hear you, I understand you and I'm listening, you're important, I value you and, by the way, our next episode is going to dive deep into empathy. We believe this is one of the most important skill sets you can have for living well or selling well, or I should say, and or selling well for both. So empathy is critical, developing the ability to slow down and not respond, but simply let the other person know that you heard them and you understood. So, whatever we have an objection, we want to cushion it and we want to use our heart and connect ourselves to whoever we're talking to, to their heart, through this thing called empathy. Then from there we have to take it based on what we have, and a lot of times we will use logic or we'll use good questions to understand more. It depends what the objection is, and we'll cover we'll cover that in next episodes.

But I want to talk about this I'm waiting for my tax return right Now. Is that an objection, a reason or a feeling for not moving forward? Or is that a condition? I can't really buy it without my. You know we don't really know that right now, do we? And so oftentimes sales people will hear I'm waiting for my tax return and they will jump on that one and go right back after what, if I can do it without the tax return? Right before they really absorb it, they try to solve it right away and maybe their solutions are valid, but the buyer is resistant to them because there was no empathy there. We're going to talk about those solutions. So when people say I got to wait for my tax return, we don't know really if it's condition has to be met or feeling I'm not sure I should do it until my taxes come back. I'm not sold yet, all right, so we have to remember that.

So here's what I want to tell you. This is a timely episode designed to really meet you right now with your buyers that are considering waiting for the taxes, and what they're really saying is I haven't decided what to do yet. How do we handle those? Okay, use empathy. What could empathy sound like for somebody who's waiting? I would say oh, fantastic, right, um, do you guys normally get money back or do you pay, right I'm? It would sound like oh, wow, I'm doing the same thing. I'm doing my taxes right now. How do you guys normally do on that, right? We might get them talking about their taxes.

In this case, I don't really have my next step because I really don't know what they're saying. Are they saying I can't get approved without my money down? Are they saying I want to use the taxes, my money down? Are they saying if I want to make sure I don't owe a ton before I invest in the car. You see, we really don't know what they were saying, so we don't really know if it's an objection or a condition yet, but I'm going to hear it.

As an objection, something can be overcome until I find out more information. And once I have more information, I can accurately overcome it and continue to sale. Or, if it is a condition, game plan how to move forward from there. Right, so I might use a conversation, right? Oh right, it's tax time. I'm doing the same thing, so tell me about that.

What's going on with your taxes? You're trying to get them to say what's happening with it. Now, what do I know? I like to get talking about the taxes to see if I can learn some things and if I feel like it sounds more like a feeling and an objection and a condition. You know what I want to do. I want to do what I always do when it's a feeling uh, I'm not sold yet. I want to go back to what, back to the car. The car is the star. So, as you're listening to this, you're thinking, when this tax thing comes in, we're going to try to get the buyer to talk about, so we can really kind of understand is this something that they can't do without their taxes, or is it a feeling that they have, and it's a feeling let's always take them back to the car, because the car is the star. So think about this when the taxes do come back, will the car that they inquired about even be here, right, and so this is a big thing. The question is what got them interested in this car? Why do they want this vehicle and why are they looking now, right? So we're looking for that motivation and that lifestyle, and oftentimes we can take them through this conversation right back to talking about the car, where the buyer will give you their story, and in their story is the reason for them to go forward now.

Now, when we offer a plan like this hey, you know what? We have some pickup payments. Some of our banks will let us get the car now and put the down payment when you get your tax return. You can also, of course, get a. There's also a solve that would say that AsianR Block will give you a loan for your money. I'm going to tell you what I would do as a sales manager. I would say listen, what about putting that money down on a credit card? I'll pay your interest until your tax return comes in?

There's a lot of different ways that we can try to move the buyer forward so that the car that they want is available for them, and in other words, they can get it now and somehow we can use their tax down. Oftentimes they don't really need their tax down to get the car. They have money elsewhere, and what I mean and, by the way, this is the biggest majority they have money elsewhere. So all they have to do is pull that money out of savings for 30 or 60 days and then replace that savings with their tax return. By the way, you can have your tax return directly deposited into that account, if you want, right, okay, so why are we talking about this?

We've come upon in our podcast. We've come upon a series of episodes that are talking about soft skills. Overcoming objection really uses a lot of our soft skills, right? The ability to create conversation, the ability to ask good questions, the ability to actively listen you learned about a few podcasts the ability to use empathy to connect with the person in front of us on what they're talking about and truly understand. We use a lot of those soft skills to overcome objections, and I'm waiting for my tax is no different. Don't assume they have to wait to buy.

Go back to the car, make the car the star and if it's something they want, let's find a way for them to have what they want Now. Maybe it's an H&R tax return loan. Maybe it's just paying interest on the credit code. Talk to your managers about this. Maybe, uh, maybe it's them using down payment they already have in replacing it with their tax money. There's a number of ways, but when you walk the buyer back through the car, you may have that opportunity. So I may find out that we haven't solved that. This may be happening during understanding goals and I might say you know what? Let's worry about the taxes later.

Since you're here, you like this car and here's why you want it and here's what you're replacing. I get all that. This car is a great option for that. Let's go ahead and take a look at it before we worry about taxes. Why don't we make sure this is the right car? If it is, I'm sure we can find a solution. If it isn't, we don't have to worry about it. We'll go back to the drawing board and look for another car. How does that sound? Okay, so does that make sense to you? So everybody wants to give you the one phrase or the one turnaround. I don't believe it exists for this. If you isolate it. I'm waiting for my tax return. Okay, so if you had your tax return, would you be buying this car? Really doesn't work.

Some of the uh making the objection to close or isolating it probably is not going to be as beneficial. It works so well for so many things. But that is beneficial here. Here we need to seek first to understand, using our great soft skills active listing, creating conversation, uh with good questions, using what they say to formulate next questions, trying to uncover not just what they want but why they want it, who they are, how it fits their life. And if all that lines up, we may want to go back out to that car and make sure that's the great car.

And if that is the right car, I guarantee you we can come up with solution, cause I tell you this, committed buyers become flexible. They become flexible about payment. They become flexible about trade. They write price. They become flexible about term interest rate down. They become flexible A lot of things and I think a lot of them will be flexible about how they apply their tax down. Okay, I hope that helped. If it did help, let us know. Like the like the episode, go on and like our podcast, follow us. We're on almost every available platform and we look forward to the next episode to see we are going to step back again in the soft skills and we're going to dive deeper into the power of empathy uh, not just in selling, but in your life. We'll see you next time, good selling.