**Speaker 1**
All right, does anybody ever find that they get objections which slow them down, get them stuck, or cause them to lose a deal? No? Okay, we will just move on to the next topic. Objections, objections.
What are some typical objections you would typically get?
**Speaker 2**
Too expensive.
**Speaker 1**
Too expensive, what else?
**Speaker 3**
Takes too long.
**Speaker 1**
Takes too long, yep.
**Speaker 4**
I just got one that they found someone else who had already done a lot of work in that particular jurisdiction, whereas I had not.
**Speaker 5**
I just lost a project that same night.
**Speaker 1**
Right, okay.
**Speaker 6**
Yes? I am presently working on a new client who wants to do an apartment complex, but another architect has his ear. Mr. X is telling him that he can get 33 units on there, and we did a parking lounge, so we could only do 28 units so far. I don't know where he's coming from, so I am at a loss at that point.
**Speaker 1**
Right, okay. So, any more? So, money, time, experience?
**Speaker 7**
Yeah, I just had one where I went to a site meeting with a client. He walked me through quickly in about 5 minutes and then had the objection, "Well, the other architects I spoke to gave me more ideas." It was one of those things where he was expecting a lot of free design in 5 minutes. I am not sure how to address that.
**Speaker 1**
Well, the way to address it is probably to leave. He's probably not a qualified prospect. So, I am going to say there are two parts to this.
There is qualifying to see if they are a genuine prospect or potential client for you. Not everyone you speak to will be, right? So, you don't need to handle objections from people who are never going to buy anyway.
Let's put all those in one category because it doesn't matter what you say; they were always going to use their friend anyway. They were really just looking for free ideas. So let's remove those because we can't count those; they were never going to go with you anyway. That leaves us with a group of people who could use your services if they wanted to, as long as you can cover their concerns, fears, and worries.
These are the ones we can deal with through objection handling. What are some of the reasons that people give you objections? What are some of the reasons people would give you objections that are genuine potential clients?
I am not talking about the ones who aren't. Yep, Charles?
**Speaker 6**
Usually, I find it's the cost in some form. That's one of their objections, the cost.
**Speaker 1**
Yeah, that's the objection, but what are the reasons? Am I missing something? Well, yeah, I am probably not explaining it very well.
One of the reasons they would give you an objection is because it is a real objection. That's a clue. It is a real objection. I actually don't have $500,000.
I've only got $400,000. That could be one reason for an objection. What's another reason that they could be giving you an objection?
**Speaker 7**
They want to negotiate.
**Speaker 1**
Okay, I'll repeat it if you don't have the mic. Doesn't matter. So, another reason could be that they were just trying to negotiate with you. What's another reason they might?
**Speaker 7**
They don't have any experience in it and don't know the real cost or schedule of construction or design.
**Speaker 1**
Yeah, so they might not know. They might be uneducated, so therefore, they have to challenge it. Another reason, what's another reason?
**Speaker 1**
They might just want to delay things. Some of them just want to play a bit of a game. They never take the first offer. Some cultures don't like to accept the first offer.
When you come to Las Vegas, you shouldn't accept the first offer. Like, it's never the price they want, but the price they'll accept is down quite a bit because they are so cheeky. So we're driving through Vegas.
We hadn't had a hotel booked for the first night. Eric rings up, "Can you give us a price?" "Yes, it'll be $200 plus resort fee." The resort fee is another cheeky one.
Eric puts up an objection, "Oh, goodness, we can get that cheaper online." "Oh, well, hang on there, Mr. Bobrow, I'll just check my system to see what's available." We go on hold for a moment, and lo and behold, "Oh yes, yes, we can do it for this price plus the resort fee."
So sometimes they give the objection because they've been trained by the industry or by their upbringing that someone will try and stiff you every time. So you always have to go for lower. Sometimes they might give you an objection because they don't want to look too keen. Think about when you've given objections to people in business. Did they always mean no? No, what did they mean? Tell me more.
**Speaker 1**
Tell me more, right. Tell me more. Let's negotiate.
Sometimes it just means yes, I just want you to, you know, think of a dating situation where you've had some objections. You know, ladies, did it always mean no? No, sometimes it, I am talking about dating. Talking about dating.
**Speaker 8**
I want you to try a little harder.
**Speaker 1**
Clint's laughing because he's had that.
**Speaker 8**
You need to try a little harder here, Clint. You're not working hard enough.
**Speaker 1**
It doesn't necessarily mean no. Sometimes it does, right.
So we need to take that into account. Once again, if we throw out all those who are genuine tire kickers who are never going to buy, we are now left with those who just, sometimes they have objections, they want to know more. So, some key points. There is no script or one answer to cover all objections all the time, every time.
But there is a strict structure for handling objections. And even if they are one of these people, the same structure will help you identify if they're one of these people. So there is a certain percentage of people you should just say, "Sorry, I don't think I can help you. See you later."
Because you are busy, right? There is nothing you can say or do that is going to put enough money in these people's pockets or make them into a right fit. So an objection doesn't always mean no.
Objections have a structure. There is a structure to objections, and questions are the tool to help you dismantle the objection structure. Now, the other key point is usually there's only about, and I think we've received about five or six examples, there are usually only five to eight objections that will come up probably 80% of the time for you.
There will be one on price, one on "we're talking to other architects," one on "you don't have enough experience," one on "I'm speaking to someone else and they're saying they can do something else that they probably can't do," and maybe a couple of other things. There are not that many objections, right? Which means if you can work out a process to overcome each of those and have an answer for each of those, great. That's all you need sometimes.
Sometimes you just need a good metaphor. But if you're walking around and you've had the same objections thrown at you for 20 or 30 years, and you've still not had a decent answer to it, it's time to find one. Let me tell you, this little guy here, Donald Moyne, he went and did a Ph.D. on handling objections in California, I think. So he has written books on sales scripts and he works on the NLP behind responses to objections.
He has become a doctor in handling objections, and what he would do is he would go into an organization at huge expense and say, "What are your most common objections?" This was in call centers, and he would say, "What are your most common objections?" And always, there are not that many. It's the same ones again and again. He would then take each objection and craft 30 different responses to each objection, depending on who the person was and what they were. So whatever objection came up, he could slap an ace on it or a Jack of Hearts or whatever you tended to have.
He would create these books for these organizations, these sales organizations, and these objection-handling scripts became so powerful to these organizations that they got to the point where they would only make a certain number of copies of these books because what they would do is hand them to the salesperson at the start of the day for them to use. If an objection came up, you turned to page 15, there are your 30 potential answers.
They even had serial numbers on the books. And at the end of the day, the salespeople had to hand the books back in. They had to be checked back in so they didn't get stolen and taken off because the competition would have wanted them; they were worth that much. I mean, hardcore selling.
Signed in, signed out, and checked back in at the end of the day. They even went to some extremes where they would print it in red so that if someone did get hold of it during the day, it couldn't be photocopied, the answers. So the type of process we are going to take a snapshot of is what they did to handle objections. There is a structure to objections, and it's no different than a court case. And it's no different, actually, to how beliefs get formed
.
It's the same structure for how you form a belief. It looks like this: Someone says, "I have an objection. Price too high." Your response is, "Okay, that's interesting. Why do you say that?" Why do you say that? And they will say, "Oh, I don't know, I always just say that."
They won't. They'll say, "Because of 1, 2, 3." These are the things you're after.
These are called references. We'll call them legs. These are the legs under the table. If you notice, all tables need at least three legs to hold them up. Make sense? What happens if you chop one of the legs down? It can fall down, and it's the same with beliefs or objections or court cases. Okay, so price too high. What you're after are the legs, and these are the reasons why you believe this.
The price is too high. Why do you say the price is too high? Can I ask you a question on that? Yes, because of 1, 2, 3.
Now, if you're going to collapse this objection, where do you look to attack this table? It's the legs. You're looking to break the legs down.
So when they give you the reason, then you can try and turn the reason around and show them how that reason is not true. It's hard to knock this down. It's the legs you need to break down.
Someone give me some examples. We'll do a rough example here, but someone give me... Charles, can you be the person who?
**Speaker 6**
Sure.
**Speaker 1**
So I say to you, right, you're ready to go ahead and get this project going. And you say no.
**Speaker 6**
Price is too high.
**Speaker 1**
Oh really, that's interesting. Can you tell me what you mean by that? Why do you say that?
**Speaker 6**
Well, because I already checked some prices from other people and it turns out that they're at least 15% cheaper than you are.
**Speaker 1**
Any other reason?
**Speaker 6**
Nothing that comes to mind.
**Speaker 1**
Right, okay. So now we know exactly what we're up against, whereas we didn't before. We just thought it was price. Others are 15% cheaper.
So what could be the possible situation here that we could break this leg? Because you guys have already talked about it today. Someone else is 15% cheaper. They are looking at it superficially.
**Speaker 3**
They could be lowballing.
**Speaker 1**
Sorry? They could be lowballing. Yep.
**Speaker 3**
They might put the B team on it though. They might put the B team on the project.
**Speaker 1**
Right, yep.
**Speaker 9**
They might be comparing apples and oranges.
**Speaker 1**
Yes. Yeah, they might be comparing apples and oranges. So, you know, you may not be quoting for the same thing. They may have missed some items.
But until you've got that, "the others are cheaper," it is hard to collapse this. But can you see how there are lots of different reasons why you could say, "Well, you know, 15% cheaper, really look, this is kind of common. When I price, I am a little bit different from a lot of architects. I tend to price for everything. I tend to predict what you're going to have and I price the whole thing.
There are a lot of people out there who will price 70 to 80 percent of what is required, and then they say, 'Well, you've got to make those decisions,' and you find those add-ons, and I am sure you've all got a story around that where someone else quoted but they haven't included enough." So, quite easily, you could talk about that, depending on the B team. That would be interesting. I would say, "Okay, it would be interesting to see what they are quoting on, because what I often find is that people quote on different things, depending on what they've heard and what their assumptions and expectations are. I might be quoting on more than they are quoting on.
If you're interested in working with me, would it be useful if we sat down just so I can make sure that I'm quoting on all that they're doing or that there's nothing missing from their quote? I'm happy to do that for you if you put the two quotes side by side, and I can tell you if they are genuinely cheaper for the same thing or if they're not." You won't always get it, but you've got a chance now. Charles might then say, "Oh, okay, that makes sense. I have heard of people under-quoting." As soon as there's a little bit of doubt, that's all we need because there's only one leg. Charles goes, "Oh, okay, then I won't discount you."
I'll have to do some more. I'm not sure. So now he's not sure that my price is too high.
See that? Let's do... Richard?
**Speaker 6**
Yeah. You mentioned the question with your retort was to ask them, "Would it be useful if I could review your other proposal and compare and see where we're at?"
**Speaker 1**
Yes. But put it in their benefit. So you might even say, "Listen, you're probably wondering if I'm over-quoting or if the other person is under-quoting. I may be too high because I may have some assumptions. The other person may be too low because they've made some assumptions. You're probably wondering if you're comparing apples with oranges here. And it's a fair concern."
And they go, "Well, yes, okay. Why don't we put the two quotes side by side and just make sure both quotes are comparable with what they're doing? Because at the moment, that seems surprising to me. Either I am overpricing or they are underpricing. Let's put them side by side so that you can at least see where we both fit. Let's turn them both into apples."
Now it's not too high, it's, "Oh, we need some more investigation." Now you've only given one, but in a court... let's have a look at a court case.
**Speaker 10**
I have a question. The problem that I often find with this is that we don't get engaged on the price question. We get informed after the fact when they've already made a decision. So they'll call us up, "Okay, thanks for your proposal. We went with the other guy because they were cheaper." At that point, it's like their decision is made. I don't really have an opportunity to even engage with them on this.
**Speaker 1**
It sounds like they've made a decision to go with the other guys. And what's the easiest reason in the world to give a Dear John letter to all the other potential providers? Yeah.
**Speaker 5**
So you're implying that might not actually be the reason?
**Speaker 1**
Of course not. No. They like the other guys more.
**Speaker 5**
How can we find that out though?
**Speaker 1**
Get closer to them probably. You may be too distant. You may be too distant from them.
I'm not sure if you're involved in the proposal. But it may be if you're getting that type of answer later on, it may be you're not, or whoever is supposed to be involved, is not close enough to the people making the decision for you to know what's really going on. Because the easiest thing in the world is to say you're too expensive. See you later.
Right, it's seldom like, you know, all the research that's ever been done ever, when they interview the buyers, the buyers have put price between number 5 or 8 on the priority list. And so, okay, so this is all the research on buyers. They put price about 5 to 8, typically.
The people selling their stuff always put price at number 1, as if they think it's the major factor. So people selling stuff think price is number 1. People buying stuff think it's about fifth to eighth in terms of order and priority.
So sellers always see, "Oh, we were too expensive. That's why we didn't win it." No. The honest truth is, the reason you didn't win it is because you didn't build a good enough relationship with the decision-makers, or you didn't let them feel confident that you knew what they really wanted or that you were going to give them a better life.
That's probably more the case. And if the only answer is price at the end, you probably, I'm not saying in your case, I don't know, but in many cases, you weren't close enough to the decision-makers to actually find out what was really going on.
**Speaker 12**
Richard, the other thing that's related to this, not just apples and oranges, is why do you think our price is higher? It's because we offer higher quality, look at these awards, or look at the things that we include in the service and the type of confidence that we have. So there is the expectation that things that are a higher price have higher value, and you can actually play on that.
**Speaker 12**
To say, "Well, we understand our price is higher. That's because we do better work." So if you are not a commodity and you are providing better service, interpreting things better, and providing more value, it's really value.
**Speaker 1**
Yes, you know, and that's a good answer. Is price your number one criteria when you're doing this job? Is price your number one criteria on this project? Well, especially if you ask it early on, if you ask at the end when they've already made their decision, they might say, "Yes, you're too expensive, see you later."
It's just a quick way to get rid of people
. If you ask it early on in the project, "Is price your number one criteria?" most people will say no. Okay, what's more important? Is it price?
No, it's not. So that's good. Because if price was your number one criteria, I'd have to say we'd opt out because we're not the cheapest architects in town. If you want cheap, I can point you in the direction of a couple of ladies and a couple of guys who are really cheap.
I mean, they are excruciatingly cheap. I've got their name and phone number, you're welcome to them if you want cheapest. But if you don't want the cheapest, look, we're not the cheapest in town. I'm not talking about you. We're not the cheapest in town, and we've still got a truckload of work. We're busier than the firms that are really cheap.
Why do you think that is, John?
**Speaker 13**
Because you must be good.
**Speaker 1**
Correct. Right? Now he's just told me I'm good. In fact, whatever he answers, the answer is, "That's right."
That's right, John. And if that's a conversation that happens early on, it's a little bit hard for them to come back later and say, "Oh, they were cheaper." It's a bit harder for them to admit that because you've already got up front that "let's not even start if you want the cheapest." We aren't the bargain basement cheapest architects in town.
We like to provide value. There are cheap people out there, and that's fine if you want to use them, but it's not us. So if you have that little conversation early, it sort of can diffuse that little thought later on, or at least take away one of the reasons. All you're trying to do is create doubt in one of the legs, one of the real reasons.
As I showed you before, the way to break these legs, you've got to work out the structure of the objection. So what they were saying is, "Your price is too high." So what they're saying is, what they're sort of saying, you have to read between that, "Your price equals not best value." That's sort of what they're saying, isn't it?
What you have to do is say, "Actually, that doesn't equal that. Our price equals the best value, but it's just that you haven't seen all the other things included." That's a pre-frame. All right, let's do another one.
What's another objection? We need another potential client. Yes, we've got Tanya.
**Speaker 14**
I don't see anything in your portfolio that looks like what I'm looking for. Or I don't think that you've done the projects that...
**Speaker 1**
Experience?
**Speaker 9**
Experience.
**Speaker 1**
Experience. And why do you say that? Why do you say that I lack experience?
**Speaker 14**
Well, I know that what I'm looking for is ultra-modern contemporary, and I'm seeing everything but that.
**Speaker 1**
Okay, so not seeing it in the portfolio is what you're saying, right? Not seeing... okay. Anything else?
**Speaker 14**
Well, I am looking to build a 15,000 square foot house. Have you ever done that?
**Speaker 14**
I am not sure that you have.
**Speaker 1**
Okay, so because you haven't seen a 15,000 square foot house, and you haven't seen my experience. Okay?
**Speaker 14**
You look really young to me.
**Speaker 10**
Well, thank you.
**Speaker 1**
Look young. Okay, now she probably struggles to come up with much more, okay. So now we know exactly what she's basing her "you lack experience" on, okay.
Now, if I can counter them, I can now counter them. So not seeing it in my portfolio. Okay. When we spoke, you talked about a certain style you wanted.
So I think we may have made a mistake by putting in pictures in our portfolio that actually fit the style you wanted, but weren't actually the type of property you were looking for. So if I can show you a portfolio of the work we have done that's similar to the type of work you were doing, and I could show you, you didn't see the 15,000 square foot house, if I can show you some 15,000 square foot houses and bigger houses that I hadn't shown you, and I look young, if I can show you my birth certificate, would that satisfy you in terms of understanding our experience? You still may not choose us, but at least you would know whether we had the experience or not.
**Speaker 5**
Sure.
**Speaker 1**
Right. So all we've got now is she's got a bit of doubt.
**Speaker 5**
I think her point is she doesn't have a portfolio with the right style. She can't prove that.
**Speaker 1**
No. And if that's an absolute must, then I have to say, well, okay, I can't do that. But a lot of times, the objections they give you, you actually can counter them if you knew what they were talking about.
**Speaker 14**
Yeah, and you are kind of right in that, I kind of brought it up earlier that just because I haven't previously done exactly what you have in mind doesn't mean that I am not capable of doing that.
**Speaker 1**
Yeah. And you could go into this.
Is it the fact you haven't seen it in the portfolio, the exact type of job, or is it that you haven't seen the type of work that you want in your house? What's more important? But at least we know what we're looking at, and we can look to counter these individually. All we need is a little bit of doubt, "Oh, okay, well maybe you are experienced."
And this starts to crumble. This is exactly what lawyers do in court. So one side says, let's say they're guilty. The prosecuting lawyer will say he's guilty because he was in the area at 9:30 at night.
He was carrying a knife. He had motive. And because of that, Your Honour, we believe you should find him guilty. Right?
You have to have your case. So what does the defence lawyer then go and do? He can't just say, here's what a defence lawyer can't do. He can't say, "Your Honour, he's not guilty."
"I rest my case. I think we'll be fine here." No, he has to look at each of the things that prosecution brings up, the objection. The defence witness has to say, "Well, you say he was there at 9:30, but the photos you've got of him there do not have a number, they do not have a date on them."
And the security guard said these photos could have been taken anywhere between 8:30 and 10 o'clock. Maybe it was 9:30, but maybe it was half an hour before. Right? You said |
