Customer: “Your price is too high!”
Typical Salesperson: “How much do I need to lower it by to earn your business?”
ARE YOU FOR REALS? – First off, as a professional salesperson offering to lower the price is a last resort attempt to close a customer. Unfortunately, most salespeople do not know how to build value during the Presentation and Demonstration so the only thing that they are left to close with is lowering the money.
ARE YOU FOR REALS? – Never address an objection before validating it. One of the biggest mistakes that a salesperson can make is to handle a COMPLAINT like an objection. Most salespeople look at complaint as a REAL OBJECTION, when all the customer was just making a statement. The salesperson is actually the one who ends up turning this into an objection when they attempt to address and overcome this. This is the beginning of the end.
So, what is the actual difference between a complaint and an objection?
Here is a simple definition:
Complaint: A statement that a situation is unsatisfactory or unacceptable.
Objection: an expression or feeling of disapproval or opposition; a reason for disagreeing.
But those two definitions are so similar.
I understand that you feel that way. I too felt that way, until I found a new way of looking at a complaint versus an objection. The following is the example that made me understand the difference.

Child: “It’s too cold to go outside.”
Parent: “You wouldn’t let the fact that it is a little cold outside keep you from going outside and having fun with your friends, would you?”
Child: “No.”
Parent: “Then get out there and have FUN!”
This was the Ah-Ha moment for me, because I too have said it was too cold to go outside, and then sure enough a few minutes later I was outside having fun. I realized that I really wanted to go outside, however I also realized that I wanted to complain about it first. Complaints are just the way that people release the anxiety of what they are about to do.
Other things your customer may say that seem like an objection but may just be a complaint:
- “I need to talk to my spouse.”
- “The dealer down the street is cheaper than you.”
- “My payoff is more than that.”
- “The payments are too high!”
These are just a few examples of things that I am sure you hear on a regular basis than my only be complaints. The next time your customer gives you a COMPLAINT is say, “ARE YOU FOR REALS? You wouldn’t let that stop you…”
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