Handling Objections in Real Estate 

Welcome back to Mike Ferry TV. My name is Tony Smith.

I am thrilled that Mike Ferry asked me to step in on this edition of Mike Ferry TV. Here we are on the week of May 22nd. Okay? And Mike asked me to really bring forward a very specific topic today. We’re going to talk about handling objections. Okay. Don’t leave. We’re going to talk about handling objections. But before we get into that, I want to have you think about something here. We are approaching the end of May. Okay. Five months of the year is pretty much in the bag. We have seven months left to achieve your goals. I wrote it down this morning.

“We have seven months left to achieve your goals.”

Are you passionately and aggressively pursuing your transaction and income goal for the year? Are you passionately and aggressively pursuing your income and transaction goal for this year? Right. What we know is many people kick off the year with some high expectations and then most people give up on their business plan, they start giving up on their goals, they start giving up on their income and they settle into things just being the way they’re going to be. We don’t want that to be you. I want you to commit, recommit, recommit to the goals that you’ve set for yourself. How many times have you heard Mike Ferry say, “Keep going? There’s a lot of business to be done.” That applies here today at the end of May. All right.

Handling of Objections

So let’s talk about handling objections. Okay. Handling objections. This is one of the most interesting things to me and one of the most intriguing topics that we have in MFO. This one intrigues me. Okay, let’s start with a little setup on this. Back when Mike Ferry started selling Real Estate a long, long time ago, okay, when he went back and he was in the Real Estate business and he started in the mid-70s, right? He came into Real Estate. Now what we know is Mike Ferry was an incredible salesperson trained by some of the best people in the world. There was no problem with Mike being a great salesperson. So Mike Ferry went right to work for a small independent company in Southern California, and he went out and started knocking on 100 doors a day in the Huntington Beach area. Okay, first of all, I hope you can grasp that. Knocked on 100 doors every workday in Huntington Beach. Are you doing that?

Okay, Well, what happened is Mike is an aggressive salesperson. He started talking to all of the other agents in this small company and said, “Okay, so when you lose a listing, why do you lose it? Well, what happens when you don’t get a listing? Why?” And he started getting all the answers. Well, some people say they want to wait and then I miss the opportunity, some people say they have a friend in the business and they list with the friend, some people say they tell me they want to sleep on it and then they list with somebody else, some people tell me they want to cut the commission and our company doesn’t cut commissions, so I lose the listing.

Handling objections in the sales process

And what came from that dialog is Mike Ferry knew how to generate business. He was going to go out and prospect, no question. But then he figured out that in Real Estate, one of the problems that agents are faced with is they don’t know how to handle the objections they receive. So when Mike did all this research, he gathered the ten most common or excuse me, 12 most common objections that people give as a Seller when it comes to listing property. And Mike said, Well if I can figure out the responses to the 12 most common objections and I can learn how to overcome those, will I then win the listing over my competition? And of course, Mike Ferry started selling 100 homes a year when nobody was selling 100 homes a year in those times.

“Well if I can figure out the responses to the 12 most common objections and I can learn how to overcome those”

So the reason this baffles me is I personally am baffled by this because, in my own personal career in selling Real Estate, this one made sense to me when I heard this. There are 12 common objections. They never change. Why not learn the answers to them so you can succeed? It’s so simple. Like why not learn the answers to the things you’re going to get for the rest of your life? So I’m going to ask you directly, the person watching the person in your seat right now, how strong are you in handling the most common objections you receive? How strong are you right now? Is there work to be done? This one is crazy because I just don’t see why we wouldn’t do this. And at the same time, most agents, when we talk about handling objections are I don’t want to deal with that. Interesting to me.

1) Handling objections is a simple process

So here are some points I made for this. Okay. The first point I wrote down, it’s a simple process. Don’t complicate it. Handling objections is a simple process. Don’t complicate it. Gosh, there are times when we’ll see these people send us these scripts all the time, these objection-handling scripts that are like pages long. There are like five, six, and seven paragraphs trying to handle the objection. Why would we make it so complicated? I don’t believe people want it that complicated. If you notice Mike Ferry’s objection handlers. They are direct, right, they are logical, they are to the point and they work. Why would you complicate it?

Pro-Tip #1 – Just memorize and internalize our objection handlers

I made these notes under it. Just memorize and internalize our objection handlers. Don’t skip over those and go to some really technical, you know, some incredibly creative approach to handling an objection. Just memorize our scripts.

Pro-tip #2 – Understand the logic of our scripts

I wrote down work to understand the logic in our scripts. If you’ll take time with the objection handlers we have and you’ll really work to understand the logic in them, they make sense, they’re logical, but you need to work on it personally.

Pro-tip #3 – The client will believe you when you believe you

And then the last thing I wrote down on this point, remember, the client will believe you when you believe you. We want you to cut the commission. Okay? If you don’t believe you’re worth the full commission when you go to handle that objection, they won’t believe you. The client will believe you when you believe you. You have one major job when it comes to objection handling, and it’s for you to build the belief behind them, to understand them, to believe it, to trust it, and as soon as you do, your belief is what makes the objection handler work. So work on it.

2) Direct correlation between the number of objections you receive and the strength and quality of your presentation

Number two, I wrote down, there’s a direct correlation. You’ve heard this a thousand times for Mike. If you’re new to us, you may not have heard this, okay? But there’s a direct correlation between the number of objections you receive and the strength and quality of your presentation. Okay. If you’re getting a lot of objections, you must point the finger back at the strength and quality of your presentation. If you show up, you’re dressed to the nines, you’ve got a big smile on your face, you’re perfectly manicured, your car is clean, you’ve got a big smile on your face, you know how to nod your head right? You walk in with confidence and authority. You become the obvious choice for listing the home. So the number of objections decreases. But if you show up and you’re unconfident and you’re scared and you’re nervous and you can’t smile naturally in public and you’re catatonic and you’re awkward, then the objections go through the roof, don’t they? So if you work on your presentations, the number of objections you receive shrinks. Would you like fewer objections? Presentation. Okay.

3) Always agree, always smile, always nod your head, and never argue

The next point I wrote down. It’s really simple. Always agree, always smile, always nod your head, never argue. Think about it. Always agree, always smile, always nod your head, and never argue. Mike used to say this the first time I heard it, I answered incorrectly. Mike said, “Can you win an argument with the Seller?” And I said, “No.” Right. But then I came to realize he was so true. Can you win an argument with the Seller? Yes. You just won’t get the listing. So do you find yourself arguing with the Sellers as part of objection handling? That’s not going to get you where you want to be, does it? It’s not the answer. So here it is. Here’s a little I want to give you a little formula for it. Here’s a little formula for objection handling.

Remember this formula? Smile, nod your head, smile, nod your head, repeat their objection, approve, which means agree, repeat, approve, ask a question, ask a question, and close for the signature. Smile, nod your head, repeat, approve, ask a question, ask a question, and close for the signature. It’s a fun little process that you can start training yourself to go through when you get objections. It starts with this. When someone says, We want to cut the commission, does your face get catatonic? Do you get mad? Do you get upset? Well, we have a friend. Do you get upset about it? Do you get nervous? You smile and nod your head. This is normal. This happens all the time. I get this. I’m so comfortable with this, right? It’s a secret to it.

4) Prequalify the Seller in depth

I wrote this point down. Your success in objection handling is often found by prequalifying the Seller in depth. You’ve got to connect the dots between handling objections and prequalifying. Right? When we prequalify a Seller, we get all the answers. If we do a good job, we get the possible objections that they may have. Now we have a chance to prepare. Now we have a chance to perfect our presentation. Now we know what we’re in for. But if you don’t prequalify and you go in blind, what if you go in blind? Now you get hit with an objection. Blindsided, right? I always think about this thought almost everything we do in MFO you get to read. I’m using a script right now. For almost everything we do, we’ve got great scripts and dialogs for prospecting. You can read them over the phone, right?

We’ve got a great prequalification for a Seller. You’ve got all the questions, you can read the questions and write down the answers. We have a great Listing Presentation. We ask You to read it to the Seller. So, so much of what we can do, you get to read. Okay. But when it comes to objection handling, it’s the one place, the one place that you have to be completely prepared for them all. And they can come from different angles. You have to memorize and internalize them, don’t you? It’s the one place where you have to have those responses down pat. I think that’s one of the reasons so many agents resist it. It’s one place where you actually have to memorize, rehearse and internalize the script. It’s interesting, right?

5) Post answers to the toughest objections you receive in your prospecting area

I made this note to post the answers to the toughest objections you receive in your prospecting area. If your prospecting area doesn’t have the objection handlers posted here, if you prospecting away and they object to something, if you don’t have a response here, then you’re making it harder than you need to make it. Why wouldn’t you just then go ahead and have it here in front of you so you can refer to it when you’re prospecting? Interesting, isn’t it? I hope you have. If you haven’t, make sure and get it done.

6) Write down your 12 most common objections 

Okay. Now, here’s what I would ask you to do If I were to give you any advice at all, I would ask you from today, I would ask you from today to take either a 6 or 12-week window, 6 weeks or 12 weeks if you’re a fast learner, 6 weeks if you’re a little bit slower learner like I was 12 weeks. And then I would ask you to create a little curriculum for yourself, a little curriculum with the 12 most common objections we have. And I would ask you to take 1 or 2 of those objections per week and master them. Can you imagine 6 weeks from now or 12 weeks from now, with your objection, handling skills through the roof? How much confidence will you have? How much authority will you have? How strong will your presentation be? And then how much more money and how many more listings will you take?

7) Put this skill to work and reduce the number of lost deals to objections 

You have to consider this thought. How many listings have I lost over one objection or another? You know, I lost one this year because of the commission. I lost another one this year because they said they wanted to wait and they listed when I wasn’t looking, I lost one because they had a friend in the business and I didn’t handle it. We could be losing two and three and four and five and six listings so far this year over one objection or another. So we need to know them all, don’t we? Can you consider yourself a master of handling objections? I believe you could if you put your body and mind to work and do the job. Thanks for your time. Let’s all become incredible objection handlers. Thanks.