I Can’t Afford It – A common sales objection

Do you know the difference between the sales objections: I can’t afford it, and, it’s too expensive?

The, I can't afford it, objection is different to the objections you get about the price being too expensive.

Many inexperienced sellers don’t see the difference between the two objections.

But there is a big difference.

And once you can see the difference.

You will know that you need to use two very different techniques to successfully get past them.

So what’s the difference – They sound the same

At first glance the two objections sound the same. I can’t afford it, and, It’s too expensive, surely they both mean the buyer wants a cheaper price for your product or they won’t buy it.

That’s what some sales people think – But if you look a little closer, examine the words, and you will see what experienced sales people see.

I can’t afford it

The ‘I can’t afford it,’ objection is used when a buyer:

a) Has genuine concerns that their budget doesn’t stretch that far.

b) They do not have the money.

c) They have the money but it is already allocated to be spent elsewhere.

Think about it, how many things have you bought that you really couldn't afford?

Too expensive

When a buyer says your product is, too expensive, they have concerns over the price. These concerns are very different to the ones above, and they need to be handled using different sales objection techniques.

When a customer says your product is too expensive they could be thinking:

a) The product appears to them to be higher than the value they perceive your product to have.

b) They are comparing your price to prices of other similar products which may or may not be of a similar quality to yours.

c) They have an idea of what they should be paying and you are charging more.

Now you have thought about it, you may be able to see how these two sales objections, that at first look very similar, are really very different.

Here are the techniques that my sales teams have used to overcome – I can’t afford it.

Identify the real objection

Before you try to overcome the objection you must identify the real reasons behind it.

This is the first step in the 4 step objection process I use with my sales team.

You can see the 4 Step objection process free on my website at Sales Objection – 4step process

To identify the objection you want to know if:

They have the money, but it is allocated to other outgoings.
Or, do they really not have the amount available.

The difference between the two is that in the first scenario they can buy but won’t, and in the second they may want to buy but can’t. Again at first the two look similar but there is a real difference. You are defining the real objection from the buyer’s perspective. This is step 1.

Now go to Step 2 of the objection handling process at Handling objections to price. 4 Steps to handling objections…

I'm Stephen Craine from the website Sales-Training-Sales-Tips.com

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