I’m looking for advice from experienced sales people on handling price objections can I service business where the items themselves are low perceived value
I run a multi location, junk removal company. On the surface we’re “hauling trash” which makes price objections extremely common. Even though what customers are really buying as convenience, speed, stress, relief, and having a problem completely off their plate.
One of our areas of improvement is our on-site for rebuttals to price objections.
Some of the most common objections we hear are;
“That’s way more than I expected.”
“It’s just junk.”
“I can do it cheaper myself”
“That it seems expensive for what it is.”
We don’t want our cruise to immediately discount or reduce scope. We do want them to push back professionally, reframe value, and actually handle the objection. Not just explain pricing or walk away.
One technique I’ve seen in other industries is a “money aside “ or hypothetical clothes, like:
“If money wasn’t a factor, would you want this done today?
The idea being to get the customer to verbalize the real value (convenience, time, savings, stress reduction), then reconnect price to the outcome.
My questions for the sub:
Is that kind of rebuttal effective in your experience or does it come off as gimmicky?
How do you personally handle price objections when the product/service has low intrinsic value by high situational value?
Where do you draw the line between objection handling VS. Pushing too hard on site?
Any frameworks or language you’ve found effective and similar service businesses?
Appreciate any insight. I’m trying to build real sales skill into field teams that has historically just “did the work” and I want to do it correctly.
Thanks in advance.
EDIT: I should have clarified better in the original post. The way we operate is the CSR‘s book the appointments into the CRM and we dispatch two field techs to the job site where they provide a free estimate. Our pricing is based on volume/how much space the items take up in the truck.
Value.
What is the value? The clear benefit.
Focus on the cleared space. Focus on the fact that they won’t have to lift a finger and all that stuff will be gone.
Even better if you can recycle, many people want things disposed responsibly.
The best thing to do is simply ask what’s important to them. Why did you call us and not xyz company?
Most price objections aren’t objections, it’s a complaint. If you can refocus on what’s important, recycled goods, clearing the space, no labor from themselves, you’ve got a solid chance.
Don’t justify. Don’t argue. You need to come from a true place of help and allow them to vent about price.
“I understand your concern Mrs customer. We price by the volume in the truck, the more we haul, the less you pay per sqft.
Most customers have us load 3/4 or more of the truck for the best value. Is there more we can remove for you?”
Hope this helps spur some ideas!
Everything that is bought or sold has a perception of value to the customer. Some people will never buy because that perception skews toward valuing the money over what you’re offering (and the pain of doing it themselves is less than the pain of forfeiting the money).
If you can build the value by asking a few questions that gets them to see how much of a cost there is to doing a oroject like this themselves before offering a price, you’ll certainly sell more. But be careful, it needs to be handled with tact.
So you’re on the right track, the best way to handle an objection is to call it out before the customer does and build value in advance.
Im not sure how the pricing of your service works, if its hourly or flat rate, but assuming your margins aren't like stupidly high it might be worthwhile to itemize the costs on the quote:
This much for the truck This much for the 3 guys showing up This much for costs at the dump This much for insurance This much for whatever else This much is profit.
At least that let's your crew have an honest conversation around the cost of your service and the costs of doing it themselves.
Anchor the idea of costs before you provide the free estimate. I drafted a playbook for a pest control company that had similar issues with estimates and price objections and issues discounting the scope and reducing their margins. Just off the top of my head, a couple of questions to center value on your service:
What did you have budgeted?
How much time were you planning on setting aside to do this yourself?
How soon did you want this taken care of? Any particular reason why you want this hauled off now?
Are you reviewing bids based on time, schedule, or your budget?
The money isn't a factor ask is a fallacy, money is a factor, that's why they called for a free estimate. But if you plant a seed for budget, or amplify the time it would take for them to do themselves, you may have a higher close rate. Or define the size of the removals, half load, how many cubic yards to a load, etc. Everything your crews can ask about the project can offer more opportunities to make the job more difficult for the customer to consider doing it themselves or working with another crew that doesn't do proper discovery.
Another obvious one is professionalism of the crew. You want your guys to show up neat, maybe in a uniform like a polo or presentable; a higher value proposition as perceived value often obtains a higher price point, even in junk removal.
Yes, absolutely those are excellent ideas. currently, if the customer in our field team are too far off on the price the field team will ask the customer what budget they had in mind for completing the job today. They are then to take that budget and if it is within reason, they phone the office which will give them an approval or decline to move forward with the job.
Another option that we use is, if the budget is too far off to take the full of my amount of items, the crew will offer to take the amount of items that the customers budget warrants
Another thing we do is offer small discounts that expire the moment the crew drives off the property. Sometimes these are enough to hook the customer if they are close enough aligned on price.
Our trucks are all very nice, completely wrapped and the crews are licensed, insured and background checked. The CSR’s notate this on the phone call before scheduling the estimate. All crew members wear a uniform with tucked in shirts and matching boots.
We try to closely mirror the biggest player in our category which is 1800 got junk.
Trash is expensive. The real geniuses are the ones who own and operate the landfill. They have a license to print money.
Between truck repairs, gas, insurance, landfill dumping fees, crew, etc…. Yea.. this service might actually just be expensive.
But what’s the alternative??
CSRs need to keep the same strategy with giving a price on the phone but make up a bunch of hidden fees.
“Items are x ft from truck we need to add x to the cost”
“Weight cost”
“Donations cost”
Recycling cost etc.
Then when the crew is on-site they can waive the cost and customer is happy
Not sure how you have it worked out, but Im imagining you are sending two dudes with a truck that arent sales people? Might be the first issue. Also cant be cheap if people are turning them away because now you are in for two dudes hourly plus gas and a wasted lead.
Plus the percieved value of two dudes just wandering around asking for money to haul trash... Doesnt seem like you are busy, so no urgency because "they can always come back"
You have someone who can actually sell in the office that can test run just doing estimates all day for a few weeks? Set the deal up and schedule a few days out kinda thing? Plus you could always offer "hey in the next few days let your neighbors know we will be here on XYZ day. 5% off your project for every extra job you get us" Something like that. Now you are sending two dudes in a truck to hit 2 or 3 jobs in one small area.
Since you got a sales dude closing leads now, you could add on services like cleaning after on rental/move out cleanings.
Yes, the field techs are not generally guys with backgrounds and sales, although our top performers, obviously do have sales experience. we do train every day for a small amount of time and role-play objection handlers on a basic level but our working on doing it more. Yes to confirm it is very important that we close the jobs because we do have incurred costs obviously just getting the truck on site. The only reason we have done it this way is because we have mirrored what the large franchise in our category one 800 got junk does. They have the same method of a call center taking the inbound leads scheduling the free estimate and then ensuring that their field teams go out and close the deal. They only give prices for single item pick ups and anything after that they push for the free on-site estimate.
I have considered your idea before about sending an estimator with sales experience out to the home before the truck arrives. The only thing that I have to say about that is that this business is extremely demand and time constraint driven many of these jobs are booked same or next day and generally people are in a time constraint to get the items removed. I have considered the possibility of an estimator basically running ahead of the trucks and going to each job to estimate and sell the drop job and have the truck show up shortly after, but I have not been able to figure out optically how to do that exactly because if the truck runs behind and gets slowed up during the day, which they sometimes do, then the person would have to be on site for the estimator to sell them as well as be on site for the truck to pick the items up and logistically I just haven’t figured that out in my head yet.
What is the time constraint? If they are sending your guys away these customers have zero urgency.
I managed and estimated/closed for a mom and pop local home services business in the past. Trying to emulate a national chain is always trouble. You just arent able compete on their level due to their scale and giant marketing budget.
Wonder if since the big outfit has so much marketing if they are having their CSRs do a more detailed job of pre qualifying and thats how they are able to send the trucks on site?
You might not like my theory here but I have always run on the idea that if I am getting price objections at the end, then something isnt being done right at the beginning.
Are you regularly doing ride alongs?
For example right now it is people needing to clear out spaces before Christmas gatherings. Often times life events trigger the demand. Someone passes away, moving/downsizing. People tend to deprioritize this service until last minute.
To be fair, we do close almost all appointments, just not always for the full value. We are the highest priced in the area, basically every other option is cheaper than we are, dumpster rentals, other competitors..
Admittedly sales has been a bottleneck, ride along are sparse and we are just now starting the daily training and putting focus on sales.
We still have great margin because of our pricing and the fact we repurpose at least half of what we pick up. We also have resale stores at each location so these things act as a buffer I think which allow us to give on site discounts and still profit well.
It doesn’t negate the fact that it is still an area of concern for me. I will give some more thought to the idea you had about a real salesperson visiting before the truck and testing some more qualifying questions during the call.
I'm doing something you don't want to do or are unable to do. For that, my price is this. You're welcome to shop around but my price is competitive and I am here now. Do you want me to get to work now?
“Sure, you could do it yourself. If you thought that was a good idea, I doubt you would have called us. You have to rent a truck, load the truck, drive to the dump, wait in line at the dump, pay for the dump, unload your stuff and then drive back home. Or you can pay us to show up and be out of here within 15 minutes. Tell ya what- call some neighbors and see if they want to load up some of their stuff and spread the cost around. I’m already here.”
Start with distinguishing objections from qualification.
When you speak with a potential buyer, you should have a sense of their buying power. Main way to get this is from your existing client base - which of your current clients does this buyer look like?
If none, they may be outside your ICP because they really can’t afford it.
If you know they can afford it, then it’s a matter of a) do they want it and b) if so, how do you negotiate the best price for your company that still closes the deal.
That’s where an understanding of the value prop and ROI are critical. Is it actually expensive? If so, why? If they can get the same thing cheaper from someone else, that’s not an objection, that’s a lack of product market fit. You don’t explain your way out of that, you match price or differentiate.
You claim that there’s value beyond what they perceive. But unless you can articulate the value and slap a dollar amount on it (labor dollars saved, revenue increased, reduce costs in some other area), you’re basically selling magic beans.
So what is special about your junk removal that they should pay you more than someone else?
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Depends on race
Have to say you sound like you are with 1-800-Got-Junk
When I was in home improvement sales a lot of my clients had them come to clean out stuff before a remodel and got turned off
Why?
Because they show up with a Truck that was 3/4 full and tell them the job would require half a truck and the cost for half a truck was X
The objection wasn't price, it was the way it was presented by the company as you can't fit half a truck load into a truck that's half full
But they always said it was the price because that was easier than saying they don't want to business with a sleeze ball who lies about the price
You would do better to talk about price on the phone. Ask the customer what they are planning on having removed and saying something like "that sounds like half a truck and the cost for that is X"
Scope to scope service is tough to avoid a price comparison. Don’t ask price questions to understand that objection, it will not help, instead it will make it worse. Focus on the other value adds such as how fast you can arrive, ease of scheduling and availability, how fast and easy you can remove it, how you communicate (i.e. short text vs long email), and maybe offer an incentive for returning customers. Also create a survey for any online requests that asks what’s important to the customer for their removal and don’t list price as an option, instead list 5-6 other benefits like the ones I described. Use that when you arrive for pickup to say “you picked ease of scheduling, did we accomplish that today?” then present the pricing.
Throw that "money aside" script in the trash right next to the junk. It is sales trainer fluff that sounds fake and makes your field guys look like robots.
You are losing these deals because you are letting the customer frame the conversation around the value of the item instead of the value of the labor. Of course they don't want to pay $500 to move a $0 couch. You have to make them pay for the headache you are removing.
When they say "I can do it cheaper myself," do not argue. Agree with them. Say this:
"You are absolutely right. You can rent a truck, pay for the gas, pay the dump fees, and spend your entire Saturday lifting heavy furniture and waiting in line at the landfill. You can definitely save a hundred bucks doing that. Or, you can pay me, point your finger at the pile, and go watch the football game while I make it disappear in twenty minutes. What is your Saturday worth to you?"
That isn't a gimmick. That is hitting them with the reality of the situation. You aren't selling trash removal; you are selling them their weekend back and saving them a trip to the chiropractor.
And if they say "That is way more than I expected," teach your guys to stand tall and say, "I know. Quality service that is insured and shows up on time costs money. Do you want it gone right now or do you want to think about it while it sits in your driveway for another week?"
Stop trying to be polite. Be professional, but be firm. If they still say no, walk away. You can't bank a check from a cheapskate anyway.
I like this. It is similar to our current approach but with some different wording. One thing I’ve learned from this post is that we need to triple down on the small things we say on the phone AND in person that relates the value of the service to the customer. Things like saving them the time, headache of sweating when it’s 10 degrees out, slipping and falling in the icy ass driveway, and the sore back for the next week.
Im confused what you mean on site, are you saying that you're already on site to do something else and then this is your attempt to make an upsell?
Are these cold leads that you're door stopping?
The approach that you take is going to very massively, depending on how the whole interaction begins.
My apologies I should have clarified.
What I mean by on-site is our CSR‘s book the appointment, we then dispatch a team of two field team members to the site where we offer a free estimate based on the volume of the items and space it takes up in the truck.
Okay, I see. And does the customer have any indication towards what the price might be before they receive this quote? Would they have a ballpark idea? How are you generating these leads? Is it a cold call?
This was my first thought, that they didn’t give them a range or any idea what to expect. I’d want to qualify these better before sending my people out there.
The CSR‘s are typically vague over the phone in terms of pricing. They explain the minimum price as well as a full truckload rate, but generally push for the free no obligation on site estimate to keep booking rate high.
If a customer is very resistant on scheduling due to price or wanting a ballpark before scheduling, they point them to a page on our website that goes over a few price points and has an explainer video showing how we do our on-site estimates as well as how the service works overall.
So to answer the question, I would say no the customer does not generally have a ballpark idea on what the price will be. We have tried in the past to give vague ball parks, but the customers anchor to the lowest price they hear and it is an uphill battle for the on-site field team.
Many of our leads are organic, inbound leads, referrals, etc.
We do a little bit of outbound, but I would guess that it is less than 5% of all leads.
Okay, interesting. I obviously don't have all of the information about your business and it seems like you have a reasonably well oiled machine going already. But I have some ideas.
First of all, it seems like you're really setting up these one-site estimators for failure. I would bet a significant portion of people who requested the onsite estimation after talking to a CSR are only doing so to get them off the phone. And if the minimum price is available on your website, then yes, doubtlessly, customers will anchor on that. At this point I'm wondering if you do dynamic pricing based on neighborhood. You could get higher prices in more expensive neighborhoods, and use those to cover the costs of less profitable cheaper neighborhoods that you do higher volume.
I'm not clear on how you're structuring the different tiers in your offer. But I would find a way to make sure that they are very strongly delineated between a cheap offer, a medium offer and an expensive offer. Make the expensive offer a very expensive white glove service and most people will pick the medium offer.
When it comes to handling price objections, strategically, ideally they shouldn't happen. Objections to price should be handled preemptively. Every time a customer objects to price, you should consider that a comms failure and assess what went wrong leading up to that, and iteratively adjust your messaging.
Here are some practical examples of questions that it would be worthwhile asking customers:
What made you decide to get this handled this now? This will help orient your customers motivation, which will vary from person to person. Your assessors can then frame the value proposition in that context. It also puts you and the customer on the same side facing the problem rather than facing each other. And it anchors them on solving the problem now.
After the quote if you get a response, "that's too expensive". Don't argue or explain pricing. Empathise with the customer and try to reorient their attention to the problem and and inquire into how they are valuing it with genuine curiosity. You could ask. "Seems like you're weighing up just doing it yourself." Pause and give them a moment to answer and think, that may feel awkward in the silence, but give them some space. They will often just spill the beans and sometimes even talk themselves into the sale. If they don't say anything, you could add, "What has stopped you from doing it so far?" They will then tell you whatever you could use to anchor your value proposition, whether it's lack of access to vehicle or lack of time. Again, we're externalizing the problem. The problem is not in them or you. We're standing shoulder to shoulder with the customer looking at the problem.
It's also important to remember that if a customer has given a price objection they basically told you to fuck off and you're still talking to them. That's immediately a combative situation, and you must then strive to make them feel safe and comfortable again. The best way to do this is to offer no oriented questions, people feel safe when they say no, such as, "are you against getting this dealt with today?"
Bear in mind not to ask why questions these are very provocative and accusatory. Do not say "why haven't you done it yourself yet."
Before you hit them with the actual quote, you should, preface it with, ,"Just to let you know it's expensive", then wait a beat, then tell them the price. If it's is expensive in their opinion they will appreciate that you have understood their position and if it's not expensive in their opinion they will be quietly relieved.
If it really is a no, don't press the issue, but make sure you leave some kind of contact with a calling card. They may change their mind later and you could also re-target them. Make sure to tag thier account with the objection.
Also, just a note on messaging, I've seen you refer to the stuff you remove as junk. I would refrain from doing that. First of all, junk has no value, so why should I give you a lot of money for it? Secondly, to these people, this stuff that they have, if they've kept it, they probably kept it for a reason, at least at some point in the past, it had avalue to them. And if you're calling it junk, maybe not even consciously, they're not going to feel good about that. I would also bear in mind that for some people it's probably quite embarrassing for them to have to have someone else clean their house for them. So I would just say to maybe handle the customers ego a bit more delicately.
If you're going to make informed improvements to your process, you need data to do that. So, if you are able to you should be reviewing call transcripts from the CSRs, reviewing how the lead was generated if it was inbound or outbound and taking after-action reports from your salespeople whether their sales were successful or not and what was discussed. This will help you surface patterns and iteratively improve your messaging.
We can all have our theories but at the end of the day only the data is going to reveal the truth.
Those are just some very broad ideas. Like I said, I don't actually understand your business, your customers, your industry, your geo. But hopefully there may be some useful advice in that.
Also one last thing, I know you're probably already doing this, but if youre in a neighbourhood picking up a load and it hasn't fully filled up the truck, you could ask around neighbours if they have any junk that they want moved for a small fee, as you're already in the neighbourhood, you can generate a few extra sales that way, and also means you're not wasting a journey with a half empty truck.
Just wanted to respond and say that I appreciate you taking the time to write such a thorough and insightful answer.
Yes, I admit that it has always kind of been a teeter totter between focusing on the CSR‘s keeping a very high book rate which inevitably means price avoidance on that first call and just pushing for the on-site estimate. I suppose the psychology behind it is the CSR‘s job is to sell the appointment and the field tax job is to sell the job. So far we haven’t quite nailed the perfect cadence between the two.
The first question out of almost everyone’s mouth when they call in is how much does the service cost and when we go into too much detail, we give them enough price for them to shop around or “talk to their spouse”, when we give two little detail, the field teams, obviously have more resistance on site.
As far as the multitier offer that you mentioned. This one I’ve been banging my head against the wall for a couple years now trying to figure out a realistic option to provide multiple price points. Many of the ideas that I have thought of or that have been brought to my attention would almost have us moving horizontally into more of a cleaning service. For example, on some jobs we can offer or have been asked to broom clean the floor after the removal is done. I have always just been careful to not go to horizontal in the service offerings and reduce our scalability which has been important to me from the start.
In an effort of transparency, I will say that our job success rate is about 97% so we don’t actually get many cancellations but a lot of that is because of the lovers we pull such as offering the one time discount, taking less items that fits in the customer’s budget or sometimes just discounting the job in general because the items are not actually junk and we are able to take them to our resale store.
No worries, I'm sure you've already considered a lot of this before. I hope my ideas helped in some way. Really all you can do is experiment and get some reliable data. But it sounds like you're already on the right track. Best of luck.