The Different Types of “No’s” You’ll Hear on Your Calls

Whether you are calling buyers or sellers, you are going to be dealing with a lot of objections and a lot of “no’s”. No matter if you’re an inside sales agent (ISA) or real estate agent, it comes with the territory. If you didn’t want to hear no’s and face rejection a lot of the time, I’m sorry to say, you probably should have chosen another industry.

But assuming you chose this industry because you wanted a challenge and the big reward that comes along with, and assuming you knew what you were getting yourself into, let’s look a little closer at the different types of no’s leads may throw at you. Because, although they may all feel exactly the same when you are on the receiving end of one, there are different types apparent rejections and different ways to overcome them.

Real Estate Objections Are Part of the Gig

You’re reading this for one reason: to convert more on your calls, set more appointments, and make more money. The three go hand in hand and you can’t do one without doing the rest. If you’re a real estate ISA or agent then most of your time on the phone is going to be spent overcoming objections. Basically, objection is just another word for the lead saying no to you.

There are a lot of reasons why buyers and sellers are going to come back at you with an objection. We’ve discussed a lot of them in our group role play training sessions and in our previous articles. Some of the most common real estate objections from buyers and sellers include:

• I’m busy and can’t talk right now
• Bring me a buyer and then we’ll talk
• I’m just going to sell it on my own
• We’re just looking
• We already have a friend who is a real estate agent
• First we have to sell our house
• We aren’t ready now so we want to wait

And the list of real estate objections goes on and on. Trust me, people never run out of ways to say no to you, get off the phone, or put off making an important decision about something (like agreeing to work with you or meet with you).

Overcoming Real Estate Objections

We’ve also discussed before at length that, although they may seem like a negative when you’re actually on the phone talking to someone, real estate objections are actually your route to close and make the sale. Objections can often give you a window into what the lead is thinking and what their current plan is to buy or sell a house. The type of objection, or “no”, delivers the insight you need to be successful on the call.

Types of Real Estate Objections: Simple No

The first type of “no” you will hear on your real estate calls is the simple no. A simple no is basically when the lead rejects you without giving you anything to work with. This is the quick “no, thank you”, “I’m busy right now and can’t talk”, and, my favorite, the “I’m not interested, please do not call me again”.

These are the simple quick rejections that the lead is using to try and end the conversation. Now, assuming they don’t immediately end the conversation by hanging up on you, the way you can try to get past a simple no is with simple questions. These questions need to aim at finding the lead’s motivation. In fact, on these types of calls when the lead basically says no right off the bat, your singular goal is to try to find out their motivation before they end the conversation.

Without understanding a real estate lead’s motivation, you have no idea what it is they are trying to achieve. If you don’t know what they are trying to achieve, you can’t make your case for how you will make that achievement possible for them. And that means you aren’t going to convert that lead into a sale.

Types of Real Estate Objections: Story No

The second type of real estate objection or “no” is called the story objection. Although still a rejection, this type gives you much more to work with and makes the rest of the call a bit easier. This type of objection is when the lead describes the factors explaining why they won’t set an appointment with you or work with you. In other words, they tell you a story and go into detail about why they won’t say yes.

This is better than a simple no for two primary reasons. First, by explaining the situation to you they are choosing to stay on the phone a bit longer and are willing, it seems, to invest a bit more time in talking to you. Second, they are laying on tons of information about why they are buying or selling a house, what their goals are, and how they hope to achieve those goals. This is exactly the ammunition you need to make the sale.

Now, not to beat a dead horse, but the way you overcome this type of objection is by using what we call the PPO technique. That stands for Perspective, Process, Outcome. We talk a lot about this technique to closing on real estate calls because it is VERY important.

• The prospect’s perspective is their past experience, knowledge and speculation
• The prospect’s process is their own plan that they have for their situation
• The outcome is the unique result or benefit the prospect believes their process will deliver for them

Conclusion

Real estate objections can be scary, but they are not the end of the world…or the call. On the contrary, overcoming objections is how you will close on more calls and make more sales. Understand the different types of “no’s” and how to correctly respond to them.