“I’m Just Looking”

In automotive sales, “I’m just looking” is one of the most common objections that sales professionals hear from customers. This objection makes its way into the beginning of many deals, and if not handled correctly, can derail a sales professional from their process. However, if you hear “I’m just looking” in the greeting, there’s no reason to panic. With the right know-how, techniques and insights, this objection can be easily handled.

To start, it pays to understand the objection. When a customer says “I’m just looking” nowadays, that’s rarely true. Unlike the car sales industry of the past, modern consumers have access to unprecedented amounts of information. So, it’s extremely rare to get a customer into the dealership that hasn’t already done enormous levels of research. The reality is that they have found a vehicle they’re interested in and spent the time and effort to show us that they are committed to making a purchase. So, why the objection?

“I’m just looking” is a natural response, a sort of reflex, to being approached by an automotive sales professional. Buyers have been taught to distrust dealerships and to feel anxiety when working with one. Therefore, they’re interested in making a purchase, but don’t want to feel any pressure. On their own, however, they might not find the most suitable vehicle, fail to get a test drive and miss numerous other parts of the car buying experience, which can cause you to lose the deal. In this blog, you will learn exactly how to handle the objection “I’m just looking” and increase your chances at closing the sale today!

Take Away the Pressure

When a customer says “I’m just looking” in the meet and greet, your goal should be to take any pressure away. Remember, customers feel that sales professionals apply unwanted pressure, which is often the root cause for this objection. So, when this comes up, it’s important to keep an easy, friendly attitude. Anything sounding overly aggressive or defense will make customers lock up and stick with their objection.

The Polite Parrot

Now that you’ve approached the situation with the correct attitude, it’s time to start by ‘parroting’ the objection back to them. A majority of the time, overcoming “I’m just looking” is as simple as letting buyers know that you’re listening. When you make customers feel heard by repeating their objection back to them, a lot of these instinctive objections just fade away. Remember, buyers are at your dealership and want to go through your sales process!

Objection Example:
Customer: “I’m just looking.”
Sales Professional: “I understand that you’re just looking.”

Just Move on from “I’m Just Looking”

Once you’ve approached the objection with a great attitude and showed the customer that you’re listening, it’s time to just move on. This objection likely isn’t serious, so by handling it in this manner, it becomes easy to move past. After this, it becomes easy to ask the customer to do something:

Objection Example:
Customer: “I’m just looking.”
Sales Professional: “I understand that you’re just looking. Today can just be a looking day. Follow me.”

This will be enough to handle “I’m just looking” almost every single time, and can even be a great method to overcome other objections. For example:

Phone Example:
Customer: “I’m looking for the best price.”
Sales Professional: “If you’re looking for the best price, you called the right place. Everyone who’s looking for the best price shops here. When can you come in?”

Alternative Reasons Behind “I’m Just Looking”

Once you’re in the close, most of the time “I’m just looking” will have faded away. However, if the customer still doesn’t want to make a purchase today, it’s time to delve deeper into the objection. They wouldn’t be at the dealership if they weren’t serious about buying a vehicle, so there should be a more concrete reason to holding off on the purchase. As long as you’ve landed them on the right vehicle, it could be one of a few other reasons. For example:

Situation #1: The customer needs to consult with their spouse or have them come into the dealership to see it in person.
Solution: Offer to drive the vehicle to the spouse now or set up an appointment for the spouse to come in later that day/the next morning.

Situation #2: The customer wants to shop around first.
Solution: Add urgency into the deal. The customer most likely doesn’t want to do hours of extra work when they already have found the perfect vehicle. Let them know that you cannot guarantee the car will be here when they come back and review everything they loved about the vehicle before going for the close again.

Make sure that you are prepared to handle not only this objection, but any other objection that can present itself. “I’m just looking” may be used to hide their true objection, and once you find out what is holding up the deal, you need to be ready to overcome that next hurdle.

When “I’m Just Looking” Wants to Leave

If a customer is getting ready to leave without purchasing a vehicle, then the best time to ask for the appointment is now. Once you let the customer leave without an appointment, it will be a lot harder to set one through follow up. Therefore, a sales professional should touch on all the positive things that happened during the customer’s visit and then ask for the appointment! You should set other dealerships up for failure by reminding customers of how great your buying experience was. Selling a vehicle always takes priority, but when that is not going to happen, then there is no better time to set the next appointment than when the buyer is right in front of you!

Want your dealership to stand above the competition? With RevDojo’s On-Demand Automotive Sales Training, your team will be setting more appointments and closing more deals than ever before! Our comprehensive training platform provides all of the tools, insights and techniques needed to handle objections and succeed in automotive sales. Contact us today at (888) 603-4443 or sales@revdojo.com to learn more!