"Objection" is a term taken directly from sales and marketing training, and it is important you understand the significance of objections to your sales process.
Objections are those points, sometimes small issues, which make a bidder or a buyer think again about going for your offering.
In your auction description you need to remove as many of these objections as you can.
These are the kind of objections which your prospective buyers will have.
Objection 1
Is the seller trustworthy?
The buyer usually doesn't know you. If they're serious bidders they will check you out. How will they do this?
a) A good Feedback Rating will be one way they assess you. Be determined in getting your feedback up, and making it all positive.
b) They might also click through to your About Me page. This page gives you the opportunity to convey your personality and your honesty.
One of eBay's standard About Me page formats lets you display your recent feedbacks - always useful - and also your other auctions, again useful. This is in addition to anything about yourself which helps to show what a sincere and genuine person you are.
And finally, if you have a web site from which you sell products or services, you are allowed to place a direct link to it from the About Me page. This is in marked contrast to your auction description page, where eBay does not allow direct links to web pages. So, create an About Me page and incorporate the points mentioned.
c) A prospective bidder may wish to ask you a question. As you will know, there is a standard eBay facility whereby a bidder can ask a seller a question. You should really welcome questions. Why do I say this?
Well, if a bidder asks you a question, first of all you know they are interested in your offering. They wouldn't have wasted their time on typing out their question to you if they weren't. So, by asking you a question they are qualifying themselves in as a real prospect. And you now have the chance to directly influence them in your reply to their question. Depending on the nature of their enquiry, you have the opportunity to convey your integrity, honesty, credibility, fair mindedness, helpfulness, expertise, knowledge, other appropriate products etc.
So, if questions are such good things, why not make it easy for the bidder to ask one? Always have some text in your auction description offering to answer any questions, with a link to your email address. If you have a little knowledge of HTML coding you will know how easy this is to do. It is far better than simply relying on buyers finding the standard "Ask the seller a question" link provided by eBay.
d) You might consider a moneyback guarantee, if it's appropriate and you can "afford" it.
Why would you or should you do this?
Well, when you think about it, in online auctions, the buyer is normally asked to take all the risk. They usually pay the seller up front - before the item is delivered to them. The risk is all theirs that the seller doesn't perform.
To some buyers, particularly on higher value items, this risk is so high that it can cause them to have second thoughts about bidding. You know you are trustworthy, but they don't. By offering a moneyback guarantee you are offering what is known as "risk reversal". You are taking the risk off your buyer. In effect you shoulder the risk.
I know this works, because I use it myself. In thousands of auctions I've run, I can count on one hand the number of people who have invoked my money back guarantee.
If you can practice "risk reversal", it will help your auction success rate, and it is vital on Dutch auctions.
Objection 2
How do I pay?
Always maximise the number of payment options you will accept.
You should provide different types of payment options for your buyers:
PayPal
Nochex
FastPay
Cheque
Postal Order
Banker's Draft
Bank Transfer
Cash
You can accept credit/debit cards on your auctions if you open accounts with relevant payment processors. These enable buyers to pay you with a credit/debit card even though you aren't a business, and you don't have what is known as a Merchant Account.
As you probably know, PayPal is owned by eBay. Therefore eBay make it really easy for you to take PayPal payments from your buyers. But don't forget other payment processors, like Nochex and FastPay. It might just be that your interested buyer only has a Nochex account, or a Fast Pay account.
Opening accounts is free. Paying anyone via PayPal, Nochex or FastPay is also free - which is why so many auction bidders and buyers use them. There are charges for you as a seller, however, and these are incurred when you receive money and/or when you transfer money from/to your PayPal, Nochex or FastPay accounts from/to your own bank account. Check out the respective fees via their web sites.
In my experience, the rates of charges are reasonable for giving you the significant advantage of being able to accept credit/debit card payments on your auctions.
If you are selling low value items, say less than £3, it may be prudent to add a small sum or percentage to the final sale value to cover this.
Speaking personally, I never ask the buyer to incur additional charges for using PayPal, Nochex or FastPay. (You will now realise why - it's called removing an objection!) I take the view that buyers who wish to pay by credit/debit card should not be discouraged in any way - and a surcharge of this nature might just prevent them from bidding or buying.
If you don't have PayPal account and you'd like to create one, click here.
If you don't have Nochex account and you'd like to create one, click here.
If you don't have a FastPay account and you'd like to create one, click here.
As I mentioned, they're free to set up.
Objection 3
Is delivery expensive?
Always fully describe your delivery details within your auction description. Be up front about delivery costs.
If bidders or buyers aren't given this detail within the auction description, they may become suspicious that the seller is hiding something, and therefore decide not to bid. There have been occasions where sellers have sold items at what appear to be cheap prices, but have inflated delivery costs to compensate, or even over compensate. Never do this!
There is no reason why you cannot say up front how much P&P will be. You can find out the real delivery costs of the company you plan to use. You can get these details from their website.
Once you have the postal costs you can add the appropriate handling and packaging costs, and there you have the figure to let your buyers know in advance that you're not hiding anything.
You have just removed another doubt in your prospective buyer's mind.
Objection 4
What happens if the item arrives damaged?
In your auction description you should cover your policy in relation to damages and insurance.
If you're selling higher value items you may wish to consider using a delivery service which includes insurance. Remember, even though the buyer has paid for it, the item is your property until it is accepted by the buyer. So if it is damaged in transit, this is your responsibility. You will have to arrange a replacement or a refund, and claim your costs back via your insurance.
Don't forget, if you do need to have enhanced insurance cover, it is perfectly reasonable to include this is in your delivery costs as shown in your auction description.
Objection 5
How professional is someone who has multiple spelling errors?
It is very unreasonable for any bidder to overlook your auction just because you have spelling errors. Isn't it?
However, they may believe someone who won't take the trouble to get their spelling correct might be equally unprofessional elsewhere.
You and I might consider that stance to be unreasonable. With spell checkers available, however, there's no reason to have any spelling errors creeping through on your auction page.
So, spell check your auction description page - please.
Objection 6
What do I do now?
You should always "ask for the order". In other words, suggest to your prospective buyer that they make a bid today for this valuable, rare, stunning, limited edition item!
And remind them that when they win the item they will be enriched by the strongest benefit you have already identified to them in your auction description.
Objections - Summary
If you spend time removing these objections, you will be repaid handsomely. I can guarantee you will receive more genuine bids for each of your auctions than if you had left these points hanging for the bidder to ponder and make assumptions.
This article is based upon an extract from 'The eBay Formula', my best selling ebook about selling successfully on eBay.
You can find out about 'The eBay Formula' here. |