Hey there — I’ve got a really cool concept and technique to share with you today.
It’s going to help when you encounter objections: CRIAC
C: Cushion
R: Restate
I: Isolate
A: Answer
C: Close
So, this is a good negotiating technique. And I’ll be honest, I’m not a good negotiator. This helps.
Here are 2 examples of how it might go..
Let’s say you’re selling a deal, and the buyer says your price is too high…
The cushion would be: “You know what Jim, I understand.”
Then you restate, “You think the price is too high, right?” Then be quiet and listen.
So, you call them by name, acknowledge what they’re saying and restate what their objection is…and then let them say something.
Then, you isolate it, “Well, this is the price. Is the price the only reason that would stop you from making an offer?”
If he says yes, you say, “Well, if you could make an offer for a price that would work for you, would you be willing to write up a contract and make an offer today?”
If he answers yes, I close with, “Great. Here’s a contract. Let’s do it.”
The reason why I want an offer from the buyer is because I might be able to go back to the seller and renegotiate another price…
So this example was a wholesale deal. You have a property under contract with the seller and sometimes the buyer says they’re not interested in the deal. But you’ve got to dig in and find out why. If the price is too high, it’s much easier to go back to a seller and renegotiate.
Okay, let’s look at an example when I’m making an offer to a seller…
I’m making a cash offer, and it’s too low. The seller says, “No, I can’t do that. Your offer is too low.”
I say, “Okay, Susie, I understand. I hear you. My offer is too low. Is that the only reason why you won’t take my offer? (She says yes.) So, if I made an offer for a price that would work for you, would you be willing to sign a contract today?”
So, I’m just trying to isolate and get an answer like this: “Well, Joe, if you made me a better offer for the price that would work for me, yeah, I would sign a contract today.”
I say, “Okay, that’s awesome. So, I don’t know if this will work for you or not… let me ask you a question. If I could get you that price with seller financing or a lease option, you probably wouldn’t be interested in hearing more about that, would you?”
I might even ask this other question: “So, let me ask you something. You really need this price. What are you going to do if you can’t sell it for that price? Are you going to rent it out?”
See how I’m opening up a new loop to figure out? They probably haven’t been asked those questions before.
So then a new objection from them might be, “Well, you know what, I don’t want to do a lease option. I just want to sell it.” And I might ask them, “Why is that?” They say, “I don’t want to be a long-distance landlord.”
So, here’s the cushion, “Okay, Susie, I understand your concern. You don’t want to be a long-distance landlord. You don’t want to deal with tenants that are 1,000 miles away, right? So, is that the only reason why you would not want to do a lease option or seller financing?”
Now, if she says no, there are other reasons… so you do the same process with each of those reasons.
But let’s say the only reason is that she doesn’t want to be a long-distance landlord — you say, “Okay, that’s the only reason. So, Susie, if I showed you a way that I could manage the property for you and you wouldn’t have to be a long-distance landlord, would you want to do business today?”
Or you could say, “If I showed you a way that I could manage the property for you and you won’t have to worry about it, what would you want to do then?”
Or this, “If I showed you a way where I could rent it from you and take care of all the maintenance and repairs, so you don’t even have to be a landlord, would you be open to that? Or would you rather deal with the tenant directly yourself?”
(BTW — I’m doing these deals virtually. Typically, when I’m negotiating a deal, I’m on the phone. I don’t like going to sellers’ houses, although it’s a good idea. But you can negotiate a lot of these things over the phone.)
If the seller says she might be interested in that, I close: “Great. Susie, I’m going to put together an agreement. I’ll just send it over to you so you can review it. Let me ask you something though, Susie. If I send you something and you do agree to the terms, would you be willing to sign it today? Let’s schedule a time to talk again today at 5:00pm or 6:00pm. What would be better for you?”
See, I want to get a commitment from them. I want them to say yes or no, and let them know it’s okay to say no. And I give them two options of when we can talk again later that day. I don’t ask them to give me a time. I tell them it’ll be later that day or first thing the next morning.
And that’s it. The more you use this technique, the easier it’ll become.
So remember: Call the buyer or seller by their name. And use CRIAC.
Cushion, Restate, Isolate, Answer, Close.
