Nothing happens until a sale is made. There are a lot of things that have to happen before a customer signs on the dotted line, but lastly, a sales rep and customer must agree on a price. At one time or another, we’ve all had our prices challenged. I’ve heard many sales people proselytize their closing abilities and tactics. The question becomes of these great closer’s is, have they protected price and margins? It doesn’t take an expert sales person to seal the deal when they’ve simply folded on price once the customer posed a pricing concern.
Avoid Price Driven Conversations
To persevere through pricing objections, your self-assurance is critical. Being confident in what you say is paramount in presenting price (Want a 1:45 second course on CONFIDENCE ?) When the customer requests a discount, respond by asking, “before we get into that, what value do you see in what I’ve presented thus far?” In reality if a customer can’t, or refuses to, answer that question, then the decision is made solely on price and I bet there are other cheaper options for your customer.
The worst thing sales people can do when a customer is looking for a price break is to give in. Jeb Blount, author and sales expert, states that customers may not have gone to sales university, but they’ve definitely gone to buyers university. Many customers know that if they give the least bit of price resistance a sales person will immediately offer price concessions. To overcome this problem, sales people need to understand, in real terms, how their prospect can benefit from your product or service- from their perspective.
A great example that I learned from Keith Rosen. If I’m taking a trip and my destination is 1,000 miles away, I have several options. I could hitchhike, which would cost me virtually nothing, but wouldn’t guarantee when I’d arrive. I could drive my car, limiting my immediate costs to the necessary gasoline, but my trip could take several days. Or, I could fly, which would probably be my highest-priced option, but would be the fastest.
You can see from my travel example that the cheapest option is not reliable, nor would it save time. In addition, most people wouldn’t want to take several days to drive to and from their destinations. Therefore, because of the time it will save, the best option is to fly, even though it’s probably the most expensive choice. Since time is of the essence for many folks, its value is worth the extra money. Cutting the price is clearly not beneficial or efficient for the customer.
Confidence Is key Everything
To hold firm on price you need to have a high level of confidence. One of the best ways to feel confident is by maintaining a full sales pipeline. When a sales person doesn’t have a full-pipeline, or lacks the ability to generate more customers, or doesn’t fully nurture past customers, they rely on each potential sale that a customer may propose. Sales people become needy, overzealous, and those emotions lead to the inability to overcome price objections.
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