Are You Constantly Hearing "Your Price is Too High?"

YOUR PRICE IS TOO HIGH! DISCOVER HOW TO SELL VALUE, NOT PRICE When salespeople hear prospects say, “The price is too high” the salesperson usually reacts.  This is a “belief trigger” in the mind of the salesperson. A trigger causes an event or situation to happen or exist.  Hearing a price concern causes salespeople to very often resort to discounting. This reaction is almost instantaneous based on poor programming in the case of all prospects. It should be the last resort, if even any avenue at all. High Price = Discount Demand Why does this happen in the mind of salespeople? These are some things that influence belief triggers: Big box retail thinking.  Although the channels of distribution which employ salespeople to do face to face and consultative selling are different, salespeople believe they should be able to compete on the same margins.  They cannot and never will! Unprepared sales representatives.  When a company employees salespeople they are most generally a premium price organization.  They have to be.  Discounting is NOT a role that highly paid salespeople do to earn business. Poor habits - Because salespeople always do price selling and so do the professionals around them, they become lazy. The cost is always differentiated by sharing a demonstrated value differentiation to alternative product and service offering.  If there are none, shame on the supplier!  If they are not communicated by the salesperson, shame on the salesperson, the company sales trainers and coaches! Social defeat refers to losing a sale with a prospect, or any kind of dispute among humans. A power play defensive system that salespeople use is to offset the impending defeat with a discount to show how POWERFUL the salesperson can be. To break out of the BELIEF TRIGGER of PRICE, salespeople have to work extremely hard at differentiating their offering on results and return on investment.  Salespeople need to re-program their relationship with prospects to create more value than their competitors and focus on showing that they and their company can create greater outcomes. When a salesperson discounts 10% they have to work an extra 11% harder to make up the short fall of revenue and reach the company sales numbers. Based on a 40 hour work week, that is an extra 4 hours a week the salesperson will have to work. The salesperson will have to work half a day on the weekend either Saturday or Sunday. If the salesperson, as in our example, discounts 20%, it means an extra 25% harder to make up the short fall in sales.  This represents an extra 10 hours per week of time on top of the 40 hours already being put in. There is an alternative for salespeople giving up time with their family and loved ones on the weekend or working later each day. That is to SELL VALUE. Companies provide value to their prospects which can be designed to have a higher perceived value in the eyes of the customer than the discount a salesperson might give.  Think for a minute… What is it?  Some things that you could give in return for maintaining your price might include: Leads and introductions for your prospect's business Extra training on the implementation of your offering Offering a higher level of support An extra portion of your product Another month of service Extending payment terms Expediting implementation Provisioning extra users Inviting the prospect to became a part of a user’s group Provide an older version of what you sell that as a gift Create a press release or other marketing asset for your prospect  The goal is to look at the impact of the discount amount and provide more of the product or service that the customer is purchasing or an additional item that has a perceived value greater than the discount that the customer might be attracted to.  This would cost your organization little or nothing in comparison to the discounted amount.