I JUST Want to Know the Price …

In a perfect world, we sell our products and services on the value our prospects and customers will receive from them.

But every now and then, we come up against a prospect so focused on the price that they don’t hear all of the great benefits they’ll get with our product.

What do you do in that situation?

If you’re trying to compete on price alone, know that there is always someone who will underbid you. You’ve got to stand out from the crowd—in a positive way.

The following tips will help you gain control of the conversation and steer it in the direction you need, rather than focusing on price alone:

1. Change the conversation

If your customer is pushing you to name a price, it’s up to you to change the conversation. Bring new insight to your prospects that perhaps they hadn’t considered before.

For example, if your prospect is looking for the cheapest widget he needs for producing his product, ask him to define how much having a quality widget would be worth to his customers. Lead him to see that a cheap widget is not in his own customers’ best interest. By asking probing questions that will steer your prospect towards identifying a need for quality over price, you’re using his own answers to support your position that value matters.

2. Use an analogy to create context

Say that you’re selling a software solution as a service to customers, and the platform has a set price. Show your prospect exactly how much time your solution will save his team in man-hours and equate that to actual savings. By saving your prospects’ money and time, you’re helping to increase their bottom line, and everyone likes to hear that. You’ve seen many commercials and advertisements that compare a product or service to “less than the cost of a cup of coffee a day.” The reason this analogy works so well is that it puts the price in perspective, giving your prospect something that is not critical to their operations to compare your service to, which hopefully you’ve convinced them is crucial for their company to succeed.

3. Know what your competitors charge

Don’t go into price negotiations blind. Always know what your competitors are charging and make sure you have a solid grasp on why your product or service is better than the competitors. If your prospect says, “But I can get the same product cheaper from X Company,” you can counter with “Why haven’t you purchased from X Company?” Try to get your prospect talking about why they haven’t chosen to go the cheaper route then, and you’ll lead them to the answer that justifies why they should consider your product over your competitors. This is a much stronger position to be in than trying to convince them that they shouldn’t look at price alone.

4. Counter with a question

When a prospect says, “Just let me know the price,” ask a clarifying question of your own. Try something like “Let me ask you first what it will cost you in the future if you don’t tackle this problem now.” You can also always counter with “I need a little more information from you before I can quote what this project will cost.” Try to turn the conversation around so that you’re asking the questions that lead your prospect to discovering the value behind the price.

5. Be prepared to walk

This is the toughest step when someone is focused on price alone. If you can’t come to an agreement over price, you should know your bottom line deal that you can accept before walking away. The bad news about lowering your price any time someone questions the veracity of your product or service, is that a lower price might give the prospect the notion that your product wasn’t worth the price to begin with. You’re better off sticking to your offer, and trying to steer the conversation back to value.

When price is the sticking point, there are times you just have to let the deal go. For the rest of the time, try to steer the conversation towards value over price, and make sure you have plenty of examples of success stories from happy customers.

The best way to counter price objections is to learn first, then do. At Natural Training, we provide salespeople with the opportunity to learn how to use their own natural style to talk to prospects about price and we give them real life situations in which to practise.

Call our experts today to discuss how Natural Training can help you realize your sales goals this quarter.

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