Every month I receive a variety of questions from salespeople and their managers. These come from a variety of sources - my live seminars, the monthly phone seminars, questions that are sent into my newsletter, and issues that arise in the course of my consulting work. Out of all of these, I select those that I think have the most universal application, and respond to them here.

When was the last time you bought a car, a house, or any other major purchase, and said, "Thanks, I'd be happy to pay full list price?" That probably has never happened. Whenever a good chunk of your money was involved, you tried to get it at a lower price.

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That's just human nature. No one wants to pay more for something when there is a possibility that it is available at a lower price.

That's true for your customers as well. They wouldn't be doing their job if they didn't ask for a lower price.

So, don't be surprised if they ask for a lower price. Be surprised if they don't!

That said, the real question is, "What can you do to insure that you get the business at a decent price?"

Three thoughts:

1.   Focus on Exceptional Execution of the Essentials.

If you do an exceptional job of the essential behaviors of a professional salesperson, you'll have increased the likelihood that the customer will pay your full price.

Over and over again, I find myself bringing salespeople back to the essentials of the job. And I discover, time after time, that almost every sales problem can be fixed or prevented by doing the essentials well.

What are the essentials?

• Building rapport and creating relationships such that the customer trusts you, knows you and is comfortable with you.
  
  
• Learning about the customer's situation, needs, interests and motivations in a deeper and more detailed way than your competitors.
  
  
• Presenting your solution in a thoughtful, well prepared and persuasive way.
  
  
• Acquiring agreement on the next step at every point in the process.

Do these things well, better than your competitor, and you'll gain more business and prevent some of the "lower price" requests.

It sounds so simple, and in a sense it is. The problem is that we are never as good at these things as we can be. Constant improvement in the essentials is a never-ending process that should engage us for the rest of our careers. So many salespeople look for solutions in some cute phrase to say, some magic word, or some clever strategy. The answer so often is in our own exceptional execution of the essentials.

2.   Dollars to benefits

At the point in which a customer asks for a lower price, one effective tactic is to compare the money they are spending to the benefits of your product. Try to express the dollars in the lowest possible way, and to maximize the benefits.

For example, you may be selling a piece of production equipment for $100,000. This particular piece of equipment can spit out 100 units per minute. You say something like this: "Over the next five years, this will cost you less than a tenth of a cent per unit. So, you'll receive quality processing for fractions of a penny per unit."

Notice that you broke the $100,000 into the lowest possible way of expressing that amount - "less than a tenth of a cent per unit." Than you compared that to the benefit they receive - quality processing.

This technique can put pressure on the customer to back off his/her request for lower prices.

3.   Have a back up plan.

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There are times when you need to make some price concession in order to keep the customer happy. At those times, you should have a back-up plan ready.

At one time in my career, I sold amplification equipment for classrooms of hearing-impaired children. My product was 30% more expensive than the other two competitors with whom I competed.

When there was a situation where the customer absolutely would not pay our price, we had a back-up plan. We bid our older series of equipment at the price that we thought would get the business.

So, if a customer wouldn't pay our price, we were ready with an option for them - a way to allow them to pay less, but that still provided us with a decent profit.

Take the time to work this out before you confront the low-price customer.

Hope this helps. -  *  -  *  -  *  -  *  -  *  -  *  -  *  -  *  -  *  -  *  -  *  - If you have any comments or questions, email them to me. I do, of course, reserve the right to edit.

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