When a prospect objects to your pricing, it is often the beginning of the end of a potential sale. You can run through all the benefits of your product or service again, but once price has become an obstacle, it’s hard to remove it.
Do you offer to discount the price? That’s a slippery slope; how much of your profit can you bargain away?
Chris called me with this exact problem. He had been talking with a physician the night before about providing on-site physical therapy services when the physician objected to the price. It was at the end of long day, and Chris was at a loss as what to do to eliminate price as an obstacle to the sale.
Chris mapped out the financial benefits again. Despite his best efforts, the conversation went downhill. Even though he had an interested and qualified prospect, Chris walked out without making the sale.
Have you ever been in a similar situation? Want to know how to ensure your method of sales overcomes objections to your pricing?
The first thing to remember whenever a prospect objects to your price is that it’s not about the money!
It’s true; in 99 cases out of a 100, when a prospect objects to your pricing, the money is not the real issue.
Every small business owner, marketer and salesperson gets hit with objections to price. It costs them tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands dollars in lost sales each year.
Your prospects happily spend lots of money each year, even in a weak economy, on everything from cell phone service, to Internet services, and equipment to accounting services. Just to give you an idea of the amount, small businesses spend over $90 billion on IT products and services alone each year in the U.S.
This brings us to the second thing you need to know about about making a sale when a prospect objects to price. Your own business marketing may be creating this pricing trap. Most small business marketing does. No matter how good your services and products are, you’re going to keep losing sales unless you find out how to eliminate price as an obstacle.
When prospects tell you that your price is too high, they are really saying, “I don’t see the value of your products and services to my business.” Or, “The benefits relative to the cost aren’t clear.”
People object to price when they don’t have enough information about why they need your products and services and how those are going to help them. Price is only meaningful to prospects once they understand what they’ll be getting in return.
Ask yourself these questions:
• What are your sales goals?
• How many sales are you making per month?
• How much do you want to see these numbers grow?
• Will you reach these goals selling the same way you have been?
3 Steps to Eliminating Price As An Obstacle
1. Spell out in detail the value of your products or services in your marketing. Remember that most people aren’t buying the features; they’re buying the benefits.
For example, they aren’t buying sound insulation but a car that is whisper quiet. Physical therapy patients aren’t buying treatment protocols, they’re buying full mobility. An architect’s clients aren’t buying blueprints, they’re buying a lifestyle.
2. Avoid discussing price until prospects have had a chance to explain to you the benefits they want from the product or service. If a prospect wants to know the cost before you’ve asked them to define what they are looking for, redirect the conversation. Ask them what they want? Get them to tell you the benefits they are looking for.
3. Your prospects want to feel like they have a choice about how much they pay. Give them pricing options so that you control the options, instead of having them propose their own.
Once Chris understood how to frame and structure his sales conversations, he found that price was no longer an obstacle to sales. Instead, he was signing up more physicians for his services than he ever imagined. You can do the same.
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