Price

Selling or Solving

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Rising inflation is driving a greater emphasis on price over value creation in negotiations. It’s not just the dramatic, unpredictable cost increases that are impacting your customers’ decisions, but also the sense of higher risk related to uncertainty, that cause the short-term, price-first perspective to prevail over the longer, strategic view in your customers’ buying process.  Focusing on price as the primary decision factor has the advantage of being clear, direct and easy to evaluate. Everything is …

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Effective Discovery Enables Trust

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When customers need to resolve a problem, they often limit the information they share with possible solution providers, keeping it focused on their short term need of fixing or replacing something. This enables them to control the dialogue, treat all suppliers as commodity vendors and quickly compare alternatives to facilitate a prompt decision on the basis of price and delivery. If your solutions are more complex, with a related higher purchase investment, and there’s the …

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Price vs. Value

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Bob Schultek Author of  The Gauntlet Price is obvious to all buyers. It’s clear, direct and easy to evaluate. In a retail environment, it’s the same for everyone. Value is different for every buyer. It is derived from the benefits or experience generated by the product or service purchased. Selling on the basis of price is easier than selling the value your product or service produces. But doing so makes you a commodity – discounting your expertise, diminishing your …

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Crafting Price Satisfaction

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When the selling/problem solving process is done well, both buyer and seller can be satisfied with the final price. To earn your price, and leave the customer feeling satisfied with that decision, preparation is the key. Use these 3 methods to maximize preparation: Start early. Ensuring that both parties will be satisfied when the deal is done begins with your decision to do more than resolve a customer’s current pain. Early in the discovery process, …

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“Your Price is What?!”

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Every salesperson has that moment when they must pitch their price. The major obstacle they face is their fear of rejection, and its consequences. But when it’s done right, both the customer and the salesperson can feel a sense of satisfaction. To earn your price, and leave the customer feeling satisfied with that decision, preparation is the key. Both parties must win for each to feel satisfied with a deal. When you’ve earned the business …

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Customers Are In Charge

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The vast amount of information available via the web has radically altered the selling process.  Potential customers can reference websites, blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other web-based tools to gather volumes of data before they ever reach out to a salesperson. If you are not careful, when that inquiry arrives, your response will convince them that your product or service is just like the other commodities they see all over the web and they …

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Working with Distributors – Quotas Aren’t Enough

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The working relationship between manufacturer and distributor is often defined by sales quotas.  But using only quotas to manage this vital affiliation does not preserve the relationship’s primary, mutually beneficial purpose of sustaining growth in the market.  When that purpose is unclear, and it becomes separated from the profit motive, bad things happen. The original purpose of the manufacturer-distributor working relationship was to increase sales by expanding market coverage in local markets.  For a while, …

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Four Steps to Managing Customer Objections

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Managing a customer’s objection to your proposal involves discovering the motive for the objection, plus determining if the objection can be overcome. If a customer is ready to do business but still has some concerns, these 4 steps can help you deal with the open issues and progress towards agreement with the customer. 1. Find a point of agreement. When a customer challenges you or your proposal (“Your price is high”), don’t counter or debate …

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Defeat The Flawed Proposal Excuse

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Andrew had just received feedback on his proposal from a new prospect when I arrived. He had followed their instructions when submitting his proposal via their Excel spreadsheet, including the requirement to offer one specific price proposal. So he was surprised to learn that his proposal was considered to be too narrow and inflexible. Andrew’s prospect uses an Excel spreadsheet proposal process to make it faster and easier for them to compare the submitted proposals. …

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