Selling Value Over Price

Many salespeople choke on money discussions when qualifying price with prospects.  The easy move is to simply discount the price, but this is a slippery slope.  The inherent perception of straight discounting is that your product or service is over priced to start.  This perception metastasizes into a consistent challenging of any and all future prices.

JustSell.com offers a couple of excellent points in their current newsletter to counteract this desire to discount:

Here are the hard-dollar points to better negotiating…

1. Remember that negotiation success depends more on the work you do early in the sales process than on the negotiation moment itself. It’s all about the perceived value of your offering and the buying urgency you create with your prospect. The stronger the perceived value and urgency by your prospect, the better. Great front work (asking open-ended questions, delivering key benefit statements, responding to objections appropriately, etc.) combined with the delivery of strong value/ urgency statements will further strengthen your and your team’s negotiating position.
2. Be prepared for the inevitable discount inquiry. Preparation feeds confidence. Always respond by implying that a discount is likely not possible and/ or if it is, it will mean the prospect will need to give up an added feature or make a larger buying commitment for you to €œdo something on the price.” By itself, avoiding the inclination to immediately jump to a discounted price can literally translate into thousands, if not tens of thousands, of extra dollars for you and your company every year.

Those are two points every salesperson can use in any negotiation.  Clearly there are going to be times to adjust prices, but watch out for salespeople who have developed a serial discounting pattern.

One point to note is that a salesperson who is uncomfortable discussing money stands out in a hiring process.  This weakness is not easily hidden so it is imperative to ask all sales candidates about their top customers and the pricing strategies they used when closing them.