I have seen the price issue play out among many salespeople and there seems to be one simple, philosophical difference between those who close high margins deals and those who are serial discounters.\u00a0 The key difference is understanding that pricing is based off what the buyer will pay for the product or service, not what the cost is to produce it.<\/p>\n
I’ve seen this difference first-hand as one salesperson prices his product at a fairly high margin.\u00a0 However, the product is highly engineered and relatively unique in the market.\u00a0 One last helper – the company has a strong reputation in the market which certainly helps…greatly.<\/p>\n
The other salesperson for the same company does not price products in the same manner.\u00a0 He is price wary before it is even mentioned by the prospect.\u00a0 He provides samples and prototypes for free (the other salesperson rightly charges for them since they have significant internal costs).\u00a0 He is quick to lower his price at the first sign of prospect resistance.<\/p>\n
In assessing each salesperson some distinct traits were revealed.\u00a0 First, self-confidence does play a significant part in this process.\u00a0 The self-confident salesperson was the higher-margin salesperson.\u00a0 Second, the discounting salesperson had difficulty bringing up the pricing topic even with a well-qualified prospect.<\/p>\n
Next to self-confidence, the clear difference between these two salespeople is how they determine the value of their solution.\u00a0 The high-margin salesperson sees the great value in the product and the advantage it provides to the customer.\u00a0 The low-margin salesperson sees the cost to manufacture and the obstacles the prospect places in front of the deal.<\/p>\n
The difference in these perceptions consistently appears in the monthly margin report for each salesperson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"