I have to admit being a little frustrated. Over the past two weeks, I must have done a couple of dozen opportunity reviews and deal strategy sessions.
One of my usual questions, fairly early on, is: What are their decision criteria and priorities? 100% of the time, the response is Price! And I wait….. but there’s silence.
“Tell me something new, price is always an issue. It may be their top issue, but it is never their only issue! What other things are they going to base their decision on?” Over 80% of the time, I get blank stares. “We don’t know, they keep focusing on price.” is the response from the sales person.
Have you asked the question, “Other than prices, what is important in making this decision?”
Frankly, we don’t need sales people if the only issue customers are looking at is price. We can handle virtually everything through Internet communications or perhaps a few phone calls. Fortunately, that’s not the case in most of what we do. Price will always be a key issue in every decision. But we cannot stop there, we have to understand all the other issues and things the customer is going to consider in making their decision. The customer needs to understand those as well, so our probing helps them better understand and shape their criteria and priorities.
In fact, price is only important after all the other customer needs and priorities have been met. No one will buy the lowest price alternative if it doesn’t do the job. Buyers are smart. They realize when they make a decision, they are facing a number of trade-offs to solve their problems. Price is one of those trade-offs. It’s our job as sales professionals to put help the customer understand everything else, balancing those, the risk, total cost of ownership, the trust and confidence they have in the supplier and many other things against price.
Don’t let price be the only issue you identify. Don’t stop your probing when the customer replies with that. It’s their obligation to make Price the first words out of their mouths. After they say that, respond, “I understand price is a critical factor. What other issues are you considering in making this decision?” Wait as long as it takes until you get an answer.
And please, please, please—for those of you who are reviewing your deal strategies with me next week, don’t tell me that Price is the only issue! I’m likely to go postal!
Whew—thank you, I feel better now
FREE WEBINAR! Join us for this week’s FREE webinar from the Future Selling Institute on Trust and Sales Leadership with Charlie Green of Trusted Advisors. Mark your calendars for Friday, April 15, 2011 at 11:00 AM EST and click here to register.
