price objection is a frequent variable every sales professional encounter on a going basis and as a sales leader, the strategy you use to address this often price objections among your team determine how often you close business transaction. Therefore equipping your team with the necessary strategies in this competitive market space is imperative.
- are a lot of materials out there on handling price objection. However, the following tips will be helpful to all sales professional as these strategies have been applied and proven to work time and time again.
Evidence Base Selling
Selling today is more of the evidence base in the 21st-century digital economy where consumers are getting powerful by the minutes. Acknowledging before the prospect or customer that your products or services are more expensive than the competing brands is bad selling and concluding the sales call with statements like – we will look at the offer and send you a revised offer automatically position put you for a further discount if you are not careful. Therefore, it is rather professional to focus on value – benefits selling to explain the price differentiation.
Economic Compelled Discount
- economy reality today has inevitably conditioned most buyers to start negotiation with a price objection thus angling for discounting using strategies that leave the seller on the edge. ‘‘…the competition is offering this… or that.’’ How many of you are familiar with this? Vitally important, below most price objections are the unspoken words ‘‘Can we agree on a win-win transaction?’’ Therefore, if the sales professional has earlier created dissatisfaction in the customer, it is advisable at this point you resurface the some elements of this dissatisfaction to drive home the value you will add to his business to eliminate that existing dissatisfaction and why price discount is not an option.
Unique Selling Proposition
Using your company USP to handling price objection can work magic even in the most difficult price negotiation situations. Use the USP to confirm your benefits, quality and value added.
Delay Price Offer
It is most effective in selling if you can delay price offer to the very end of the sales dialogue. Such enable you to have the customer or prospect buy –in and a share of mind of the benefits and value of your offer to the business. The major reason most sales professional encounter price objections are often narrow down to the early introduction of price in the sales dialogue.
Price Might Not Be the Issue
While the prospect says, the price is the issue it could mean something else. When they say "It's too expensive." Respond with "What do you mean?” You might be able to help with the method of payments, timings, budgets, finance, etc. You never know until you ask.
In conclusion, I take this quote from Henry David Thoreau, Walden ‘‘the cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.’’
Therefore think carefully when giving discount each time a team comes asking for concession in pricing because of price objection(s).
Austin E. Williams
Sales and Marketing Consultant
