Ask the Sales Doctor - Total Selling Systems

Warren Wechsler's
Ask the Sales Doctor

Your Price is Too High

Warren Wechsler, bestselling author and national sales and motivational speaker, provides many valuable resources free of charge to sales trainers and sales managers. Some restrictions apply to the use and distribution of this information. For more valuable materials, visit Warren's web site www.totalselling.com. All materials and content © Warren Wechsler, 2001 – All rights reserved.

Terry writes:

What do you do when your product is priced 10-15% higher than your competition. My company has better service, we are more flexible on delivery and packaging of our products, and we are available to our clients 24 hours a day seven days a week. Even so, I still face the "your price is too high" objection.

Warren answers:

Terry, that's a great question. In my live seminars, I hear this all the time. Unless you're the low-cost provider, and none of us generally are, you're going to face this objection over and over and over again. So what I want you to do is the following.

Number one: I want you to believe that your price is right, that you are worth every single penny that your company charges. Somebody else thinks that they're giving a 10-15% discount, but you've already told us that your company has better service. You're flexible on delivery; you're flexible on packaging. And you're available to your clients 24 hours a day seven days a week, which must mean something in your business or you wouldn't have written that as part of your question. So the first thing is you have to believe that you have the right price.

Number two: We've already covered this a couple of times today, but I'll repeat that. Anticipate the objection. And then write down all the benefits that your company brings to this particular prospect or this customer. And then, Terry, assign a value to every one of these benefits. So maybe being open 24 hours a day seven days a week might be worth 2%. Maybe the way that you package means that they can buy less than a truckload; they don't have their warehouse filled with products; maybe that's worth another 2%. Add up all those values to all those different benefits, and you will know in your heart that that 10-15% isn't really 10-15%. It's more like 1-2% maybe; maybe it's even the same.

And now, go out there and meet that customer and restate your case. Close that gap, Terry. Show the customer that it's not really a 10-15% price differential. If you add all the bundled services you're providing, it's more like 1% or 2 %, or maybe it's even the same.

And finally, Terry, after you've done all this and you've shown them all the great benefits your company brings to the table ask him, "Am I worth a little bit more to you, Mr. Customer?" I guarantee you if you do it that way, you'll be able to win more than you lose on those pure price objections because when it comes right down to it, it's not about price; it's about value. Our job as salespeople is to add and create value for our customers.

This was a partial transcript from Warren Wechsler's weekly radio show. Warren Wechsler, bestselling author and national sales and motivational speaker, provides many valuable resources free of charge to sales trainers and sales managers. Visit Warren's web site www.totalselling.com Also, listen to Warren's weekly radio broadcast Wednesday's at 4:05 - 5:00 pm Central time, on KMCD-AM 1570AM. Shows are broadcast live on the internet at http://www.warpradio.com/asx/KMCD-AM.asx