7th THIRSTY ON THURSDAY
Welcome back to Thirsty on Thursday. Today we are going to talk about overcoming Price Objections.
How many out there have had a flat tire recently? I just did and I was quickly reminded how inconvenient it is! When I got the car to the mechanic, the technician came out, looked at the tire and explained that I had run over a nail. He gave me a few options. He told me that a new tire was $135. I immediately dropped my jaw and said no way. He stopped me and mentioned that he could plug the hole from the nail for free but it would only last for a short time OR as an alternative, I could pay the $135 and get a new tire. If I ever got a nail in the new tire, they would replace it for free. I appreciate that the technician gave me options and showed me the values and benefits of each even after I objected to his price. After his speech, I went for the long term solution that would protect me from another inconvenient tire replacement in the near future.
How do you discuss price with your clients? Do you give them an explanation of benefits that justify your different price points? Remember – sometimes not only do you have to earn respect from your clients, you also have to earn your price.
When talking about the price of a product or service, try to make the conversation more about benefits and less about a dollar amount. You provide an investment not an expense. If right off the bat, the prospects says something like, “Oh, that’s way too much,” instead of stopping and trying to immediately lower your price (which only gives control to the prospect and throws you off your momentum), you should turn the clients focus back towards the benefits of using you and your product. Many times, price objections occur when the product or service doesn’t meet client needs.
To steer the conversation away from price and back to benefits you could say:
“Based on what you know now, it may seem like a lot, but let me get through exactly what you get for this such…”
OR
“Let’s put the budget aside for a moment and first see if this is a solution that would even work for you. What I’ll do is explain everything to you, answer your questions, and then we can address whether or not it provides the value to justify the investment.”
Did you know, a survey was done recently with over 100,000 consumers and price is the eighth most important factor in selecting a product or service? In my experience, the price can be higher than the competition if the prospect feels it’s justified in terms of the value and benefits offered. The best way to justify the price is with more benefits.
If you give a proposal to a possible client and they immediately say “It costs too much.”
You can say back:
“Yes Mr. Client, many people have said our price is higher than the competition, but they’ve confused initial price with overall costs. Here is why you will pay less with us in the long run. We our delivering a better quality product that is better specified on the design and we have more information in our drawings. Which is a save for you because you get to safeguard your investment that you are spending on this jobsite. This will pay back to you because it keeps less questions on the field and you won’t have a subcontractor making mistakes in the field.
Or here is one my dad use to use:
“In your own business, is your product or service always the least expensive option available? Mrs. Prance, I would rather inconvenience you with a high price today than with a cheap solution that will have to be fixed or replaced sooner than later.”
The moment you focus on price, you reduce yourself to a commodity. You are the same as everyone else. Keep highlighting your benefits.
So in closing are you lowering your price as a plug for a tire or are you selling a new tire that will pay off for years to come? You are not giving a price or an expense you are offering an investment for your client. See you next week.
