Price – The salesperson’s get out or a viable reason for missing out on new business?
We hear it often – ‘we were too expensive’, ‘they wanted the cheapest rate’, ‘they went with the lowest price’.
In some ways this can be the perfect get out clause for all salespeople. It can be hard to argue with the fact that a customer or prospect may have got something cheaper from a competitor. But we do argue with it! We firmly believe that most new customers or pieces of new business are not lost on price.
First let us say that there are genuinely price shoppers out there who appear to make buying decisions solely on price. But even in these cases we’d say that their focus on price has been driven by the behaviour of the salesperson.
As we’ve discussed previously, customers are looking to buy solutions to meet real needs, from people they know and trust. Yet 80% of customers say that salespeople don’t properly sell to meet their needs. So if that’s the case what’s left for the customer to focus on but price?
If we adopt a needs-based approach, sell solutions to problems and make the effort to build strong relationships that lead to partnership, why wouldn’t your customers be prepared to pay a bit more for it?
Conversely, if we do the bare minimum and focus solely on ‘pushing’ our own product then customers will want the cheapest rate, because you’re not selling them anything else of value.
When you buy things do you always look for the cheapest?
The price excuse is the default position of average salespeople. It’s much easier to use this as an excuse than admit that we might not have built the relationship with the customer properly, understood their needs or presented our proposal effectively
Understanding needs + Building strong relationships + Innovative solutions
= Full share of wallet.