I have been writing articles for several years. In all that time, I have had some really good questions e-mailed to me. It seems as though the same questions keep coming up, so I thought I would do a little question-and-answer session today. Doesn't that sound good? (It really doesn't matter; I am doing it anyway.)
Q: I feel very uncomfortable in the initial conversation when a prospect says to me: "There are plenty of people out there who do what you do, so why should I buy this widget from you?"
A: My answer would be: "I don't know, maybe you shouldn't. I really don't know enough about you yet to give you a good answer. What might make sense for us though is to ask each other a few questions, dig a little deeper and then we can probably figure out if what we have and what you're looking for is a fit. Does that make sense?"
I would do this for a few reasons:
1. If you answer this question, you are guessing what is important to your prospect. We can only assume that what we think is so great about our product or service they will also think is great and they may not.
2. Credibility. Selling 20 years ago was simpler than today: You went in, you gave the "features and benefits" of the product or service, and they chose. Sales is much more complicated today. It's complicated in many ways, but mostly because lots of people decided that selling is a way to make good money, so people who were not really out for the interest of the prospect were out selling and doing it badly. Therefore, it is important to act differently than how a stereotypical salesperson would.
Q: Sometimes, I have a prospect who is very interested, we do a proposal for them and they want our product, but the price is too high. What is the best way to negotiate the price?
A: The best way to negotiate the price is not to negotiate the price. Here's what I mean. You have a few issues here. First of all, what value was created in the initial meeting for you to feel that this prospect is worth your valuable time to go back and do a proposal?
If they need or want what you have, but they aren't willing to pay your price for it, the reason could be one of two. Maybe you didn't uncover the real issue and how your product will help solve it. This is where value comes from. You do not create value. It is created by the questions that you ask to get the prospect to self-realize that what you have and what they need is one and the same.
The other reason could be that you didn't discuss pricing at all in the initial meeting, so you are surprising them with the price now in the proposal. Bad idea. It is important to get everything on the table before you decide to go back and do a proposal. You need to at least give a range of dollars to get their approval of what money they are willing to spend. Then, if the money isn't enough, you either take some of your products or services out of the overall proposal or, if it isn't a fit with these, you decide to shake hands and walk away.
Believe me, to negotiate when you have already done all of the work on putting the proposal together is a time when you are excited about the idea of closing the sale. You are too vulnerable to negotiate here. All of this should be done before you come back and will do anything to close it.
Greta Schulz is the president and CEO of ProActive Training and Consulting based in West Palm Beach. She has been involved in sales, sales management, marketing, and training for almost thirty years. She is a National columnist of "Sellutions" in over 30 Business Journals across the country and a contributing author of New York Times bestseller Masters of Sales. Greta has a new book she's written called, "To Sell is NOT to Sell". Greta's successful training program is available online http://www.b2bsalesplaybook.com
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