I have had several of my contacts tell me about how scary it is when they come to quote the price for what they do. Honestly I think this is a very human reaction. It could be different in other cultures, but I know that in the UK we are generally reserved about saying that we are good at anything or even saying that we are the best, and ultimately this makes us nervous when we then ask someone to pay us for what we do ! It also seems when the product is actually us, we spiral into meltdown !
There are some key things when selling your products or services that you have to think very carefully about and I hope this blog helps you to make more sense of how you consider and deliver your value. I choose this word intentionally because when we change our mindset about this fear, we start to realise the confidence we gain which then allows us to deliver our price with pride and without fear.
Mindset for delivering price – This is my value NOT my cost.
So, with that in mind there are steps you have to take with your prospect in order for the delivery of price to be the easiest part of the sale, and yes I did say easiest. I will always talk about taking your prospect on a journey and that’s because it is critical. Think about how you buy yourself. Yes, I appreciate that today it is different as we can research so much and we buy with much more knowledge and information than we ever did before. You could almost say that salespeople are not required anymore because what benefit do they bring; I would always argue there is still another important thing that will enhance this process every time, and that is human interaction. This is where you can do your best work as a salesperson – in fact let’s call you a business partner as that is a much more realistic name for what you really are.
From the minute you engage with your prospect you have to have one key objective in mind. Find out ‘WHY’ they are going to buy from you. They will have a challenge, a problem, some pain and you will have the solution to that pain. It is your responsibility as a business partner to find out the real reason why they will buy, from YOU.
As a starting point, always establish that the person you are talking to is the M.A.N (no, not a man…the M.A.N !)
I know, this is very text book and you may have heard about it on courses you have been on before, or in general sales education, but it’s one acronym that is true and important. M.A.N stands for the person who has the Money to invest, the Authority to invest and the Need to invest. This will be really important when it comes to delivering the price, or as I call it the value, because you want to be delivering the value to the decision maker.
When you have confirmed this you should then think about the questions you can ask to establish what the challenge/problem/need actually looks like, feels like and the impact it is having on the bigger picture. The smarter your questions, the smarter the presentation of your solution will be, because you’ll have the right knowledge – remember quality not quantity. Better to have a few great questions, rather than hundreds of irrelevant ones. So here are a few you can try – and adjust these if you like, but think about the reason why they are great questions :-
- What does the challenge / pain cost your client? – this cost doesn’t have to be financial
- How much time does it waste?
- How stressful is it?
- What knock on effect does it have to them or their team?
- What would it look like if it was no longer a challenge?
- What would you invest to solve it?
- What are the client’s objectives/goals?
- Who else influences them finding a solution?
What would you invest to solve it? – Here is your magic question. Right at the beginning of your conversation you are starting to talk about investment. Your services/products are not about price or cost, they are the solution which your prospect can invest in and they have a value much bigger than the financial price ticket. In my experience when you talk about budget with prospects there usually isn’t one, or it is low or ‘we don’t have very much’. Budget conversations lead to wishy washy figures that get thrown around and it focuses on price rather than value. So always talk about investment, after all you are not lying.
Mindset when gathering the facts – What value is my solution when solving the prospects problem.
When you have the information from your questions above you can start to really see where you can solve the challenge/pain/problem and your solution becomes far more than a price. You are now taking away the prospects pain, giving them back time, helping them to repair relationships, saving them money, giving them options they hadn’t considered, empowering them to improve their current situation, helping them to succeed. At what point in this paragraph did we talk about cost or price; we didn’t, because that is not relevant when you take your prospect on the journey and understand WHY they are going to buy from you.
So how does it now feel to be at the point where you deliver your value?
Right at the start you will have established that the prospect has money to invest, the authority to invest and the need to invest.
You feel confident because you understand the challenge and have a solution to the problem and you have demonstrated that too.
You believe in your product and have built rapport which in turn builds trust with the prospect.
Your offering has a value, not a price tag.
Mindset when delivering the price – you are a business partner, not a salesperson.
I will be writing more blogs about the sales journey, or ‘road trip’ as I like to call it. Building rapport, the real fact find, presenting the solution effectively, ready to do business, sales psychology, and more…
It’s not about text books, scripts, and the hundred steps of the sale; it’s about the psychology of sales, the power of being authentic, and WHY your prospect is going to buy from, YOU.
Happy selling !
This is an awesome mindset for coming up with your price to charge clients! Thank you for this. Would love to collaborate with you in the future.