Don’t allow pricing issues to derail your sale

Has this ever happened to one of your salespeople? They had a series of great discussions with a prospect, taken lots of great notes and developed the proverbial “killer presentation.” They started to deliver that presentation and received all kinds of positive signals from the prospect: encouraging body language, words of approval, that kind of thing. Things seemed promising. When they got to the last page of the proposal, the price page, all of the positive signals stopped cold.

The meeting ended without a commitment. The prospect had to think about it, had to talk to people, had to check the numbers, had to do any number of things other than say “yes” or “no” to your salespersons’ pricing. They left without any agreed-upon timeline for a decision and the deal died. What happened? They made a classic mistake. They saved the money discussion for last.

Many salespeople (perhaps you as well) feel uncomfortable discussing money issues with prospects and clients. The discomfort most often is the result of early childhood messages, primarily received from parents, which suggest that it is not appropriate to talk about money. Can you remember your parents telling you that it is not polite to ask someone how much money he earns or how much something costs? Were you taught that money was the root of all evil?

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While it may be uncomfortable for some salespeople, encourage your salespeople to have the money discussion before they present. Odds are that most of your sales team has been trained to start their prospect conversations by uncovering pain that can be successfully addressed by your product or service. Hopefully, in the pre-presentation/proposal discussion, they’re asking questions to first discover the prospect’s expectations or limitations regarding the financial aspects — the price, costs, terms, fees, etc. — associated with the acquisition of your product or service. Why would you save that discussion for the final slide of your presentation? Doing so only produces the perfect opportunity for a “Let me think it over” moment.

Having a strategy and a prepared set of questions can help ease this discomfort (for you or your prospects) and make the financial conversation a natural part of the selling process. The most direct strategy for uncovering a prospect’s budget situation is simply to ask something as simple as “Do you have a budget set aside for this purchase?”

If your prospect’s answer to your budget question is “no,” or he is reluctant to share the information, you can “test the waters” using third-party stories. Reference one or two similar sized projects or sales you completed with other clients and disclose an investment range within which those transactions took place. Then, ask your prospect if he would be comfortable making a similar size investment if he felt your product or service was the best fit for his needs.

For instance, you might say, “Jim, the last two projects that we completed that were similar in scope to what we are discussing came in between just over $18,000 to just a bit under $22,000. I suspect that you’d be looking at a similar size investment. Can you be comfortable with an investment in that range? If not, you should probably tell me now before either of us invests any more time in something that will never get off the ground.”

At this point, the prospect will either have a budget, not have a budget or have a budget and be unwilling to share it. This insight keeps your salesperson in control of the selling process where they can decide to either proceed in the sales process or disengage.

Instead of investing lots of time, energy and resources and setting up a presentation that won’t close, teach your salespeople how to make “Let me think it over” a thing of the past. Disengage politely. Work with a qualified prospect who will discuss budget issues directly, and who will commit to giving you a clear “yes” or a clear “no.” Your salespeople’s closing numbers, sales and personal income will improve as a result.

Bob Bolak is president of Sandler Training. He can be reached at 303-579-1939 or bbolak@sandler.com.