The Price Objection—Again!

If you’re ever challenged with the objection, “Your price is pretty high for that…” and you are tempted to see if you can lower your price to compete, what is the most important bit of information you need?

Think about this…

I was listening to a training call the last week, and the prospect told the rep that his price was quite high for a certain item. The rep then asked for the part number and told this prospect that he would “see what I can do.”

Now that may seem fine, but what is the crucial bit of information he needs to compete here?

He needs to know what other “lower” prices the prospect is seeing—or if the lower price he can offer is low enough to beat the price the prospect has and so win the deal.

If you’re ever faced with this situation, here is what to say:

Prospect: “Your price on these is too high.”

You: “I understand. What price have you been seeing on this?”

Then:

“I’m happy to see what I can do, and let me ask you: How many of these do you need? When do you need them by? Finally, if I can match that price, is this something you want to go ahead and order from us?”

By getting this kind of information, you’ll be positioning yourself to not only get a commitment on the order, but you’ll know how many and when.

Try this the next time you’re in this situation and watch your sales—and your commission—grow.


Need More Proven Responses to the Selling Situations You Face Every Day?


ON DEMAND SALES TRAINING THAT GETS RESULTS!

If your team is struggling with call reluctance and is tired of the endless rejection they face, then get instant access to our On Demand training today. We provide the exact talk tracks, templates, and proven tools your team will be motivated to apply, all structured around an award winning comprehensive inside sales approach that gives your team the confidence to succeed in every selling situation they face today.

Unlimited License: One to 100 reps can attend for one low price!

Perfect for reps dealing with the following issues:

  • Reps struggling with call reluctance
  • Getting screened out by the gatekeeper
  • Overcoming blow off objections like, “Just email me something”
  • Identifying decision makers
  • Qualifying prospects
  • Setting call back appointments that stick
  • Giving successful presentations and dealing with objections
  • Staying motivated

My Favorite Closing Line

I was giving a training today and emphasizing the importance of directing the sale, assuming the deal, and leading the prospect through the close.

As I did, I reminded the team of closers of my very favorite closing phrase, and one that has literally made me millions of dollars in my career.

When you get to the reason to place the order now, or purchase your product or service, what’s important is not to ask if they agree, or if they have the budget, or anything like that.

Instead…

What you do is end your close with, “Here’s what I recommend we do…” and then suggest the order.

If you want to take it even further, you can say, “Here’s what I recommend we do. Since we’ve got just five left right now, I’ll go ahead and ship them to you while we have them. That way, you’ll have them on hand when you need them. Where would you like me to ship these to?”

Do you see how I combined the, “Here’s what I recommend we do…” with a buying/assumptive question, “Where would you like me to ship these to?”

This is the ultimate way to assume the sale.

But let’s back up to that initial order phrase: “Here’s what I recommend we do…” There are many variations on this, like:

“Here’s what my best clients are doing right now…”

“My biggest clients are thinking ahead and they’re….and I recommend you do the same…where should I ship these to?”

“Smart companies are picking these up now, while they’re available, and not waiting until they go on back order. Here’s what I recommend you do…”

You see how this goes. The point is: if you want to dramatically increase your number of sales, then take the prospect all the way through the sale by leading them to the buy action.

It’s surprisingly effective and once you get in the habit of doing it, you’ll wonder why you never thought of it before!


Need More Proven Responses to the Selling Situations You Face Every Day?


ON DEMAND SALES TRAINING THAT GETS RESULTS!

If your team is struggling with call reluctance and is tired of the endless rejection they face, then get instant access to our On Demand training today. We provide the exact talk tracks, templates, and proven tools your team will be motivated to apply, all structured around an award winning comprehensive inside sales approach that gives your team the confidence to succeed in every selling situation they face today.

Unlimited License: One to 100 reps can attend for one low price!

Perfect for reps dealing with the following issues:

  • Reps struggling with call reluctance
  • Getting screened out by the gatekeeper
  • Overcoming blow off objections like, “Just email me something”
  • Identifying decision makers
  • Qualifying prospects
  • Setting call back appointments that stick
  • Giving successful presentations and dealing with objections
  • Staying motivated

Closing Sales is Like First and Goal

closing sales, overcoming objections, sales tips,

Hope you’re enjoying the NFL playoffs. A client and I were talking about that Bear/Eagles game a week ago, and (besides the Bear’s kicker—I do feel bad for him), we were talking about that last scoring drive of the Eagles. How they went for it on 4th down with 56 seconds left—and scored the winning touchdown.

That reminded me of what I was taught when I was new on the phone: that the sale doesn’t start until the fourth or fifth no. My manager used to tell me that it’s a like football:

He said that driving the ball down to the red zone was the same as giving your presentation. And that as soon as you asked for the sale at the end, you were now in the red zone.

He told me that if the client said “no,” then it was up to me to use a close and ask for the sale again. This was like running the first play in the red zone.

If the prospect was still willing to engage with me but still said no, then all that meant was that I didn’t get into the end zone on that play, but I had three more tries. So, I’d read another close and ask for the sale again.

If I got another no, then it was just third down. Time to deliver yet another close and ask for the sale again.

Same thing on fourth down: Run another play and try to get into the endzone.

Same thing in sales: If you’ve received three or four no’s, it’s time to try for it again, to read another close.

Think about the Eagles game. Did they give up after they ran first down and didn’t get into the endzone? Of course not.

What they did was they ran two more plays and then they went for it on fourth down. And they scored and won.

Now a couple of quick lessons:

1) You’re not always going to score on the first or second or even third closing attempt, but you must keep running plays—ask for the sale all four times.

2) Sometimes you get a penalty on the defense and get another set of downs—more times to ask for the sale!

3) Sometimes you can kick a field goal (drop close) and still come away with some points—or a partial sale.

The bottom line is that you don’t give up when the prospect says no—instead, just look at it like a fresh set of downs in the red zone—four new attempts to deliver a close, overcome an objection, and keep asking for the sale.

That’s how I dealt with objections (I kept running plays—using closes), and that’s how I made hundreds of thousands of dollars every year selling over the phone.

And it’s how you will, too, IF you keep closing and running plays in the red zone.