Most sales negotiation training programs will warn of the dire consequences of becoming an unpaid consultant. However, what exactly does this mean? Well, if you’ve ever felt as if your product’s pricing, and your own personal knowledge, was being used to lower other competitive bids, then you’ve likely become an unpaid consultant. Bottom line, this “no-no” of sales negotiation simply means you provide pricing and knowledge to the benefit of your customers without getting any business in return. How does this happen? More importantly, what must your company do to ensure that your salespeople never become just a source of prices and an easy outlet for your customers to continually lower bids for their preferred vendors?
The Dangers of Becoming an Unpaid Sales Consultant
There are guaranteed to be times during the sales process where individuals must provide additional information, or more to the point, provide more information than they normally would. After all, sales cycle times are never the same from one customer to the next.
Some customers will purchase immediately, while others require more time, effort and most importantly, more information. It’s in those instances when the sales process is extended that customers sometimes sucker sales professionals into becoming an unpaid consultant. Why does this happen?
Somewhere along the sales process, the salesperson loses focus, provides more information than they should and proceeds to become the impetus the customer needs to secure lower pricing and concessions from their main supplier. These are those instances where the salesperson works on the order for an extended period, seems so close to getting the business, but is suddenly left out in the cold with nothing to show for their efforts. At the end, the sales professional is left dumbfounded and frustrated by their lack of results.
The video above exlains how to deal with customer threats in negotiation, concessions and price demands. You can learn more by going to: Five Sales Competencies Every B2B Salesperson Must Master
Four Steps to Avoid Becoming an Unpaid Sales Consultant
The following tips are about asserting control over the sales process. Now, it's not about being confrontational. It's not about asserting yourself by being overbearing. Instead, it's about being direct, to the point, and succinct in your approaches. In the end, it means subtly controlling the sales process. So, what needs to be done in sales negotiation to help avoid becoming an unpaid consultant?
1. Use the Upfront Verbal Contract
Sometimes customers will clearly state their purchase criteria. However, others will be more subtle about how they award business. When it comes to sales negotiation, sales professionals are well within their right to ask how and when a decision will be made. Have the customer declare aloud what their intentions are as to the timing of their decision. This can be viewed as an “up-front” verbal contract. This will help avoid those instances where it just seems like the customer is draining information from the sales professional, who is unfortunately on a never-ending pursuit of an order that doesn't materialize!
2. Develop a Timeframe with the Customer
The first step is to get the customer to declare their purchase criteria with the up-front verbal contract. The next step is to develop the time frame of the decision. No need to use strong-armed negotiation tactics here. Allow the customer to declare their time-frame – don’t impose one! This is the second phase of your “up-front” verbal contract.
The first portion of the verbal contract is to understand the customer’s intentions and how they ultimately decide who wins their business. The next portion is to come to an agreement about when the customer makes the decision.
3. Focus on Objectives
Stick to what’s needed to get the business. What do I mean by this? Well, if you’ve done the verbal agreement properly, then your customer has provided you with all the criteria they’ll use to make the decision. In addition, you also have a working time frame for when the decision will be made. Therefore, anything that veers away from this verbal agreement is something you must be cautious of.
If the customer has declared they’ll base their decision on your product’s “cost per-use” benefits, then jockeying and fishing for better pricing, or getting you to commit to a lower price for volumes outside of the verbal contract, is an immediate sign that something might be amiss.
4. Reaffirm Purchase Criteria
When confronted with those instances where it feels like the customer is fishing for additional information, simply stop and reaffirm the purchase criteria with them. Now, this doesn’t mean you completely shut them off from what they’re saying.
Answer their question, but then gradually bring up the purchase criteria again and get agreement from the customer. Being subtle about how this is done is essential. Getting your customer to reaffirm their purchase criteria is a subtle way to assert control and get the process back on track.
No sales negotiation training process or approach is ever guaranteed to produce results. In this sense, salespeople often have to be a different person with different people. These four steps aren’t necessarily part of a specific sales tactic. They are tools to protect a salesperson from being used as an unpaid consultant. In fact, with most customers it won’t be needed. However, there will be those times when defending your pricing and protecting your interests, go hand in hand.
For more insight into how to avoid having your pricing used against you, and deflect becoming an unpaid consultant, read the following post:Protecting Your Price Against the Price Shoppers and Are Your Sales People Protecting Your Pricing?
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