When discussing sales negotiation training with my customers, I always tell them to never sell on price, but to instead sell savings & solutions. Now, most business professionals are convinced that salespeople sell on price because they lack the ability to sell properly. However, in many instances it’s the company itself that forces the salesperson to sell on price. This often happens because the company views this approach as the only way to guarantee the order. Unfortunately, lowering the price does nothing more than lead to the dreaded price war, and nobody wins a price war! Declining prices do nothing more than reduce gross profit margins and force your company to pursue a portion of the market that nobody wants. So, what can your business do to correct this?
If you want your salespeople to get away from this practice, then you must empower them to do so. What do I mean by this? Simply put, you must pursue cost-per-use and longevity sales strategies, strategies that are predicated on selling savings and solutions to customers. These strategies dollarize the benefits of your products in a way that speaks directly to your customer’s bottom line. After all, every company wants to save money – especially in an economy such as this one.
Success in sales can not rely upon your company being the least expensive option. Therefore, if you’ve decided to approach sales with the mindset of leaving nothing on the table, while maximizing your product’s gross profit, then moving forward with cost-per-use sales strategies is a must. Surprisingly, selling on cost-per-use benefits isn’t that difficult. In fact, within the lexicon of sales negotiation training, using longevity benefits is one of the simplest strategies to adopt. To help with this pursuit, I've included a list of rules for selling on cost-per-use & longevity benefits. At the end of the post are addition links on DriveYourSucce$$ that will provide guidance on these sales strategies.
Rule #1: Price Concerns are Savings Concerns
When a customer expresses concerns about your product’s price, what they are really saying is that saving money is important to them. Price concerns are savings concerns and once your salespeople understand this, they’ll forever set the stage for saving the customer money without dropping your product’s price. Most salespeople respond to these price demands by dropping their pricing. However, your company doesn’t have to drop its price in order to save your customer money.
Rule #2: Dollarize Cost-Per-Use Benefits
In order to address your customer’s price concerns, you must come to the table with definitive cost-per-use benefits that dollarize the impact of your product offering. When your customer balks at your product’s price, that’s your cue to move the discussion away from pricing and onto the savings your product offers. This might include providing your customers with testimonials and case studies showing the net savings of purchasing your product.
Rule #3: Sweeten Offer with Hard Cost Savings
Finally, take the time to come up with a list of additional savings your company can provide your customer. Think outside the box. For instance, if your company has better freight options, then perhaps you could lower your customer’s per-unit freight costs with larger consolidated shipments. There are a myriad of additional ways to save your customer money without sacrificing your product’s gross profit.
When looking to improve your sales negotiation training, start first by identifying the many ways your company can save your customers money without simply lowering your product's price. Selling on price is easy and a failsafe mechanism that far too many companies rely upon. Price selling not only sets a precedent with the customer, but will eventually lead your company into a never-ending price war. In addition, this approach makes it extremely difficult to sell a product on anything other than price at a later date. In essence, you’re training your customer to buy on price. Going back and trying to change that dynamic afterwards is extremely difficult.
Here are two additional articles to check out:
Sales Negotiation Training: Other Ways to Save Customers Money
Sales Negotiation Training: Cost-Per-Use Product Sales Strategies
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