You’ve met with your client to determine what he wants in his decorative concrete staining and engraving project and you’ve crunched the figures.
You hand him your estimate. He frowns and says, “Too expensive.”
How do you answer?
Geoffrey James, author of the Sales Source column on Inc. com has these suggestions for handling the situation when a customer tells you that you’re charging too much.
- Uncover the real objection. James says to ask the customer a question like, “If we set price aside for a moment, do we have the products you want to buy and the support organization that you want to buy from?” This helps uncover whether or not price is the real problem. If not, ask more questions until you get to the real objection.
- Find out: objection or condition. According to James, you can determine this by asking if the concern is big enough to stop the sale. If the answer is no, then it’s an objection and can be negotiated – such as price matching a competitor. If the answer is yes, then it’s a condition – such as the client has no money – and can’t be negotiated. The deal is over for now.
- Show empathy to the customer. If you’ve determined that the problem is an objection, empathize with the customer as you negotiate so no one loses face.
- Identify the problem to be solved. James suggests saying something like, “Let’s put that objection on the table and see if we can work together to find a way to get you what you want.” This eliminates the winner/loser battle. Both of you become winners.
- Brainstorm possible solutions.
To read the entire article, go to www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/how-to-sell-answering-it-costs-too-much-html.