Qualifying By Price

The salesman and their bosses cringe when a customer asks what the price is early on in the sales process. And one can understand their position. They haven’t got the build up which leads to the crescendo that is really not a crescendo at all if sold properly. The salesman feels robbed of their talents by simply giving away the steak without getting to show the sizzle. You choose the cutesy metaphor, but the fact remains that salespeople guard price and buyers want it as soon as they can get it. 

But is it really the correct strategy to guard price? 

I worked for a gentleman early in my career who started a meeting with a large prospect like this, “Jack, we’ve been to the dance. We’ve had a few drinks and a few laughs. Now it’s time to go to the bedroom. Are you ready?” As a young salesman with a set of morals mind you, those words would never be in my repertoire, however it is worth a look at the context. I should say the prospect did not just slug by boss and walk out of the room in disgust nor did he sign the deal right away. He did recognize the fact that he had been wined and dined by my company several times over and never made a commitment except to not make a commitment. And that’s the context. We had conducted the sales process perfectly, but once we were ready to present price he had moved on to other pressing matters. Now the prospects timing was ready. He had taken my call and said as much so there we sat with my bosses invitation to go to the bedroom. The customer said those dreaded words, “what’s it going to cost me?” Right then and there we had a chance to move the deal to the next phase. A number was said, “budget about $150k per month.” The customer didn’t flinch and we proceeded to enter the sales process again albeit from a perspective of refining price and offering.

Some customers, not all, need to have a budgetary figure in mind before they can listen to anything a salesperson shares. They won’t enter or participate in the sales process that companies spend tons of time and money building to close more sales without first taking a look at the direct impact it will have on their bottom line.

And in this day in age when buyers are armed with so much more intelligence about the company they are looking at buying from they simply want to know if what they’ve spent time researching will pencil out. Salespeople need not be so guarded to share such information and in fact the observant salesperson welcomes the conversation because it advances the sales process tenfold if one is talking to the decision makers in the company.

A respectable buyer will understand that they have to go through a sales process with a company if they want to structure the right deal for them. The intelligent buyer will want to understand the features that their organization needs so they then can negotiate on those terms rather than on some arbitrary service that means nothing to them. Buyers who balk at price right after pressing a salesperson early are not the right person to be talking to anyway. These buyers are low level gatekeepers filtering you out because they think they are doing good by their company. And that brings up a completely different subject about engaging with the wrong player anyway. Don’t waste time here.

Talented salespeople know when they are talking to a decision maker. Intelligent buyers know they’ll need to participate in the sales process. Both parties are busy and understand time is precious. Time wasted means deals missed for both. So next time you are pressed for a price right out of the gate question first whether you are speaking to a decision maker then be unrestrained in sharing what a budgetable figure could look like. If you’ve assessed the decision maker properly you’ll have expedited the sales process and if you’re a talented salesperson you’ll know how to take the conversation around early pricing to the next level.

Stoked!