Why You Get So Many Objections On Price

Whenever I'm working with salespeople and business owners, they are frustrated that they get so many price objections, particularly because they don't understand why, or how they should deal with them! As the market gets tougher, you're probably finding that people are objecting to your prices, and negotiating with you more than ever before - are you prepared well enough to deal with that?

What salespeople and business owners often don't realise is that there are a number of reasons that clients object to their prices, and sometimes they generate those objections themselves - something in their approach or what they have said has generated the price objection for them - and then they don't deal with it well!

So let's have a look at the main reasons they get the price objections, so we can lessen the chances of getting them in future...

Reason No 1 - It's A Negotiation Tactic

As many regular readers of my articles know, before my successful selling career, I started out as a professional buyer - beating up salespeople for a living! It gave me a great insight into how people buy....and often how people don't sell well to others! I've lost count of how many awful sales pitches I endured during that period!

Any buyer worth their salt (and also a lot of business decision makers these days) knows, the minute a potential supplier to us gives their price, if we come back with a response like ‘ooh, that's too expensive' or ‘that's higher than your competitors' most potential suppliers crumble!

Most suppliers end up saying something like ‘well how much were you thinking of paying?' Daft move! The buyer then thinks ‘fantastic, got these guys on the run!' Their response then is something like ‘ooh....about half that!' Now you're in trouble. You're starting to negotiate from a price that 50% below where you wanted. And if the buyer is any good, the price is only going down from there! Not a good situation to be in, is it?

Andy's Tip - Sometimes it's a negotiation tactic - expect it and be prepared to deal with it. Prepare and practice your response.

Reason No 2 - You Don't Give Enough Value First

This is really, really important - but it's often overlooked! If you're the sort of person that never quotes a price up-front, listens intently to what the customer is saying, questions well to uncover their needs, matches back your product or service with those needs, demonstrates huge value and then closes for the business....every single time....then you probably don't have anything to worry about here.

If however, there's ever been a time where you've been under pressure to deliver a price earlier than you wanted to, where a client didn't really seem to think your product or service was worth the price you wanted, or where the client bought from someone else - even when you're product or service would have been better for them - then this is vital that you read this and digest it fully.

The problem is we often let the client control the meeting and the flow of the conversation, so the conversation turns to price quicker than we would like! We haven't had time to get the client to appreciate the value in what we're offering, so is it any wonder we get a price objection here?

As the market gets tougher, it's more important than ever for the client to appreciate the value in what you provide. The faster the conversation goes to price, the less chance you have of the client appreciating the value in what you offer - which then means you get a price objection!

Andy's Tip - Don't give prices out before you're ready - be prepared to deal with the client asking the price and how you're going to deal with it.

Reason No 3 - You Talk About Price!

Over the past few weeks I've been doing some ‘field sales assessments' - accompanying some salespeople on their prospective client meetings. The client said that their salespeople had been getting a lot of price objections recently, and had put it down to the ‘credit crunch' and their particular industry.

When I was observing the salespeople in their meetings though, it wasn't the prospective clients that were taking the conversation towards price, it was the salesperson themselves!

Think about it. If you ask a question like ‘how much do you normally pay for...' or ‘what's your normal rate on this sort of thing', then what else can you expect from the other person but a question about your price?!!

Even worse, if your only way to differentiate your offering is on price - saying things like ‘we're cheaper' or ‘we'll match/beat their prices' then who's to blame for taking the conversation towards price? You are!

Andy's Tip - Stop asking questions or making comments that refer to price, and watch the impact that has on getting you less price questions from the client!

Reason No 4 - You Don't Differentiate Yourself Enough

In the current market when times are tough and there seems to be more competition than ever before, it's absolutely vital that you can differentiate yourself from your competition.

Yet many salespeople and business owners fail to do this adequately. I was doing some work with a recruitment company the other day and one of their consultants got an objection on a live call I was listening in to. The prospective client said ‘I'm happy with the agency I use at the moment'. The consultant then proceeded to ‘tell' the prospective client how they were different - by saying ‘but we're different to other agencies!'

The reply from the prospective client was fantastic. They said ‘yeah, every consultant who rings me up says that too'. Hilarious! All the consultant achieved by saying ‘but we're different...' was to make themselves the same as all their competition!

Differentiating yourself from your competitors is not done by just saying ‘we're different', but by acting, saying and being different - starting with your initial phone call! If your call sounds the same as all the rest, you ask the same questions as all the rest and you say the same things as all the rest, is it any wonder that clients consider you the same as all the rest?!

Andy's Tip - Start to differentiate from your initial phone call into that client by saying and doing different things to your competitors. Not sure what to do? Contact me for some ideas.....

Follow the tips above and watch your sales soar! I look forward to hearing how you get on........

By Andy Preston a leading Sales Expert, Trainer and Motivational Speaker.

http://www.andy-preston.com/

You can also see more about Andy's training for small businesses at http://www.salestrainingbreakfastclub.com/