Recently I was talking with a salesperson who had just been recognized by their company as being #1 salesperson for the past year.
I’ve had the privilege to work with the company for several years developing and implementing their sales training program.
Yes, you could say I have a vested interest in the results of their people!
In talking with the salesperson about what it took to achieve the #1 position, several things came up and one in particular — the problem with the idea that you can use price to gain a customer.
A concept I talk a lot about is how selling on price isn’t just a lousy strategy, it’s a dangerous one too!
The salesperson shared that what I taught regarding price was huge in their mind with regard to why they were successful. You see, I’m a huge believer if you attract a customer based on a lower-price, you will lose them when someone else comes along with an even lower price.
Customers who buy on price are economic buyers. They fail to see the value. They fail to understand why what they’re buying makes sense.
This type of customer will in turn always be focused on price and will bug you and everyone else in your company regarding price. I go so far as to say “the low-price customer will quickly become the high-maintenance customer.”
Challenge quickly becomes trying to keep the customer you gained based on a low-price. What happens is you spend so much of your time working just to keep them that you don’t have enough time to prospect to gain new customers.
The end result for you is “customer churn.” The situation is one where your customers leave out the back door as quickly as you bring others in through the front door.
This #1 ranked salesperson said how staying disciplined on building the business based on value, not on price, is what enabled them to have the customers they have — ones who recognize value!
You can see the outcome — a very stable portfolio of customers, while at the same time having time to prospect to continually develop more.
Are you focused on building a solid customer base or are you merely chasing the “economic customer?”
Copyright 2015, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price.
