Companies don’t buy anything, they only invest. The objective of any company is to make a profit. Therefore, the only things they will ever buy are those that will help them make a profit. If they can’t see the value in how they will benefit, there’s no reason for them to buy.
This is an issue that needs to be reinforced with salespeople even more right now. Every salesperson is currently having to deal with a price increase of some type and it’s essential that they keep in mind that emotion is not part of the buying or selling equation when selling business to business. Always sell to the benefits the customer will receive and the ROI they will attain. Forget about trying to justify the cost. The cost of an item is irrelevant, yet many salespeople put all of their effort into trying to justify it. Don’t waste your time! Focus on the ROI the customer will receive from satisfying their need. This is where the big money is at.
Consider, for instance, the difference in price between what IBM would charge for something and what some tiny company might charge. IBM will charge a whole lot more because their entire company is geared toward identifying and satisfying customer benefits. The tiny company, on the other hand, will typically spend all of their time justifying their cost structure and trying to squeeze their own overhead into what they perceive as the highest price they can charge.
