Yes, I wrote that correctly.
Sometimes the best sale you make is the one you don’t get.
The reason is simple: If the only way you can get the sale is by cutting your price so low or offering so many extras that you don’t make any money, then that is a sale you can do without.
Forget about the idea of getting every sale. Having that kind of an attitude might be noble, but it will cost you big time in trying to accomplish it.
Getting every sale is not the way you maximize profit. You must be prepared to walk away from any and every customer when the customer’s demands simply become too great. If you’re selling a product or service others can provide, then yes the pressure can become huge to offer the discount.
This is all the more of a reason to walk away.
If the price you’re being asked to provide the customer doesn’t afford you the profit you need, then why should it be any more attractive to your competitor? Most likely it’s not any more attractive.
This is where I say the sale you don’t get can actually be the best one. Let your competitor struggle filling the low-profit or zero-profit order. To me that looks like a great way to keep them busy so you can be dealing with the profitable opportunities that are out there.
Other neat benefit that can occur in a situation like this is the customer who ultimately did get a dirt cheap price from your competitor winds up receiving inferior service.
To the customer, however, their feeling will be the company they’re doing business with isn’t any good. The outcome is simple: The customer comes to believe your competitor is worth leaving and you are worth trying.
You wind up with a customer liking you without you even having to do anything. Does that put you in a more favorable position going forward? Sure does!
Go ahead, pat yourself on the back the next time you walk away from a customer who is making demands that simply don’t make sense.
In the end you win!
Copyright 2014, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price.
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