A customer who haggles about price early may be a customer to avoid.
My experience has been that a customer who is overly focused on price is usually a customer who will battle you on every detail — during the selling process and later on.
They will suck your sales motivation and test your selling skills at every turn.
Cut your losses early! Price-focused customers will never be happy. No matter what you do, they will always come back at you with something. It’s simply how they’re wired.
I know very well how tempting it can be to still try and close the sale, especially if you’re fighting to make your numbers. Many times when things are tough, it can become very easy to believe any sale is a good sale.
Sorry, but the customer who fights you on price from the start is the customer you simply do not want to have under any circumstances. This is the type of customer where no business is better than some business.
The challenge you’ll face with this type of customer is they will nickel and dime you and everyone else in the company in more ways than anyone could ever imagine. They will nag you, the salesperson, and they’ll nag anyone else they can get hold of in your company.
One of the worst ways they will suck the profit from your company is by doing it one step at a time.
Initially, you or someone else in the company will believe if you just take care of this one situation with them, then everything will be fine. Again, wrong answer! They will keep coming back time and time again.
The best way you can handle a customer like this is by walking away from them early in the sales process and at the same time encouraging them to talk to your competitor. When you encourage them to talk to your competitor, you’re doing two things. First, you’re helping them out, and second, you’re helping yourself out by letting your competitor deal with what is sure to be a nightmare customer.
People ask me when I explain this situation to them how do I know this is true.
Unfortunately, I’ve had too many others share with me their experiences in dealing with customers like this and I too have encountered the same thing.
Be firm in your pricing.
Be firm in what it is you and your company provide to your customers.
When you cave on price to these types of customers, you’re not only going to fail in delivering the service expected to the nightmare customer, you also run the risk of not having the time or resources to focus on the customers you do want to serve.
Copyright 2011, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
One Response
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