First off, the idea your price is too high is strictly that — an idea.
But like a lot of ideas, it likely doesn’t have merit.
Your price is based on the value the customer perceives they are going to receive.
It comes down to the sales process you use and how the customer responds to you.
If you think your price is too high, consider the below 5 situations and how you should deal with them:
1. Customers choose not to buy from you, but in the end, they don’t buy from anyone.
Just because a customer rejects your price for being too high doesn’t mean it is. Many times they are choosing to simply not buy at all, and rather than telling you that, they generate the easy out by saying your price is too high.
Unless customers are routinely choosing to buy from someone else, don’t believe for a moment your price is too high.
2. Customers have a lot of questions and/or objections they want answered, and even after all of that, they don’t buy from you.
Yes, this does mean your price is too high, but only in relation to the value you’re providing. To correct this, look at your sales process. What needs to change in how you provide information and answer questions that will help them see more value in what you have to offer?
3. Customers state they want to buy, but forgo buying until their economic situation improves.
For a business, this might be a new business year; for a person, this might be a better job. Don’t be alarmed by this.
Your best solution is to craft a buying option that allows them to begin buying from you at a lower amount until their situation changes. This is not a license to lower your price.
What you’re doing is keeping your margin the same. You’re merely providing them with less for less money. Key is to engage them now. Waiting until their economic situation changes allows for others to potentially come in and take your business.
4. Customers never take your first offer, requiring you to provide them with options if you want to close a sale.
This is not a problem at all and can work beautifully in your favor. Use the higher-priced offer as a way to create pricing perception. In so doing, the customer will see your lower-priced offerings as a bargain.
5. Customers find out your price and then go buy from someone else.
Many times what you’re dealing with are not prospects, but rather suspects. Their only goal is to get a price from a competitor they can then use to support why they are going to buy from someone else.
Solution for this lies in your sales process. Key is finding out three of the customer’s needs or desired benefits, their timeline for making a decision and if the person you’re dealing with is the decision maker.
If the customer isn’t willing to share with you this information, then they’re not serious and there is zero reason for you to be dealing with them.
This one is the hardest to overcome, and in the end, you can try all you want, but be prepared that this happens to even the best of salespeople. If there is a consolation prize, remember the customers you do get may very well have done the same thing to a competitor.
There you have it! Five of the more common problems we encounter when dealing with price, as well as strategies on how to respond to each one.
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.
Click on the below book cover for more info on boosting your profits!
2 Responses
These days it seems like there are a lot of “shoppers” instead of “buyers”. I think you have to make sure your prospect is really a buyer before giving them your price.
If you never get any pricing objections, you are pricing too low. Price objections are a healthy sign and a well-prepared rep will welcome the chance to talk about value (a two way conversation).