We’ve all had situations where out of nowhere a prospect emerges.
You’re salivating over how they’re perfect and how quickly you intend to turn them into a customer.
Reason for your excitement is based on the customer asking you right at the start of the conversation what your price is.
In fact, the prospect contacted you first. All you can think of is how good of a salesperson you are because they reached out to you.
It’s time to quit breathing your own oxygen and realize how the customer who approaches you asking your price most likely is anything but a customer in the making.
New salespeople fall for this all the time and, surprisingly, even veteran salespeople get sucked into this deadly game.
I refer to it as a deadly game because it winds up doing two things. One it distracts your attention and winds up sucking up a huge amount of time. Two, if you fall for it, you’ll most likely give away the farm trying to close the sale.
The prospect who calls you asking for your price is most likely doing it to help them rationalize why they should buy from whoever it is they’ve already met with. Reason they’re calling and asking you is they are merely looking for another price point to satisfy a boss and their own rationale as to why they’re buying from somebody else.
Another reason is many times the prospect isn’t looking to make any buying decision. To satisfy their reasoning for not buying, they’re just looking for a high price. A high price will help them feel good about not making a buying decision.
Third reason — and this is the most deadly — is they want your price to allow them to go back and negotiate a better deal with another company.
I say this is the most deadly because many times the person will come back to you a second time asking for an even lower price. All the while, you’re thinking a sale is pending. There might be a sale pending, but it’s not your sale!
Each one of these reasons has huge implications for you the salesperson. Namely it will suck you in.
Next time you get a call asking for your price, the response you need to give is something along the lines of, “We have a number of different options, and if you can help me understand a little bit about what you need and want, then I can provide you with the correct price.”
The objective is to get a discussion going with the prospect to allow you to really determine if they are a prospect.
Copyright 2013, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
