If you’ve ever lost someone then you know what I’m talking about. In that moment when you found out you’d lost someone special, you’d sell everything you had and go into debt for multiple lifetimes, just to have that person back in your life. Why? Love, baby—love!
You have to get your buyer to want your product more than he wants his money! He’s got to want the product or the solution more than he wants the numbers in his bank account. Discovering what he’s trying to accomplish and demonstrating how your product solves his problem is the essence of how you close the deal. Certainly there’s the issue of the product being out of someone’s price range, but that’s the point I’m trying to drive home. If they really love it and it will really solve their problems, they’ll figure out a way to come up with the money.
You can’t put a price tag on someone or something that you really love. And if you’ve ever had a serious problem in life, money was no longer your concern. Getting rid of the problem was. Give ’em love, solve a problem, and you will get the money.
If the customer can afford the product or service but isn’t buying and is harping on the money, it always means that he has other concerns that must be handled. If he were completely sold, price would not be the issue.
While your prospect may be verbally objecting to price, other thoughts are most likely going through his mind: Is this the right product? Is there a better product than this? Is this the right proposal? Will this truly solve our problems? Will my people use it? What will others think of me buying this? Is this something I am going to really use and enjoy? Will this company really take care of me and service us? Am I better off buying something else? Will something better come out next week? Do I know enough? Do we have all the information? Should we get an “X” instead? Should I join the country club? Am I better off with the money in the bank than investing it? Is this going to be a mistake like past decisions?
If these considerations are handled to the buyer’s satisfaction, price will no longer be the issue. The product or service that you’re selling will obviously create different concerns for the decision maker, but trust me, regardless of what it is you have, it almost never comes down to just price. To the degree that you understand this, you will be successful.
Let’s say a guy is buying a birthday present for the love of his life. He finds something he thinks his girl will love, but tells the salesperson that it costs more than he would like to spend. What he’s actually saying is that he isn’t completely sold on the product being the perfect gift for her. He either doesn’t love it himself or he’s not sure that it’s something she will love. This product is not yet making him feel good enough or certain enough to pull the trigger and buy the gift. In this case, I would acknowledge him, tell him I understand that it is more than he wants to spend, but ask him for the opportunity to actually show him something a bit more expensive just for fun. He said it was too much—he didn’t say he didn’t like it and he didn’t say he couldn’t do it! Also consider that when he said it was too much, he could mean that it was too much for that product, rather than that he couldn’t do it. Maybe, just maybe, he’d rather spend extra money and get a gift he loves more.
MOVE UP, DON’T MOVE DOWN
Most salespeople make the mistake of offering something for a lower price when faced with price objections. This is an incorrect solution based on the false belief that price is the reason people don’t buy things.
When you move the customer down in price or offer him something cheaper, he’s less likely to want that next product if he didn’t want the first one. This will cause the buyer to think that you have no solution and that he’s just wasting his time. By moving him up rather than down in inventory, you’ll get him thinking in terms of value, and you’ll find out whether his objection is valid or not.
If he believes that his girl will love the gift and he really wants to make her happy, then showing him something more expensive will actually get you closer to a sale. Remember, he wants to make good decisions. At this point he’ll either demonstrate that the first product was the wrong choice by the simple fact that he’s now looking at the more expensive option, or he’ll tell you that he needs to move in the other direction with something that costs less. Either way, you’ve now got him shopping with you, not negotiating with you. You could even show him a completely different line or product with the knowledge that you could always move back to the original. You want to exhaust your inventory, not your price!