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Trained Seals

Written by: Mark Deo

Article Overview: No matter what price you quote, many customers will automatically say its too high, maybe way too high. Like the seal, that response is so deeply drilled into them that just about every rep they meet gets the same reaction. How do you get beyond the knee-jerk reaction and into a reasonable conversation about their situation, needs, budget, and time frames?

Trained Seals

I was at Sea World not long ago and had the opportunity to watch a trainer working with a seal. Now I’m not speaking of the kind of Seal that you might find in the Navy, I’m referring to the wet, pudgy, cute, whiskered kind.

I watched as the trainer used her fingers and thumb to simply touch the nose of the creature. This was the seal’s “cue” or signal to perform the proper behavior. The seal then opened its mouth for inspection by the trainer. This was the seals “response.”�The trainer then tapped the seal on the head and said “good.”�This was her way of showing “acknowledgement” for the animal doing the right thing. She then tossed the beast a whole fish. Yuck! However if you’re a seal and you’re reading this, you know just how tasty that smelly old mackerel is. This was the seals reward.

What does this have to do with business improvement? Good questions. Have you ever noticed that buyers are kind of like seals?

They are if you think about it. They automatically react to cues just as the seal did. This is what their training and conditioning has taught them. Their training tells them, “this sales person is here to sell me something therefore I must resort to what will protect my interest best; object to their pricing, terms, program or package.”

Let’s face it securing the business often boils down to the lowest price, in one form or another. Are you cheaper than the competition? If not you may be up for a battle of the wills. No matter what price you quote, many customers will automatically say its too high, maybe way too high. Like the seal, that response is so deeply drilled into them that just about every rep they meet gets the same reaction. The trick is to get beyond the knee-jerk reaction and into a reasonable conversation about their situation, needs, budget, and time frames. Until you achieve that level of rapport, price itself simply isn't the issue.

Some of you know my sidekick on the Small Business Hour, Matt Walker. Matt is a comedian. When people find this out they, as you can imagine, often say, “hey Matt say something funny.” This irritates Matt to no end, which is why I enjoy it so much when it happens. However, Matt, being the friendly guy that he is always manages to spew out something hilarious. How does he do it? He’s always ready with a joke.

As Matt likes to say, selling is like improvisational comedy: You must be ready to improvise because encounters with potential customers constantly produce reactions and situations that you could never predict. If you prepare long before you meet with customers you will be more effective face-to-face. While you're still at the office, force yourself to make a list of 10 great, potential responses when you hear that your price is too high. I mean it -- 10, and 20 would be even better. It may be what you say. Or it may involve a particular tone of voice or even your body language. Developing and using the responses will make your selling technique more flexible, resilient, and confident.

Another facet of the price objection is the explosion of options every client faces these days. There are more varieties of products, and more vendors to buy from, than ever before. Multiply varieties and vendors and it's clear that the total number of available choices has grown logarithmically. This tsunami of data can lead customers to making comparisons between options that aren't strictly comparable. Yes, the solutions on offer aren't equal, but the conditioned prospect can't look beyond Price A vs. Price B.

As I noted earlier, "Your price is too high" is an objection we all hear. In fact, if you aren't hearing it, then your prices are too low, you're leaving potential profits on the table, or you just aren't making enough sales calls. There is no single, sure-fire, works-every-time solution to this problem, but there are lots of great ideas. The more arrows in your quiver, the more options for handling -- and the greater selling success you'll experience. Then you won’t have to worry about all those trained seals out there.

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Article Tags: acknowledgement, battle of the wills, beast, business hour, business improvement, comedian, cue, cues, doing the right thing, knee jerk reaction, mackerel, matt walker, proper behavior, sales person, sea world, seals, sidekick, thumb, time frames, training and conditioning



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