Five Ways to Sell so Price Doesn't Matter

In the current business climate, price has become the ultimate differentiator. It sometimes feels like it’s the only thing that matters to our potential clients and customers. The global economy has impacted both product prices and services. Want a cheap knee replacement? Go to Asia. Ditto if you want your website updated or your book printed.
As women, we are conditioned to seek the best bargains for our families and to stretch the family budget almost to the breaking point. And yet, if we try to run our business only by giving the cheapest price, we will soon run into problems. Economically, we just can’t compete with Asia. Our housing costs alone prohibit that. And that’s before we get into the cost of making sure that our employees are adequately cared for in terms of safety and health.
Yet I see too many business women compete on price. It’s as if they have no other idea of the value of their product or service. They get into the price discussion too early and let it dictate the marketing and selling conversations. If you find yourself always competing with another business in terms of price, these five suggestions can keep you out of the price discussion until you are ready to have it.
1. Know your value. Too many women don’t truly believe what they have to offer is of value. They don’t want to “sell.” They think it’s demeaning, beneath them, and a synonym for getting the other person to spend money that they don’t really have. Women in this position find themselves deeply discounting their products or services, giving their hard work away and eventually going out of business. If you find yourself in this position, you need to change your belief about yourself and your service.
One way to think about it is to look at how the world would be without you and your company? What drove you into business in the first place? If you are like most women, it was the search for time flexibility and autonomy. However, you also developed a product or service that you believed in. Why? Sit down and answer the following questions:
What happens to your customers if they don’t have your product or service?
How is your customer’s life improved when they use your product or service?
How valuable is that?
2. Stop making price your own defining value when you purchase something. By becoming aware of your own attitude about price, you can see how it influences your prospects. A woman came to me who was selling a line of clothing. All of her discussions with customers were about price. When I asked, she admitted that her clothes were expensive, but were worth the money because of the quality of construction. In her own mind, she separated the cost (expensive) from the value (good quality). No wonder her conversations were always about price! When she began to change how she thought about her products and realized that they were the right price for the value offered, her conversations began to change.
The next time you make a purchase, bring your awareness to the conversation going on in your own head. Are you justifying the price? Making up a story about value for your husband if you are buying something that isn’t in the budget? When you hand over your plastic, what exactly is the reason that you are making your purchase? The more you know about your own buying process, the more you will be able to understand your prospects.
3. Listen for your prospect’s true objection. Listen, price is an easy way to object to being sold something. Have you ever been accosted by one of those kiosk salespeople in malls? I’ve gotten sucked in a few times because the item is something I’m toying with getting. Ultimately, though, I don’t buy. I tell them it’s because of price. The real reason? They annoyed me and wasted my time when I wasn’t ready to enjoy the shopping experience. They made it about them and not about me. But, I’m not going to tell them that.
One technique to get to the problem behind the price is to ask, “If you felt that you had no problem affording this, would you buy it then?” And then wait. We are too hurry to interrupt and supply answers to others. The most respectful thing we can do for others is to listen – truly listen. And pay attention to the answer. Don’t just use the answer to “sell” them right away. Store the information and then use it to change your marketing materials and your selling script.
4. Use your prospect’s language. Selling is about developing a relationship. This is particularly true of women. People have better relationships with others that they feel understand them. If a couple is having trouble, one of the techniques that family counselors use is to teach them how to “mirror” each other. They become aware of the language that their spouse is using and use it back to them. No, it’s not fake. It helps the other person feel that you are really hearing them.
Pay attention to the industry that your prospect is in. Do research before you even pick up the phone to make that first call. Understand, at least to some degree, the jargon that they use in their everyday life. You don’t (and shouldn’t) use it if you don’t totally understand it, but it will give you an idea of how to best explain the benefits of your product/service in ways that they understand.
5. Have an outrageous goal – and an outrageous reward for meeting that goal! Get out of your own way in terms of price. If you really want to reach your goal, you will make the changes that you need to make to eliminate price as the only reason that people decide to buy from you. You will also begin to honor yourself, and your prospects, by not wasting time with those for whom price truly is the only criteria to buy.
Different economic times require that we pay more attention to our selling techniques. We need to refine them, and yes, work a little harder. But most of all, we need to work consistently and smartly to reach our business goals. Use these five strategies to bring you better selling conversations where price is no longer an issue.

Five Ways to Sell so Price Doesn't Matter - To learn more about this author, visit Casey Dawes's Website.

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Dave Kurlan Dave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website

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