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"Why Do I Charge So Much? Because I Can." Motivating with Value Not Price
"Why Do I Charge So Much? Because I Can." Motivating with Value Not Price
I’ll never forget the day I watched a secretary outsell a team of software sales veterans.
The company sold customized CRM software. That morning I’d met with some of their less successful reps. Most of them knew exactly why they weren’t selling. “Our prices are just too damn high,” they assured me repeatedly. I’d heard it before. As we all know, price is often the single biggest obstacle for acquiring new business. It’s also the number one excuse of unsuccessful salespeople.
Now, I was riding with Helen Daniels, secretary to the boss and the person who’d handled new business inquiries during the startup phase, before the pros had been hired: handled them, I’d been told, with great success. I wanted to see just how she'd done it.
We were meeting with the VP of Operations of a good size uniform company. Sure enough when the issue of price came up, the VP acted exactly as the reps had predicted, using almost the exact same words they’d used.
“Sounds to me like you people are awful damn expensive,” he said, accusingly.
“Absolutely,” Helen agreed, offering her brightest smile.
“So why do you charge so much?”
“Simple,” she said. “Because we can!”
“What?”
“We charge that much because we can. Because our clients are not just willing but happy to pay those kind of rates for the results we generate.”
“But can’t they find someone else to do the job for less?”
“Absolutely.”
“Somebody who will do the exact same job for less?”
“Well, they could certainly find companies that will charge less. I’m no expert on the kind of work these people might do, so I really can’t say whether or not they’ll do the exact same job.”
“So you’re saying, You get what you pay for?”
“No,” she smiled, “I’m saying to get us, you’ve got to pay for us. I really don’t know that much about the kind of work these other companies do. Or why they charge less. Maybe you should ask them. I don’t know a lot of businesses that charge less if they could charge more, but maybe they’re humanitarians.”
“I seriously doubt that,” VP said.
“Well, like I say, I’m no authority about their work. We charge more because our clients are happy to pay more for the results we generate. Maybe these other companies charge less because that’s what their clients are willing to pay for the results they generate.”
“But your rates . . . ?”
“Expensive.”
“Very expensive.”
“Exactly. And worth every penny. And let me tell you why.” Which she then preceded to do.
Twenty-five minutes later we walked out of there with a signed contract.
Great salespeople don’t stumble over potential negatives and the certainly don’t hide them. Great salespeople use potential negatives as selling points, even bragging points. No lie: truth is the ultimate sales tool.
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How can I figure out how much to charge for my product or service? What is the highest salary (raise) I can ask for? Talking about money is a thorny issue. What do you need to think about when you set the price f...
How you value yourself and what you have to offer has a lot to do with price setting. But there is another piece: how you value your customers and their ability to decide for themselves what they need to learn and h...
Barry Maher
(Visit Barry's Website)
Barry Maher is a leading writer, speaker,
trainer and motivator on sales,
leadership, management and communication.
He's appeared on the Today Show, NBC
Nightly News, MSNBC and is frequently
featured in publications like USA Today,
The New York Times, The Wall Street
Journal, the London Times and Business
Week.
Selling Power magazine declared, "To his
powerful and famous clients, Barry Maher
is simply the best sales trainer in the
business."
His client list includes ABC, AT&T, Budget
Rent a Car, Blue Cross, Fox Cable
Television, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, the
National Lottery of Ireland, Verizon and
innumerable smaller companies and
associations.
A keynote speaker and a workshop leader,
Maher is also the author of "Filling the
Glass," which was cited by Today's
Librarian magazine as "[One of] The Seven
Essential Popular Business Books.
His other books include "No Lie: Truth Is
the Ultimate Sales Tool," "The Prentice
Hall Marketing Yearbook," the niche book
"Getting the Most from Your Yellow Pages
Advertising" and even the cult classic
fantasy novel, "Legend."
Contact him and or sign up for his free
newsletter at www.barrymaher
.com.
Speaker, Trainer, Barry Maher - EvanCarmichael.com expert Barry Maher is a motivational keynote speaker and workshop leader, who speaks and trains on leadership, management, communication and sales. And when it comes to sales training, as Selling Power magazine writes, "To his powerful and famous clients, Barry Maher is simply the best sales trainer in the business."
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