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Handling The Price Objection

Written by: Jim Meisenheimer

Article Overview: Handling the price objection is no easy task for most professional salespeople. In fact most salespeople dread having to deal with it. Here are three practical ideas you can use whenever you're forced to respond to the price objection.

Handling The Price Objection

Handling the price objection is a number one priority for most professional salespeople. And it's no wonder, when you consider all the work a salesperson does to get the business only to get blown away by a demanding sales prospect or customer who wants a better price.

There is a better way! There's no need to feel helpless or hopeless when you're selling. But you gotta stop doing what you've been doing and that's not so easy when you've spent years defending your price. Look, when the conversation turns to price it usually means there's a little or no value on the table.

There's a couple of things you can do to minimize and sometimes even eliminate handling the price objection.

First recognize you're either selling a product of solving a problem. Put yourself in your sales prospects shoes. Which is he more interested in - you selling a product or you solving his problems? Get the picture?

Don't be too quick to assume you understand a sales prospect's problems. Even if you have a good idea it's always wise to get confirmation by asking good sales questions. For example, you can ask, "How do you measure success with your current supplier?" This question will turn heads in your direction.

So if you want to avoid handling the price objection keep asking questions until you know all that you need to know about your sales prospects and customers. Selling gets much easier when you ask intelligent sales questions.

Another thing you can do to eliminate getting the price objection is to do your homework. Avoid doing quotations because people looking at quotations are only looking for the pricing. Hello! Do a comprehensive sales proposal.

Pay attention to the pricing page. Never have pricing that looks like this $35,000. The zeros are an invitation to open the price negotiations. You see, if your price was $34,997 the specificity of this number screams you've already sharpened your pencil.

And remember this, numbers that end in 7 sell more than any other number - trust me on this.

Here's another strategy you can use. Whenever someone asks you, "How much does this cost" simply reply, "It depends!" It never fails because your sales prospects will then respond with, "It depends on what?"

Now you're in a good position to tell him, it depends on the size of the order, the quantity ordered, what else can be added to the order, and even the length of the contract. In essence you're saying you can wiggle with the pricing, if he can wiggle with the size the order. It's a great way to level the playing field.

Here's one more idea you can use when it comes to handling the price objection. If you're an American, you probably know the Pledge of Allegiance. At least I hope you know it. And, you can probably say it without having to think about. You can probably say it without saying any "Ahs" and "Ums."

And that's the way it should be. Because about 19.5 years ago when I first started my sales training business I routinely had to deal with the price objection. I took a pounding! It was bam - slam, bam - slam and it was costing me lots of income.

So I learned how to deal with the recurring price objection. It took me 20 minutes a day for three weeks to develop an intelligent response to the price objection I was getting. And finally, I could deliver my response the same way I could say the Pledge of Allegiance.

No thinking, no blinking, and certainly no hesitation! That's where you need to be!

And you may not believe this next point - but it's the absolute truth. Once I knew how to handle the price objection I didn't get it as often. When I did get it, I was able to deal with it.

If I can do it, you can too.

Some wise sage once said, "Profitability is the applause of a happy customer."

Go make your customers happy! Ask better sales questions!

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  How To Successfully Handle Objections
  Dealing with Sales Objections: Price
  Handling Objections in Four Simple Steps (Really)
  The 5-Step Method of Handling Objections
  Tips for Effective Appointment Setting - Objections Handling Overview

Article Tags: blown away, confirmation, homework, invitation, objection, pay attention, pencil, price negotiations, priority, professional salespeople, proposal, quotations, sales prospect, sales prospects, sales questions, salesperson, shoes, specificity, zeros



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