B2B Street Fighting Blog

Shift the conversation from price of product to value of solution

Posted by Marie Dudek Brown on Thu, Aug 08, 2019 @ 03:56 PM

competitive price threatQ: Are you sick of hearing these 10 words from your customers?

“I can get the same thing cheaper from your competitor!”
Or, when the customer says,
"We
 want you to match the 10% discount offered by the competition.”
 
As a sales executive, you know too well, when negotiating on price

  • Buyers treat your brand as a commodity
  • Your sales reps run to their managers to get quick price discounting, thus…
  • You have to ‘buy the business’ to make the sale
  • And your sales cycle lingers on, taking too long

With potential buyers seeing you the same as everyone else. Because you sound like everyone else. They made it about price. And your reps are unable to change the conversation.
 
In other words…

  • You close less sales
  • You sell your stuff too cheap
  • Thus, missing your sales goals and targets

Sellers lose millions of $$$ a year… just for these 10 words. 
 
With those millions staying in buyers’ hands. Not yours.
 
Why?
 
Because we’re training too many reps about negotiation with too many old-school programs. Or with a flavor-of-the-month approach. Or with some generic, off-the-shelf training program that doesn’t work and goes unused. 
 
Meanwhile, nothing changes—because you have the same problem as before. Too few sales, at too low of margins.
 
Bleak, I know.
 
But don’t panic. There’s a better way.

Differentiate yourself. 

By changing the conversation.
 
From selling to informing. 
 
From telling to proving (using facts)
 
From price of product to value of solution. 
 
Apply negotiation Jujitsu to refocus buyers on the 2 or 3 things you do better than the competition. Using data to help them understand their choices—whether they buy from you, the other guy, or not at all.
 
Now buyers will perceive your reps as consultants—not sales folk. Their confidence in your solution will skyrocket. Because you’re talking about what’s important to them. Which is usually something other than price. 
 
We’ve got a Salesforce (and standalone) app for this. It’s the only one in the world. 
 
Point it at a customer segment and it will crunch on and spit out data. Data to help your reps know more about the customer than they know about themselves.
 
And here’s the clicker. 

Know all this months in advance.

Before. Every. Single. Negotiation.
 
How would you feel, knowing your sales reps are prepared for every negotiation—months before they happen? 

  • No more ‘buying the business’ with discounted pricing
  • No more firefighting just before or after calls
  • No more being surprised at the 11th hour 

With negotiations focused way less on price—way more on value. The measurable kind, not the jargon kind.
 
Make your margins. Achieve your close rates. Year after year. Sleep like baby.
 
And… earn 500% more than you spend on training. That’s what our clients average.
 
We would like to show you how. 

Tags: negotiation skills for sales, business negotiations

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The B2B Street Fighting blog brings you the latest on what's happening in the real world of business negotiation.

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