Thus begins the ‘buyer seller dance.’ How you handle this will determine if you lead or are led. The above statement, or, a similar one, is the basic tactic of any buyer. I truly believe that there is a school where they go to learn this and this one, in all likelihood, is under: Getting them to drop the price 101.
In the majority of the cases from what I have heard, as well as observed, is that the seller automatically goes into the ‘make it happen at any cost’ spin. Things like: “Well, we can drop the price for you by 20% today.” or, the ever popular: “I can add xyz at no additional charge.” The biggest question we need to look at is, why you are even talking? Look at the title; is that a question? No. It’s a statement and we do not answer statements. What we have to realize is that the buyer has used this all of his career and the reason that they do is because it works. As soon as those words are uttered, sellers devalue the product/service and start ‘giving the farm away.’ In other words, they are being led.
Do not under any circumstances, answer an unasked question. What you do is look at the buyer and say nothing. It will not be too long before you get from them: “Well?” They are still expecting the discount and/or the extras.
For simplicity, let’s call our buyer Bill. There are a few ways to respond to Bill and we will discuss one of them today. You can start with: “Sorry Bill, I guess I’m a little confused. Well what?” Bill in all likelihood is going to come back with something such as: “I believe that your price is a little high.” You then could go with: “Oh that. I apologize, I did not take that as a question. Let me answer that for you then Bill by asking you a question if you don’t mind.” We know he is not going to mind and this is now where you get to lead: “What do you mean by ‘it is a little high’?” The answer is generally that he has seen it less expensive, or, the competitor is less expensive, etc. What you have done here is you are now getting the buyer to justify their statement and this was not covered in the aforementioned class.
If you have done all the correct steps prior to even discussing pricing, all of the objections that Bill will come up with would have already been handled. You have had the conversation about the competitor and why they are not using them. He realizes that your particular product is a better fit and meets and/or exceeds all of his expectations. Together, you have solved the challenges that he has faced prior by not using your product/service. This would be a great time to remind Bill, if he has not already figured it out for himself, about those points.
Think back into your own experiences, would you not pay extra for a product/service that solved challenges that you were experiencing with your current product/service? When it is all said and done, it is really about: reliability, availability, delivery, ease of use, dependability, servicing, warranty, etc., it is never about the price.
What, as sellers, we have to understand, therefore, is if it is never about the price, why are we doing the ‘dance’ over it!