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The price is… er, ah, the price is ah…

The price of whatever you sell carries with it a discomfort for most salespeople. They’re hesitant to bring up the price because it’s the final element in completing any transaction – or so they think.

Actually, price or fee or rate is a logical progression of a presentation. If the rest of the elements of a presentation have been properly communicated, and transferred, then price is not a barrier to sale. Better stated: price is not a barrier to the customer deciding to purchase.

Why do salespeople have reluctance or fear of price presentation? Because it determines outcome – yes, no, or delay (which usually means no). Price also brings truth. The “I can get it cheaper, we’ve decided to go with someone else, we’re putting this out for bids, I’m not the only decision-maker.”

But the main reason salespeople get nervous about fee is that their belief system is weak. They’re not certain of their product, they’re not certain of their ability to deliver their message, they’re not certain of the customer’s desire to purchase, and they’re not certain of themselves.

When belief is weak, price is a bigger barrier to the salesperson than it is to the customer.

As a professional salesperson, your job is to be as personally prepared as you are customer or prospect prepared. Personal preparation, or should I say mental preparation, will lower the barrier to your own price reluctance.

If you’re ready for the customer, if you’re proud of your company, if you’re proud of your products and services, if you believe in the value of what you’re offering, if your communication skills are excellent, and your self-confidence is high, then you don’t have to worry about price.

There are 5.5 keys that will help you in moving forward with price confidence:

1. Study your past successes. Look at all the reasons why customers bought from you in the past. If you don’t know the reasons, now would be a good time to call them and ask. Customers have all the “price and value” answers you could here hope for. Most salespeople never ask for them.

2. Prepare your presentation in a manner that discusses prices and fees along the way, not at the end. Personally, I bring up prices and fees in the first five minutes, that way all the anxiety is gone. The customer knows there is a price attached to your product or service. The sooner it’s discussed, the easier it is to make value the heart of your presentation.

3. Convince yourself that you’re offering the best products and services in the world for value received. If you are not totally convinced, don’t start the presentation. Your belief in what you sell is evident to the prospective buyer whether present or absent.

4. Believe in your heart that the customer is better off purchasing from you. That they will profit more and produce more, and that the value of what you offer far exceeds your price. When your belief is so powerful that it becomes transferable to the prospective buyer, then you have become believable, and trustworthy.

5. Bring testimonials to the presentation. The voice of other customers that talk about the value, the piece of mind, and the confidence that others have in you. People who have paid your price, and are glad they did.

5.5 Bring your best self to the meeting. In the Little Red Book of Selling, you have read that the workday starts the night before. It’s a quote from a friend of mine’s grandfather, who coincidentally was a multimillionaire. The better prepared you are, both physically and mentally, the easier it will be to deepen your belief system, raise your self-confidence level, and walk in with a feeling of relationship, rather than sale.

WORTH RESTATING: Your personal preparation, especially your mental preparation, holds the key to your confidence and ability to deliver the price. Become an expert at how your customer profits from the use of your product or service. Become a master at outcomes and ownership – not sales presentations and closing techniques.

These personal elements and sales tools, when presented as a group, will make a compelling message, prove value over price, and create the atmosphere in which the customer want to buy.

Your challenge is to master the elements.

If you want a few ideas on price negotiation, go to www.gitomer.com, register if you’re a first time visitor, and enter PRICE POINTS in the GitBit box.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.


About the Author

Jeffrey GitomerJeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

Put Time on Your Team

The sales cycles can be long and drawn out when selling to large enterprise organizations. Months, and even years, may pass in a significant opportunity with a large account: And as time adds up in pursuits, doubt, uncertainty, risks, and costs do as well. The commitment of finances, organizational energy, and resources – human and otherwise – can be daunting. But with of all of the difficulties the passing months bring, positives do present themselves for selling teams that are effective and organized. Every action you take is being evaluated by the buying organization – actions that give your potential client a keen view of your responsiveness, follow-up, and attention to detail. Leaving positive impressions in these areas can be huge. Because regardless of how formidable or sophisticated your competitors are in the pursuit, it is possible they might become just a bit forgetful as the seasons pass. They may take their eyes off the ball for just a moment. They may completely neglect a request or thoughtlessly issue a boilerplate response instead of devoting the deserving hours to a meaningful reply. At just the right time to leave just the wrong impression.


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About the Author

Brian W. SullivanBrian W. Sullivan is co-author, with David H. Mattson, of Sandler Enterprise Selling: Winning, Growing, and Retaining Major Accounts (McGraw-Hill / 2016). Brian is Vice President of Sandler Enterprise Selling at Sandler Training. David is CEO and President of Sandler Training.

Sandler Training dominates the global training market through an unparalleled network of more than 250 offices worldwide, with professional trainers providing more than 450,000 hours per year of instruction in 23 languages. For more information about Sandler Enterprise Selling please visit www.sandler.com/resources/sandler-books/sandler-enterprise-selling.

Three Strategies for the Sales Organizations of Fast Growth Companies

After working with countless fast growth companies in numerous industries, some obvious patterns have emerged as the senior leaders are trying to scale their sales organizations quickly. The issues typically appear in three specific areas: their choice in sales leadership, hiring standards for the salespeople, and how they coach and hold the salespeople accountable. These problems are often the underlying cause of inaccurate sales forecasts.


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About the Author

Adam BoydKarl ScheibleKarl Scheible and Adam Boyd are co-authors of Succeed The Sandler Way: 14 Personal and Professional Breakthroughs, and experienced Sandler trainers who play important roles in Sandler’s worldwide organization and are recognized as business development experts specializing in executive sales training and sales productivity training.

For more information visit www.Sandler.com.

Selling is not a ‘common’ practice.

Selling is not a ‘common’ practice. It is NOT easy. There are so many people who believe anyone can sell anything and really believe that if you can ‘schmooze’, drink the ‘booze,’ and work the room, you can sell. That is so far from the truth and anyone who has made a lot of money in sales will be able to give you consistent guidelines as to how they achieved their success. So let’s take a simple but serious look at these guidelines to success in selling.


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About the Author

Cindy NovotnyCindy Novotny has been branded a “Radical Mentor” by thousands of executives around the world for her straight forward, no nonsense approach to leadership. She began her company, Master Connection Associates, in 1989. MCA is a premiere international consulting and training organization that specializes in service delivery, sales and leadership performance. MCA’s work contributed to client success including The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company earning an unprecedented two Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards. For more information, visit Cindy’s website at www.CindyNovotny.com.

Standing Out In Business – The Era of the Brand

Standing out in the marketplace has become increasingly challenging in a world of sensory overload. Because of this challenge, a familiar and trusted brand still has the ability to cut through the clutter. Organizations will need to look deep inside themselves to find those unique characteristics which differentiate them from the competition and leverage these differentiators to become the preferred choice of customers and prospects.

From over two decades of experience, we have identified eight primary factors which contribute to standing out from the competition when it comes to marketing. We’ve distilled what we’ve learned into The 8 Fundamentals we define below. Ideally this information will help you to shine a light on shortcomings or challenges in your marketing strategy and offer suggestions and solutions for you to Stand Out from the competition, Take Off in a direction that’s true to who you are and where you want to be, and, finally, to Stay On Course to reach your goals.


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About the Authors

Lorrie Brignac LeeWinnie Brignac HartWinnie Brignac Hart and Lorrie Brignac Lee of TwinEngine bring 25+ years of marketing experience to leveraging their twin talents to help companies translate traditional marketing channels into forward-thinking solutions. They have built a reputation as inspired, award-winning designers and savvy interpreters of business brand and personality. Their most recent book collaboration, Stand Out: Tools To Master The 8 Fundamentals Of Standing Out In Business, is available on Amazon.com.

For more information visit TwinEngine.com.