Price Objection or a Value Objection? It’s Your Assumptions, Not The Objections That Kill Your Sales
Mar 25, 2009 All About Selling, Executive Coaching, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Sales Coaching, Sales Management, Sales Training, sales articles, sales tips, training for managers
In CanDoGo’s latest post, I found a useful tip that my friend and colleague, Tony Parinello wrote that stands out above the crowd as a selling strategy to adopt that works exceptionally well. Here’s the excerpt from Tony, followed by some more tools you can use when you run into the all too familiar price objection.
When VITO Objects to the Price – By Tony Parinello
“Your price is too high.”
Whenever you’re calling on a Very Important Top Officer, you’re bound to run into some first-call objections. Let’s say you place a telephone call, and when the prospect picks up, you launch into your opening statement and you get interrupted with something that sounds like this:
“I’ve seen your solutions before. Your price is simply too high for our budgets.”
Don’t respond with: “We offer specials. This month, it’s 10 percent of list,” or “What would you consider a fair discount?” or “How much would we have to lower it to get your business?” or “I can talk to my manager and see if we can offer a lower price.”
Instead, I want you to respond with: “Ms. Importanta, could you please define price?”
Don’t be surprised if VITO responds with: “Price is what I pay. It’s what’s on the invoice!”
Be prepared to answer with all of the services you don’t typically charge for and be prepared to put a price tag on all of them, including pre-sales studies, evaluations and other services that are valuable to the prospect and would be costly if they were to hire a consultant or industry expert to perform.
So what have we learned? Here are a few valuable nuggets to walk away with.
First, we’ve learned that it’s our assumptions around the sales process that often sabotage our selling efforts right from the start. In other words, “Your price is too high” can mean several different things depending upon who is sharing this perceived objection with you. After all, what exactly does, “Your price is too high” even mean? Certainly something different to each customer, depending on their point of view.
Unfortunately, the majority of salespeople make the costly assumption that the dollar figure they quoted for the service or product offered is what is really in question. And this can be the farthest thing from the truth. Yet, salespeople will continue to forge ahead and react accordingly, based upon the presumption, their honest belief that it’s the price that is getting in the way of earning their business and if they drop their price, offer some discount or “better deal,” they’ll earn a new customer.
Isn’t it amazing that a salesperson can conduct a one way conversation in their own head and come up with a solution to a customer’s objection without even involving the customer! Yes, salespeople can be incredibly creative, even to the point where it costs us sales.
Fact: Dropping the price before validating and isolating the core roadblock(s) to making a purchasing decision often results in diluting your value, damaging your credibility and ultimately losing the sale rather than winning it.
Here are some healthier responses to this common objection, “Your price is too high” that would serve you better than the typical reactionary and adversarial posture salespeople take in an attempt to defend their price. Besides, if this is the selling environment you create, where it’s ‘you vs. the customer,’ we all know who’s going to win in the end.
The next time you hear, “Your price is too high” respond with the following questions. You’ll be amazed at how much more useful intel you can collect just by going a few layers deeper with more powerful and tactical questioning.
After using these questions to respond to this objection rather than react with an adversarial statement, notice how often the real objection that’s getting in the way of moving forward actually comes down to price. Probably only about 15% of the time, instead of what you initially perceived to be much higher. Since the real objection is often several layers deep, it’s going to be the right, pinpoint questions that deliver the relevant information you need so that you can offer a solution that’s going to fit best.
In my next blog, I’ll unpack the second learning point worth integrating into your selling approach. That is, how, exactly, do you build value?
Tags: closing the sale, Executive Coaching, Sales Coaching, Sales Management, Sales Training
Not Sure How To Innovate? Forget Brainstorming, SmartStorming Shows You How
Mar 23, 2009 Business Advice, Communication, Experiences in Marketing, Leadership Academy, Marketing, management tips
Did you know that the concept of brainstorming as we know it today was invented nearly 70 years ago? This was right around the time when Roosevelt was President and gas cost 10-cents a gallon. Interestingly, while technology has advanced dramatically, the brainstorming process hasn’t changed much since then.
Invite most 21st-century professionals to participate in a brainstorming session, and they’re likely to run for the door. And it’s no wonder. The typical brainstorm is long, tedious, poorly facilitated, often intimidating and even contentious. And the results are often disappointing, as well. Even when a few decent ideas are generated, they rarely end up seeing the light of day.
Two marketing communications professionals from New York City are changing all that, with a totally new approach to brainstorming they call SmartStorming: Advanced Training in Innovative Thinking. I’ve had the opportunity to connect with the creators of SmartStorming and talk to them about this cutting edge technology in how we think and create new ideas. They’ve reinvented the concept of brainstorming so that it can be done in a more of a systematic, organized process that yields are measurable R.O.I.
“We all know innovative thinking is critical for success, today more than ever. We call it the ‘Innovation Imperative,’” says Mitchell Rigie, co-creator of SmartStorming. “The difference between surviving and thriving, today and in the foreseeable future, is going to depend on how fresh and unique a company’s thinking will be.”
Traditional brainstorming is still one of the most widely-used tools for generating ideas. Every day tens of thousands of brainstorms are held around the world.
It seems that the technology behind brainstorming has now evolved into something more powerful. “Brainstorming is a fundamentally flawed process,” says Keith Harmeyer, Rigie’s partner and co-creator of SmartStorming. “For years we sat through hundreds, maybe thousands of unproductive brainstorms. And finally we asked ourselves, ‘How can we do this better?’“
Based on their own experience and extensive research, Rigie and Harmeyer developed a turnkey system that addresses each of the key weaknesses of traditional brainstorming. The result is a thorough six-step process that takes users from pre-planning, through the idea-generation phase to follow-through and next steps.
“Consider the cost to an organization of a typical brainstorm session. Six or eight or even more people, sitting in a room for an hour or more. Then multiply that by the number of sessions held over the course of a year. And with what return? It’s staggering. Plus the negative impact on employee morale is enormous. SmartStorming delivers tangible benefits to the organization, managers and participants,” said Harmeyer.
At the core of SmartStorming is 3-D Ideationsm, a proprietary technique that breaks idea-generation into three parts, resulting in a significantly great yield of fresh, innovative ideas.
“3-D Ideation makes it possible for groups to think beyond their limiting assumptions about a challenge; what most people refer to as ‘thinking outside the box.’ They then view the challenge from a number of different viewpoints, to gain a broader perspective. And finally, they free associate, using a variety of ideation techniques we provide,” said Rigie.
Several leading creative services and consumer products companies have already benefitted from SmartStorming and many more are jumping on the bandwagon. To learn more about SmartStorming training, visit SmartStorming.com.
Podcast: Develop Your Sales Mojo for a Unique and Winning Edge
Mar 19, 2009 American Entitlement, Business Coaching, Career Advice, Communication, Interviews, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Sales Coaching, Sales Training, accountability, career coaching, podcast, webinar
Listen to the podcast here
Got your mojo?
Are you born with it or can you develop it? Here’s a recent podcast I did with Salesopedia that explains what makes up your sales mojo, which defines who you are and how you come across to others.
Listen in as I describe in detail how your confidence, attitude, mindset, relationship with fear, and your ability to be engaged in the moment, all combine to determine how powerful your sales mojo can be. During these times, you need every advantage to be successful in your career, especially in sales. So make sure you tune in to get your sales mojo and develop your unique, winning edge.
You can listen to the podcast here.
Tags: career coaching, Executive Coaching, life coaching, Sales Coaching, Sales Training
Observe Top Performers, Have a Contingency Plan, Think Like Your Successor: How to Keep your Job – Parts 6, 7 & 8
Mar 18, 2009 American Entitlement, Career Advice, Executive Coaching, Life Coaching and Career Coaching, Sales Coaching, Sales Management, accountability, career coaching, coaching for managers
What can you learn from observing the top performers within your organization as well as embracing the mindset of your potential successor? While this final section may require some more due diligence on your part, it doesn’t stop here. Even as an eternally grounded optimist, it’s just good business sense to ensure you have developed a contingency plan and have it in place so that you have some additional cushion to land on in the event the bottom falls out from under you.
This could make the difference between a rapid free fall into the abyss of career uncertainly and a lateral move or even an upward career re-engineering on your part where you come out ahead. Develop your career safety net by planning for the unplanned.
Here are the final three installments of this eight part series on what you can do to keep your job and insulate yourself from a layoff.
Part 6: Observe the Top Performers
1. Become the model employee. What are the best of the best doing? Benchmark best practices so that you can then emulate them. Don’t wait for your boss to come and tell you what they are. By then, it’s probably too late.
2. Master the basics. Now is not the time to take anything for granted. This includes the more obvious displays of the behavior of a model employee. And this isn’t limited to simply being on time at work and for meetings as well as meeting all of your deadlines. You also don’t want to be caught making personal calls, texting or corresponding to non-work related emails. Stay away from toxic gossip and keep your positive attitude on high.
3. Produce stellar work: Everyone today can rely on the excuse of being understaffed, unsupported or resource thin and always feeling under the gun when dealing with last minute demands. This certainly helps justify mediocre work. Instead, treat everything you do as the most important task of the day. That’s the champion’s creed. If you did, how would that change your output?
Part 7: Embrace the Mindset of Your Successor
Imagine if you were the person who was laid off twelve months ago and has the opportunity to land a new job. How would that change your work ethic? Keep in mind, this is the person who you are competing against for your position every single day.
Part 8: Develop a Contingency Plan
1. Build out your network. Use social networking tools such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter and others to connect with the people you know and expand your network from there.
2. Know who’s hiring in your field. It’s important to know your options. What skills, education, and job training are employers looking for within your profession or industry? While it’s not what you want your thoughts to be consumed by on a daily basis nor be top of mind, you still need a balanced plan of attack; maintain a stellar productivity level while knowing what you can fall back on. So ask yourself, “If I was unemployed today, would I be ready to start up my new business, create my dream job or apply for the open positions tomorrow?”
3. Track trends. This is where I suggest caution, as the pendulum of extremities can swing each way when it comes to staying current on industry events, changes and news. Reading newspapers, checking your blackberry or iphone, reading journals and trade magazines; even talking to colleagues is good practice in order to keep your ears wide open for opportunity and your finger on the pulse of activity. However, given the number of people I’ve been coaching recently, I’d think that most of us are probably indulging a little too much what the media is feeding us. The unfortunate fall out of this is, what you continually listen to you start to believe.
Be careful about overindulging in the media and the news, and invest more of your time on what you can control in the immediate moment, the quality of your work, your attitude and your productivity. Because in the end, this is what is going to keep your job.
Tags: career advice, career coaching, Executive Coaching, keep your job, layoffs, Sales Coaching
Book Release: The Race To Success. Are You In The Lead?
Mar 17, 2009 Books
In today’s ever changing world, everyone is struggling to find more time. Each day millions of Sales Professionals start their day behind and never catch up. In The Race To Success, author Cheryl Clausen challenges you to think differently about time and in doing so she turns the whole concept of time management upside down.
With more than 20 years of coaching experience, Cheryl A. Clausen is a recognized author who has published more than 500 articles on the topics of time mastery, marketing, and sales. One step at a time, Cheryl shows you how to move from being time strapped to time abundant, into a future in which you enjoy both personal and professional success. This book is for those serious about using their time to produce the greatest results; results you can’t even imagine at this moment. Results that will change your life and your business forever.
You can find out more about Cheryl and her new book here.
Be Grateful Rather Than The Consummate Complainer: How to Keep Your Job – Part 4 and 5
Mar 12, 2009 American Entitlement, Business Advice, Business Coaching, Career Advice, Executive Coaching, Hiring and recruiting, Live Responsibly: Life Tips, Great Living, Sales Management, accountability, career coaching, coaching for managers
Here are installments number four and five in my eight part series. These two focus on developing a deeper appreciation for your job if you’re fortunate enough to have one today, and some strategies you may want to stay away from unless you want to be known as the consummate complainer. Where do you think that’s going to get you?
Four: Be Grateful
Talk to people who used to complain about their salary, boss and work conditions. The same people who used to whine about their job are now many of the people today who are grateful to have one. And this sense of deeper appreciation for their employment and their income is echoed from the taxi driver to the cook at the local restaurant, the shop worker, the teacher, the sales associate, business owner as well as the executive.
It’s not just a right to have a job but the privilege that comes with having one today. We are finally beginning to shed the sense of American Entitlement™ that was spawned from the greed that has put us in this position we are in today.
Five: Don’t Be The Squeaky Wheel
Are You known as The Consummate Complainer? Where it used to be the squeaky wheel got the oil, now they squeaky wheel is getting the axe.
1. Be of service rather than being selfish. This is the time not to be so self centered but to also be of greater service to others. Don’t seek out greater recognition; financial or otherwise. Be more collaborative rather than being competitive. So, get involved and help out where you can; now more than ever.
2. Be fully accountable. That means no blaming or passing responsibility and no finger pointing. If you made a mistake, then be the first to own up to it and correct it. Trust me, no boss wants to be caught up in further drama, so stay away from creating any unnecessary problems and conflict with other employees that kill your time and productivity.
3. Don’t be high maintenance. Companies don’t need much of a reason today to let people go. In fact, many companies are taking advantage of this and have accelerated the dismissal process of more underperformers today than they have in decades. So, be careful if you’re the type of employee who always complains; whether it’s about the temperature in the office, the work space or the noise. If you’re known to be the person who has an air of entitlement or who is just difficult to work with, guess who is going to be the first to be let go, and in many cases, that’s regardless whether or not they are top performers.
Tags: career coaching, Executive Coaching, keep your job, layoffs, Sales Coaching
Be Visible but Not Egocentric. How to Keep Your Job – Part 3
Mar 11, 2009 Career Advice, Executive Coaching, Goal Setting, Hiring and recruiting, Life Coaching and Career Coaching, Live Responsibly: Life Tips, Great Living, Sales Coaching, Sales Management, accountability, career coaching, coaching for managers
In this third part of an eight part series, here are some strategies that will enable you to increase your visibility and the measurable value you deliver in order to avoid being the victim of another layoff.
Be Visible but Not Egocentric
Ironically, this is not the time to put your head down and just do your work. If you’re not known by others and the measurable value you bring to the organization, then you’ll be the first to go. It’s great if your boss is a raving fan and an advocate. However, make sure he’s not alone. Make it a point to get your name in front of other managers so that they know and value your work as well. After all, what if your boss loses his or her job first? You want to make sure that someone else knows who you are and can speak highly of you, especially if your boss is first to get axed.
If your great work is unnoticed or you are not connected with some measurable results, something positive, something important, such as an increase in sales or profit, then all of your efforts can easily become insignificant if not visible. What if there’s no one to stand up for you during the planning meeting where the objective is to determine the number of layoffs and who it’s going to affect? At that point, it won’t matter how valuable you are if your value is not clearly recognized by these decision makers. Make sure people understand what you do and how you add value.
Finally, while you want to be visible about the results you’re producing, do so without bragging about it. Instead of running around pontificating about your achievements or emailing people about your successes as if you’re running for public office, meet with your manager regularly to make sure you’re on the same page regarding your performance objectives. Moreover, ask directly where they feel you can improve and what you can do about it. If you haven’t had your annual performance review yet, take a more proactive posture and hand in an updated progress report, action plan or business plan with the intention of bringing your boss up to date on your accomplishments and responsibilities within the company.
Tags: career advice, career coaching, Executive Coaching, keep your job, layoffs, Sales Coaching
Just Follow Up! Wins Sales Article of The Month
Mar 10, 2009 All About Selling, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Sales Coaching, Sales Management, Sales Training, sales articles, sales tips, training for managers
Just Follow Up Wins Sales Article of The Month on Top Sales Articles.
Read the full article here.
You may know what that next step in your selling process actually is. But do you know exactly, when? Are you confident in what that next step is and when it will be taken? Many salespeople struggle when it comes to determining whether or not to follow up and when that “perfect” time to do so actually is.
Have you ever burdened yourself with these internal questions?
This ambiguity in your selling process is then compounded exponentially when you finally reach out to this person, just to connect with their voice mail on the other end.
If any of these questions sound familiar, it’s a safe bet you may be missing a critical step in your selling process. Here’s one of the golden rules of selling which, for many reasons, gets violated every moment of every day.
Always, always, always, have the next step mapped out and agreed upon in every selling situation, in every conversation with a prospect or customer.
This removes the toxic ambiguity that pollutes your mind and your thinking and robs you of time that’s better served focused on more meaningful and rewarding selling activities.
Here’s a link to this article, Just Follow Up.
Tags: career coaching, Executive Coaching, sales articles, Sales Coaching, selling tips
Foster Key Strategic Relationships: How to Keep Your Job- Part 2
Mar 9, 2009 Career Advice, Career Advise, Executive Coaching, Sales Coaching, accountability, coaching for managers
The World Bank just reported that the economy is in the worst shape since the Great Depression. Here are a few career retention strategies to adopt (as well as some things to avoid doing) to stay employed, become more valuable and avoid being the next one cut. These strategies can make the difference between you moving up the ladder of success or moving out the door.
The TV show Survivor provides a glimpse of how crucial it is to foster key alliances if you want to be a player and have a shot at winning the one million dollars. This certainly isn’t the only forum where it can make or break you. In this second part of an eight part series, here are some non negotiable strategies to start implementing today that will enable you to foster more key strategic relationships that can better insulate you from a looming layoff.
Foster Key Strategic Relationships: How to Keep Your Job- Part 2
1. Encourage Key Relationships. Your ability to socialize responsibly certainly plays a role here. Statistically, executives and HR find it hard to fire people they know well. As such, encouraging a relationship with these people can offer more job security for you.
2. Schedule More Frequent Meetings With Your Boss. This isn’t only about sharing what value you’ve brought to the table lately. Even with your heavier workload, now would be a good time to find out how you can help your manager. How can you deliver more value? See if you can take something off their plate. How many employees are going to their managers to see how they can help them? You’ll certainly separate yourself from the pack. If positioned correctly, you’ll leave a positive lasting impression.
3. Meet More Frequently with Your Peers. It’s good practice to connect more often only with your boss however, don’t stop there. What about connecting more frequently with your peers and the people you work with daily? Make certain that you work well with them so that the people you work with can talk highly of you. What can you do to make their lives easier without compromising yourself?
4. Seek Out a Mentor. Be on the lookout for someone within your company who you can develop a close relationship with and who can act as a mentor, particularly someone higher up. This person is more likely to be able to help you and keep you out of harm’s way when a potential layoff is imminent.
Tags: career coaching, Executive Coaching, keep your job, layoffs, Sales Coaching, save your job, termination
Make Yourself Indispensable. How to Keep Your Job – Part 1
Mar 5, 2009 American Entitlement, Career Advice, Sales Management, accountability, management tips
Millions of jobs have been lost over the last year. A recent survey indicated that almost 50% of American’s are worried about losing their job. Our job market hasn’t experienced these staggering numbers since 1974. With more companies laying people off, how can you insulate yourself from the rest of the work force and maintain your employment without becoming another statistic?
Today, employers have less tolerance for mediocrity, and just doing enough to get by creates the opening for someone who’s hungrier (or more desperate) to take your position. Being valuable takes precedent over being important these days. Every job today has become more valuable and as such, every person more transparent about how much of a measurable impact they’re having to the bottom line.
Here are a few career retention strategies to adopt (as well as some things to avoid doing) to stay employed and what you can do to avoid being the next one cut. It all starts by becoming more proactive and shifting away from the reactive posture many people are taking.
These strategies can make the difference between you moving up the ladder of success or moving out the door.
In this first of an eight part series, we’re going to start with what you can do to make yourself indispensable.
1. Make Yourself Indispensable
Do More For Less: Work longer hours and take on more responsibility. Take on more work and as many assignments as you possibly can, even the workload of two people without asking for more compensation or recognition. Over-deliver on what’s expected while managing realistic expectations with your manager.
Be the best at what you do. Period. Find out what the top producers are doing and do it or better.
Round out your skills. As more companies shrink in size regarding number of employees, there’s still a significant amount of work that needs to get done. Those who are open to new ideas and are willing to stretch themselves regarding learning new skills and adapting to a new culture are the ones who will be retained. Conversely, those who have a very narrow skill set that may have been deemed valuable when initially hired yet can’t help beyond their current role will be the likely first candidates to go.
Build Your Skills: Be the best you can be. Get a coach. Take continuing education classes. If you’re not, your colleague is. How important is your career?
Being valuable takes precedent over being important. It doesn’t really matter where you sit in the organization in tough times, being a contributor who can be counted on to do the important work is the most significant position to take and certainly takes precedent over being “important.” Managers need to roll up their sleeves and get back in the trenches if it means making their numbers or not, even if that means having to pick up the phone to make a cold call or two.
Tags: career, career advice, career coaching, career tips, Executive Coaching, keep your job, keeping your job, Sales Coaching
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