In short, NO! It's a common mistake among new salespeople to assume that giving someone a rock bottom price is going to make the sale. It's usually a nervous response to rejection, a very noticeable nervous response that is made far too early in the selling process. The common mistake is that you have shown someone what your product/service is, but you haven't built any value into it. In fact, you've skipped a large portion of the selling process and jumped right to the close. Uh oh!
As a customer, I'm not emotionally or physically drawn to the product or service... yet. No need has been created and I will not feel any loss in rejecting the sale. This is a big problem for someone who's about to ask me to hand him a lump sum of my hard earned money. Now the salesperson panics and frantically spits out a much lower asking price (without phoning anyone to "verify" with your Sales Manager that it could be done, this would have made me think they were really working for me and warmed me up). I now refuse to purchase the product for two reasons, I'm feeling toyed with and you (and your product) have lost all of your credibility.
Remember to keep your price firm and build the value in your product, no one buys from a desperate salesperson. You have to stand behind what you're selling, even walk away from a presentation because of a cheap prospect. Sometimes that will even close the deal! Build the value in your product to create the need, if you do this properly you'll be a closing machine.
Next Week's Nugget: How to Escape the Fear of Cold Calling.
I think this is something that needs to be stressed over and over, especially when the economy is not hot. It's too easy to try to lowball your way in without adding value. I think that what you mean in the second paragraph is that you are not emotionally drawn to the product or service... yet.
ReplyDeleteYou either have a high-value product or you don't. Cheapening the price also cheapens the perceived value and is a road down. Thanks for the great post!
Yes, you're right. I did mean to include "...yet" in the post. I apologize for any confusion, it has been revised.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly my point, I'm glad you enjoyed the post. Look for next week's Nugget on Monday June 21!