The Sale
You’ve met with the customer, listened to what they want, figured everything up, and finally you deliver a number. Only to get the dreaded:
“That’s pretty high”
Now there are those that will tell you that you didn’t explain your value or you didn’t properly qualify your customer. They might even be right.
But, nonetheless, you’re here. How do you handle it?
How not to respond
If you launch into a multi-sentence speech about why you’re more expensive- you’re doing it wrong. Even worse if you used the word “quality” in your explanation.
Your customer has tuned out. When you start explaining, you lose the sale.
How to respond to price objections
When someone tells you that your price is too high, say this:
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Pause.
Silence is good and, if nothing else, it let’s you take a deep breath
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Use a softener
More on what a softener is, below
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Ask a Question
Example:
- prospect: That’s more than we thought
- you: [pause] I understand. May I ask, what were you expecting the cost to be?
A softener is simply a way of easing into what could be a difficult question. Other softeners that could be used in this situation include:
- I appreciate your sharing that with me
- It’s a big number, I know
- I hear you
Alternate questions include:
- Compared to…?
- Is price the only thing that’s keeping you from committing?
- Are you comparing this to other bids?
That’s the formula. Find a softener/question combo that works for you and practice it before your next meeting.
Why ask why?
The purpose of throwing it back on the potential customer is to get the information flowing from them to you.
If you launch into a long explanation, not only will you bore them to death but you may completely misunderstand why they think your price is too high.
Find out the reasons first. Then address their objections.
For more on sales, check out this post.
Great responses. They are memorized and I’ll be using them. I like just saying “thanks” and “good luck” to a hard objection about price, although I usually give a rough estimate over sms so all of this would have to be typed out.
Some have objections to this method…it’s not the eye to eye, hand shake boomer model, but saves time, makes price not personal, and let’s ppl know quickly what’s up.
Some don’t text back! So 0 time used on objections.
I sell a lot of jobs like this. Of course every call is situational.
I texted a woman the other day “I can’t afford my showers either!” LOL
If they text or email this to me then I will usually respond back the same way.
But I always try to talk budget in person or on the phone so that’s where I would normally get this response.
Thanks for the comments!
Totally agree with not going into a long rant about your value, and the worst thing you can do is become defensive. We all have to ask ourselves, “what’s the point?”. Rarely, if ever, does becoming emotional help in a business transaction.
Getting information from the customer allows the contractor to address exactly what the customers wants. Many times contractors don’t sell the right aspects of the job. I’ve started talking about this on my podcast
I like the Floor Master podcast and it’s regularly featured in my podcast roundup every month