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Feature Article – (Read online)
Disarming The Price-Squeezing Customer:
Six Ways To Eliminate
Price Concerns
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You’ve been prospecting this company for ages, and finally got your foot in the door. You’re apprehensive because you’re meeting with the purchasing agent — not the big boss, but it’s a start — and you know you’ll get hammered on price!
The agent shakes your hand. “Tell me what you can do for me — and how much it'll cost me.” Already, he’s squeezing you on price! You only want to make him recognize the value of your business solution. He only wants to dance around it, singing, “Sure, value’s important. But how will you save me money?” To land this sale, flip the record and hear what he’s really singing. Here are six techniques to build rapport with mid-level decision makers and prevent them from getting hung up on price.
1. Understand his biggest values.
For any purchasing agent, this issue runs deeper than price or value. He wants to feel like he matters. He deals with so many salespeople making promises that you become just another face in an increasingly maddening crowd. He’s exerting what little power he has on vendors like you, and keeping an iron grip on that low price is the most obvious way he can prove his worth. His biggest values are:
Recognition from his boss and colleagues. He wants to be recognized and rewarded for getting the lowest price, so of course he’ll try to get it. Like all of us, he wants his boss to say, “You just saved the company thousands of dollars! High-five!” He wants his colleagues to think, “I want to be as successful as he is so the boss will high-five me, too!”
Justification. His self-esteem soaring, our money-conscious front-line manager thinks, “I’ve saved my company money! I’m valuable! My job’s safe!” He’s justified his existence, confirming to his company and his boss that he’s a “keeper.”
2. Understand their fears.
Most people are satisfied with something average. With fears ranging from leaving their comfort zone, to spending more money than the boss wants, to getting fired, they’re more likely to passively avoid what they don’t like than to actively pursue what they want…
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