You’d think your customers would be sensitive to what’s important to their own customers. Surprisingly, that’s not always the case. Consider buyers or purchasing agents who you may routinely call on. These folks have little, if any, contact with their customers who buy from them. All too often, they can be stunningly clueless about their external customer’s needs.  Instead they would rather hammer you on lowering your price. How do you convince these folks the importance of understanding value?  Here’s a key question to unlock those external customer’s wants and needs:

What are the qualities your customers expect from you as a vendor or supplier?”

There’s a good chance that the response will include criteria other than price but: service, quality, on-time delivery, support, ease of use, etc. As a matter of fact, according to the latest research, 87% of the time, customers will list at least three factors other than price as their motivations.

So it is up to you to get your customers to talk about these other factors, so you can minimize price as the dominant force in the sales negotiation process. Remember, even in a tight economy, customers rarely buy on price. But that’s what they like to tell you — don’t surrender to their terms.