You’d think your vendors would be sensitive to what’s important to their own customers. Surprisingly, that’s not always the case. Consider the vendors, suppliers, or purchasing agents, etc. that you routinely call on. These folks have little, if any, contact with 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 vendors the importance of placing value on their own customers? Here’s a key question to unlock those external customer’s wants and needs:

The next time your sales prospect tells you your PRICE is too high, ask the following question:

“I can understand your need to get the most for your money, can you share with me the criteria that’s important to you to determine you’re getting the best VALUE?”

Whenever a sales prospect tries to corner you on price, get them to discuss the criteria they use to determine value. They always respond back with a set of unique criteria that’s important to them such as service, delivery, quality, customer satisfaction, etc. That allows you to minimize price and talk about other sales criteria that’s important to them.  

Selling Power.com, the most trusted site for professional selling skills, motivation and sales management know-how in the business-to-business environment, is featuring me in their 2008 promotional presentation. Entitled: Handling Price Pressures, the presentation is a comprehensive series of interviews led by Selling Power Live host, Jeffrey Gitomer. Six sales experts, including myself, give advice on how to minimize price obstacles. My segment is on how to put up your dukes with price bullies. It’s called Don’t Cave Under Price Pressure.