Sales Master Class

3 Simple Strategies to Help you Sell Price

Global uncertainties, continuing supply chain disruptions and inflationary pressures are constraining many B2B suppliers raise their prices. So too, B2B buyers are evaluating much more supplier, product and solution options. And they are doing a large part of it without involving a Sales Person! So, in a new world where Sales People enter the purchase process much later than they did before, are there any strategies that can help the Sales Person change buyer’s minds about their perception of price? This edition’s Sales Master Class suggests 3 simple strategies you could use to do just that …

3 Simple Strategies to Help you Sell Price

Navya wondered if all sales careers start this way. This was her first week with Exotica, a luxury furnishings company. Three days, ten cold calls. And today a near miss. The Customer seemed all excited about a home ensemble. “Here is my first sale” Navya had thought. That’s when the Customer asked to see the price list. And then everything collapsed.

Shanaz, Head of Home Furnishing sales, was quietly sympathetic as Navya shared her tale of woe.

Smiling broadly, she said “That’s every salesperson’s story. All stellar sales careers are built on rejections. But that aside, there were several options, alternatives you could have tried”

“Like what?” asked Navya. And, Shanaz shared three strategies to beat the price objection and win the Customer. Navya looked at him in awe.. as if he was the hero who slayed the dragon in a fairy tale!

 Those three critical strategies are here: 

  1. 1. Present price at just the right stage – Ensure that the Customer has fully appreciated the benefits and value of the proposed purchase before presenting the price. The Mercuri philosophy is ‘still later’ till the perfect psychological moment is reached.   
  2. 2. Present the price positively – Psycholinguistics has it that the words used by a salesperson to present the price and the method of doing it has subliminal impact on the Customer’s mind – positive or negative. The Salesperson must emphasize positive aspects of price, through the well chosen words linking the investment made to the benefits that will accrue. Other positive price presentation techniques include: 
    • Put the price in perspective by showing how reasonable the price is when seen over the life time of the investment 
    • Make a comparison with other more expensive options to establish reasonableness of the price 
    • Highlight the hidden benefits that don’t form part of the price. 
    • Emphasise the value your product will deliver to prove that it is worth the investment 
  3. 3. Focus on the ‘extra’ to beat back price objection - Show your Customer the extra benefits, extra value.  Handling the price objection is ultimately not so much about justifying the total price as about demonstrating the fairness of the price difference with whatever Customer is comparing.

Putting it to practice 

To bring these strategies into practice, you must:

  1. Have a meaningful agenda for each meeting with Customer. The agenda must be to show case what all your offering does for the Customer. 
  2. Talk about the perceived benefit for the Customer. In B2B specially, purchase decisions involve a “Total Cost’ which includes Acquisition Costs, Possession Costs and Usage Costs. How much does your offering save on these?

Master Class Takeaway

Always imagine a Value Equivalence Line in your mind all through your interactions with Customers. It will be a graph of perceived benefits on X axis and perceived price of your offer on Y axis. This helps steer price discussions convincingly by pointing out how value being delivered is greater than the price being charged at every stage 

“The only way on Earth to influence other people is to talk about what they want and show them how to get it”

– Dale Carnegie –
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