Turning Over Every Rock!

After an hour of presenting your product to  a client, covering what you thought were all the bases, answering all their questions, be ready for this response: “That’s just too much.” This is an answer that can throw a salesperson because it seems, that there’s nowhere to go but out the door. How do you rebut the simple but very clear, “We think your prices are too high,” how do we overcome objections?

What do you say to that?

This is the number one objection in any industry, as well it can also be one of the most difficult objections for many sales professionals to overcome. What’s there to say if the client tells you that your price is too much? This objection implies a lack of understanding of their needs in relation to their wallet, however, it is an opportunity to take advantage of their lack of familiarity with your product.

What stone hasn’t been overturned?

Many seasoned sales professionals look forward to this objection because what seems like a statement bringing the conversation to an abrupt close, in reality, is an opportunity to move it towards a close. To an experienced salesperson, “Your Price Is Too High” is not an end, it’s the beginning.  

But you must first understand, that there possibly is several motives behind this statement.

Here are a few:
1) The client may be genuinely shocked;

2) The client may want to haggle with you over the price, and the price objection is their opening shot; 

3) The client may already have already received a low-ball quote, so your price feels like an unexpected smack in the face.

What are your options? First and most often unfortunately sales associates choose to give up and walk away. There is a better option to surrender, instead, ask for further information, you’ll soon find out price often is not the real objection. Your client is needing more information and has unanswered questions. Sales experts point out that there are many ways to approach the objection and turn it around.

Give Them A Solid Solution

One clear implication in the objection is that the client doesn’t think what you’ve presented is worth the price you’ve attached to it. Most often this means that you have not done a sufficient job up to this point of explaining what you offer and why your solutions us not only worth the price you just stated however it is a solution to the needs that they just explained to you. Here is what we would suggest, stop right there, at that critical moment in the conversation. “Too high” is a very subjective comment, before you start making counter-offers, cutting your profits, breathe, relax, and don’t say anything for a good 5-10 seconds. Pause, look at your customer, and gather your thoughts.” Then ask: “Why do you say that?” “Why do you feel the price is too high? Or: “Other than price, what would hold you back from going forward with this system?”

Let Them Tell You How To Close

Now be quiet and listen allowing your client the time to explain and tell you “HOW TO CLOSE THE SALE.” 

1. “Compared to a competitor, it is ‘too high’?”
2. “Is it ‘too high’ to fit into a budget?”  
3. “Is it ‘too high’ relative to the perceived economic benefit of having the product?”
4. “What questions did you not answer or leave cloudy?”

Here’s where that other, far lower, price from a low-ball competitor may finally surface, so that you can ask to actually see that competitor’s proposal and quickly identify its deficiencies and explain why it would be not so much a bargain as a bad bargain.

In that long moment that follows the client clarifying his objection, you may find the client volunteering some additional information and reason, such as that he or she has a limited budget.

Without asking why it’s Too High, you’ll have no way of identifying the true objection. Asking why may very well immediately reveal it. Then you move in for the close. Reiterate the “Features,” “Benefits,” and “Solutions” that your company provides to their needs.

A Deadly Mistake

Too High is not only subjective, but it’s also ambiguous, and it may not even be honest—as in the case of the client who makes that statement as a way to bargain down the price of your proposal. What salespeople may do is to automatically go to calculating just How High the Too High Is, offer a 5 percent or 10 percent or some other discount, in which case you’ve shot yourself twice: by undercutting your own profit margin if you end up with the job, and by “conceding that the price in your proposal was less than a fair one, to begin with.” You have just killed the integrity and the perceived value of your product.

In closing, we would say this, if this is an objection that you are not running up against then very likely your product is underpriced and your potential clients are seeing no real perceived value, “It must not do what they claim or they do not believe in the value of what they are offering. You must have faith and believe in the value of what you are presenting or you are fighting yourself.