How do I handle customer price objections without lowering my price?

Financial Dependency

You may have a nice life and maybe you think everything’s good, but I’m here to tell you: maybe it’s not. Most Americans are slaves, shackled to a dark and dreary prison of their own design: the magical land of financial dependency. You know, the place where every decision you make is centered around budget. Where all your time is divided between work and debt. Where you aren’t free to own your destiny, create your future or decide where you want to spend your time. It’s that world where people think I could never work for a commission-based company, because I need a guaranteed paycheck. We all know that freedom comes from independence, yet why do so many people choose to willingly shackle themselves to a situation that chains them to dependence? True freedom is found in being financially independent, not from choosing a paycheck. The fact is, the world doesn’t owe you a living. In life, you will be knocked down countless times and it’s how you choose to respond that defines you. Nothing is guaranteed: not security, stability, or even a paycheck.

Buyers Get More Resistant

It’s the same in sales. Especially today. In tough economies, buyers get more resistant, selective, cautious, or simply say, “no budget,” more often. They’re still buying, they’re just more likely to object, more prone to say “no.” The rep who earns top dollar in these environments is the one who refuses to roll over and accept roadblocks as a stopping point. In the end, a buyer spends money only when the value of your offer (in their mind) exceeds the value of their money (in their mind).

Make Your Offer Stand for High Value

Step one: Show value: How do you frame your offer? Do you position yourself as high value or low dollar? Say a book goes for $30 but if you pitch it like a $300 product, more people want to spend 30 dollars on a book that’s easy to read, use it again and again, and makes them money. Imagine that you’re selling $8,000 roof repairs to homeowners. Don’t go in preaching how great shingles are. Nobody wants to pay for shingles, boards, or nails. Talk about the peace of mind of preventing damage from torrential storms, of not being stressed out about leaks on walls, furniture, and floors. All the things insurance won’t cover. A rep earning top dollar gets the buyer excited about protecting the family and preventing damage so they can enjoy their home. Now which offer do you think creates more value in the buyer’s mind? Step two: Don’t lower your prices. That strategy will only lead to ruin. Leave “low prices” to Wal-Mart; they’re probably better at it than you anyway. Cutting your price doesn’t grow business because although some people want the lowest price, there’s always somebody who’ll go lower. Sure, one consistent strategy for surviving and sometimes succeeding in the short-term is to lower price. That’s right: short-term only. Ultimately, it’s not a smart long-term strategy as it doesn’t lead to greater profits. When you lower your price, you’re also lowering your margins. It’s simple math. It doesn’t take much drop in sales for that lower margin to kill you. During the last recession, sales volume dropped in the contraction, and when it does again, that’s a disaster waiting to happen. Step three. When a buyer says “no budget,” it’s nothing more than a complaint, a stall. That shouldn’t be where things end though. That’s the time to respond by acknowledging the objection, and showing them that you have a solution that can help them in spite of their current situation. You do this by going back to the value they’ll get from their purchase and reinforcing how it’s worth the price. Step four: Politicians and the media have done an amazing job of convincing many people that economic conditions are too bad to do anything different with their life. These misconceptions couldn’t be further from the truth. People still remodel homes, purchase new cars, and invest in high-dollar watches when the offer appeals to them. In any economy, money is being spent daily, even in the worst of times. Don’t get trapped into accepting objections as the end of the story. Make your offer stand for high value, don’t lower your prices, and look for how you can show the potential buyer how to move forward, not why they can’t. The winners are those who never stop showing value, continuously demonstrating how their offering is worth the money.