156: How To Totally Smash Your Price Is Too High (Part Two)

<p>When we are haggling over the price with the buyer and they say, “this price is too high”, “that is out of our budget”, “we can’t afford it at that level, can’t you drop the price”, “we never pay that much”, “we can get it for less”, etc., we are in a bind.  We want the sale, we want to make our sales targets, so we immediately go into discount mode. This is a big negotiating mistake. </p> <p> </p> <p>I heard this exact case from a Japanese sales guy recently.  We happened to be seated next to each other at a business function. I started chatting with him about how he does his sales.  He had been selling for his firm for 7 years and looked to be in the mid thirties age bracket. In other words, he was an experienced sales guy. When I asked him what he does when his buyers say the price is too high, he replied that he immediately drops the price by 20%.  I nearly had a heart attack.  If I was his sales manager, I would have to be physically restrained from throttling him on the spot. </p> <p> </p> <p>No, no, no. Don’t fold on the price pushback.  What we should be doing is defending our price.  We never do that by arguing with the buyer.  We don’t do that by force of will either.  These ideas both sound preposterous, but amazingly this is what some salespeople actually do. Instead, we try to better understand the client’s situation.  Often salespeople stop asking questions at this critical juncture and instead go into high energy “tell and sell mode”.  They keep telling all the good reasons why the buyer should pay the requested price.  This won’t work. </p> <p> </p> <p>Firstly, don’t start your response by arguing with the client.  Instead agree with them. We can say, “You are right and I understand it is a considerable investment”.  We do this to make sure the client is still listening to us.  If we disagree with them, they stop listening to us and start thinking about all the reasons their “too high” statement is correct.  They mentally get ready for hand-to-hand combat mode to fight with us.  We don’t want t