283: Package Up The Value In The Sale

<p>Price conversations are a bad thing.  Invariably, you are dragged into the mud and blood of comparisons with someone ridiculously cheaper.  We get these requests – “send me your price sheet”. My ears prick up like a Dobermann when I hear those words, because I am mentally getting ready for trouble.  I know a couple of things are happening here, none of which are good for me to make this sale happen.</p> <p> </p> <p>The buyer is possibly shopping the deal to get three quotes to keep the compliance department happy, so that they can award the deal to their already selected and much preferred, favourite provider.  My job is to be used by the buyer, to pony up the necessary paperwork, so my rival can get all of the money.  Another reason may be so that they can play all of the providers off against each other and fill in the matrix.  Along the top they place the names of the suppliers and down the left hand column, they put in the names of the solutions they need.  They populate the corresponding cells with the numbers of the respective pricings.  The cheapest alternatives are quickly identified, you are too high and then are tossed on the scrap heap.</p> <p> </p> <p>Sometimes, the buyer will say “just send me the pricing” and you will try to resist.  You want to meet with them online or in person, to fully understand what they need.  You are doing what you should be doing, but they are not playing ball.  They say, “send it”.  My advice – send it and then completely forget about it.  The chances of this going anywhere are almost zero, not fully zero, but pretty much indistinguishable from zero. </p> <p> </p> <p>Instead, spend your time finding people who want to share their issues with you, so that you can understand if you have a solution for them or not.  They will be price focused and that is natural, because they have a spreadsheet somewhere for the P&L. This document has a set of numbers therein, which specifies how much they have allotted for the solution.  Now here is the wonderful thing about the P&L – the