I always tell my guys that there is a natural conflict between the seller and buyer so why wouldn’t you expect lots of gamesmanship? Wouldn’t it be nice if you looked at your price sheet, gave a quote, and the buyer said “send me the contract” and voila! We all know it doesn’t work like that or we would be order takers.
Here is the way it really works
- There is a lead however it appears
- The salesperson does their job and qualifies the prospect
- The seller and buyer agree on the process to evaluate the product
- The demo and trial go fabulous and there appears to be a lot of interest
- Salesperson starts planning their next vacation, new car…
- All of a sudden the prospect goes silent, crickets
- The salesperson is puzzled and calls and email repeatedly, still crickets
- All sorts of tactics to understand what is going on transpire…still crickets
- Finally, the buyer comes back!
- Only, to tell you they only have $10K for your $50K service!
- Wait a minute, didn’t we discuss price in the very beginning before we agreed to a trial, spent weeks doing discovery…
- Of course we did and this is where the poker game gets fun
So, what should you do? Do you cave, do you stick to your guns, do you call the buyer all kinds of names….this is the real world guys especially in today’s economy where the buyer has the leverage.
This happened today with one of my salespeople. Here is what I say…call their bluff, because that’s all it is, and go all in! It comes back to the basics again. You have a price that was established that is fair and validated by the market so you have to stand your ground. If you do, the power suddenly shifts back to you. The buyer has invested a lot of time in the process and they want the service just as much as you want the deal.
It comes down to the best poker player and who will call first.
What would you do?
Brick
You did not provide exhaustive detail, however the following is a tactic that has worked well for me many times.
Send him a message apologizing for not having established to value of your service to him thoroughly enough. Then imply that in an attempt to make it right with him, you went out back and played a game of H.O.R.S.E. with your V.P. to secure a discount for him. And then give him an odd number like $48,784 which implies that you carved every last ounce of fat off the hog that you could. Then, the ball is in his court as with the tactic explained by Brick above. The combination of the humor and a token discount will make it even easier for him to throw his hand in (particularly since he can announce to his boss that he secured the “best possible deal”).
Cheers, Jim
Thanks for the comment JIm. Yes, that will be the counter for this particular prospect.
Hi,
I would re-visit my original offer, define the ‘make or break’ variables, strip the product down to the very core, price at 10K, with significant scale up options available, at an on-cost.
Naturally, the client will want some of the extra features or options (you should ensure of this…), and this is where it gets interesting.
If this particular client’s cost > benefit (now or in the future), then yes, stick to your guns, pull away and likely lose the business. Or lower the cost, or raise the benefit, or both.
Personally, i can;’t stand these sort of ‘games in business, but i like poker a lot. Sometimes the two cross over.
That’s my hand, what’s yours:-)?
Thanks. I am a believer in removing some value to lower the cost and not compromise the pricing integrity. In this case, the gap is too wide and nothing will close it unless the buyer comes my way. So, I play my hand by offering ways to lower the price by taking some things away but also explain the losee of value to reinforce the full price. I have a great hand so I don’t fold.