Does anyone out there know where this famous line came from? That’s right, Ricky Roma in Glen Gary Glenross, one of the all time greatest sales movies. If you haven’t seen the film, get it tonight, watch, and pay attention!
So what is Ricky Roma really saying here?
It’s basic but we all miss this…and many times on the first call when the prospect asks “what’s the price?”. How can we possibly price a deal when we don’t know anything except what our price model spits out?
I will keep this simple, but this is really important! Listen, listen, listen….and listen some more and don’t show your hand until you really understand the buyer. How is the company doing, how does the decision maker get compensated, bonused,…how important is your product to their success, strategy, goals….is there an alternative?
Shut up and listen! Only when you know what the shot is, should you open your mouth. Don’t give away valuable information too early that may lower your chances of making a deal or, if you are still lucky, lower your chances of making a deal at the maximum price.
Watch the movie…
Brick
oftentimes as the salesperson you’ll find you know better than the prospect what the shot is. closed a deal today w/a bloke i’ve been after for 3 years. he was insistent on taking global data from our product but couldn’t get the sign off internally. obviously i wanted the bigger deal as much as he did but it was becoming obvious to me that it just wasn’t going to happen. managed to convince him to purchase a smaller sub-set of data from us with options to upgrade when he needs more and got it across the line.
Nathan, that’s another concept but worthy of a discussion about not lowering the price, rather taking something away to meet a budget constraint.
What I am talking about is the art of listening and drawing out the buyer so they tell you everything you need to know before you show your hand.
Yeah but they were all crooks
You think?