SalesScore

As a sales rep, do you openly discuss with your prospects the cost of your products and services?  At what stage of the selling process, do you discuss money?  By chance, do you wait until they ask you for a proposal?

Sales reps that avoid discussions about money may ultimately miss closing valuable business.  When a buyer says, “I can’t afford it at this time” or “this is not in our budget,” don’t believe it!  If they really need or want your product or services, they will come up with the money.  It is your role as a sales rep to find out “why” they want to buy. The only thing that is relevant is whether your product or service provides a solution that is less costly than having the problem remain unsolved.

In every sales process, sooner or later money needs to be discussed. Therefore, why not get it freely out on the table early in the sales process? By doing so, your prospect cannot use it as a weapon against you late in the sales process.

In our business, our clients almost never have a recruiting budget.  So, I openly tell my prospects early in the discovery process, “I know you probably don’t have a budget for our services and you probably have no idea what our services cost.  So, I will be upfront with you and tell you that our clients generally invest $xx – $xx for a successful search.  Is that something that would break the bank for you?”  This gets the “elephant” out of the room so we can spend the rest of our time discussing their recruiting problem and “how” we are going to solve it for them.

Find the emotional “pain” and money no longer is an issue.

(Written by: Ann Clifford)