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How to Sell without Focusing on Price
Giving Your Customers the Best
Price...Not the Cheapest Price
The First Thing They Ask For
The first
request made by most customers is “How much is your…?”
Salespeople who simply respond with a dollar amount are
answering the customer’s direct question…but they are not
telling them what they really need to know to make the right
choice.
Why Customers
Buy
Ironically, while price is most often the first thing a customer
asks about, it is likely to be the least important when making
the final buying decision. In June 2000, Perth company
Marketing Focus did a survey of the most important factors
influencing buying decisions. Here’s what they found -
31% Customer Service & Staff Attitude
24% Ambience
16% Convenience
9% Product Range
7% Brand Loyalty
7% Price Competitiveness
Other surveys have shown that the price is the final determining
factor in only 5% of sales.
So Much More To Consider
For some products, customers just want the cheapest price
regardless of features; but, often there are other factors that
are far more important – design, durability, ease-of-use,
availability of spares, appearance, trendiness and many more.
The trouble is, these take more effort to compare than price.
It’s easy to “Just pick the cheapest” – only to be disappointed
a short time later when it breaks or doesn’t perform as you
expect. If price is the FIRST thing you talk about with a
customer, it may be the ONLY thing. And this is doing the wrong
thing by both you and the customer. |
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Best price = lowest price?
It is unrealistic to expect that you will ALWAYS have the lowest
price…if you did you wouldn’t be in business for long! Yet,
when asked the price or fee by our client, we automatically want
to mention the lowest figure. We want to give the customer the
best product at the cheapest price – impossible!Customers
will expect (and ask for) your BEST price. They simply want to
be reassured they are not paying too much. While, as the
salesperson, you might imagine they want the cheapest price; in
fact, the statistics show that only 1 out of every 12-18 people
will make their final decision based on price.
The biggest barrier to price is often in the mind of the
salesperson
Many customers start out with “What’s your cheapest price on a
…?” This does not mean they only want the cheapest – it’s
simply a starting point. When they mention ‘cheapest price’,
respond as if they’ve asked for the best value.
One of the main
reasons customers buy products is PRESTIGE…and that cannot be
achieved by buying the cheapest.
REMEMBER…
- Just because a
customer asks about price first doesn’t mean that it’s most
important.
- Price IS
important to customers – but is rarely the MOST important
factor in their buying decision.
- Deferring a
customer’s price request until later is NOT manipulating them
– and it won’t annoy them if you let them know you understand
they want the best price and you will give it to them.
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© 2005
Ryan+Associates Australia. Ryan+Associates Australia is a member of
Synergy Partners. |
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