Pen or Taser?
Scenario of me pitching to clients: What are your challenges?
Clients: There are so many of our prospective clients who get sticker shock when we tell them the cost of our services. We work very hard and genuinely care about our people. Many of them are repeat business, yet when we share the cost of working together, so many of our prospects stall.
Next Scenario:
I carefully outline a strategy to address their concerns and they need to “think about it”.
Sticker Shock!
I get it. I am not prone to impulsive purchases.
What are the chances of your client suffering from sticker shock syndrome with their client experiencing the same symptoms when I pitch to them?
Is this some kind of black magic that is visited on those who are do not like to make an immediate decision?
How do I break the spell?
Am I over analyzing?
I did some research online and found some documentation about objections. Some people called it the “trial pitch”.
You explain the value of working together.
Start off by asking them to identify the scope of the problem they’re looking to solve, the severity of it, and what it’s costing them.
Next, use their unique situation to do a dep dive with the prospect explaining how this solution will change their lives.
Invite them to see the value they’re getting by addressing that problem with your unique approach.
Then you ask:
Do you believe that I understand in your world, your business and your challenges?
Do you believe that we have the expertise to help?
Do you want our help?…
This is a good place to go into “but-land”.
Addressing Objections
The idea is to identify the objections and explore how to resolve them efficiently.
Buying is an emotional process.
Emotions is where the monetary-value lives.
Then we deal with this sacrosanct object on the table that everyone has been dodging.
I ask all of my clients what their budget is prior to the call.
Most of elect not to share that with me.
Some are probably afraid that if they tell me I will charge them a higher price. I probably should…. but that would violate my principle of transparency.
I call this the zig-zag dance.
They want me to give an estimate before they reveal their budget.
I want them to reveal their budget before I give an estimate.
If they put a price on it, I can find a way to work with them.
In short, they zig to the left, I zag to the right, until the big price reveal when I tell them what the investment would be.
(I hope that they will jump for joy.)
I am told that if prospects feel that you are hesitant regarding your price, then they will be likely to pick up the cues and dodge. If you are self-assured and believe that you are offering good value, they will feel confident with it. That’s a whole lot of psychology for a simple sales pitch. It leaves me wondering if I should have picked psychology instead of computer science in college?
Sometimes I am left with the feeling that I could have asked double and they would have paid it.
Last week I felt the sticker shock through the video-chat.
Do you have a sales strategy?
How do you explain the value of your offer to your clients?
