Moving Beyond Price by Scott Armstrong FREE BUSINESS TIPS FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS AND ENTREPRENEURS Moving Beyond Price You are close to making the sale if only you could reduce your price just a little, the client would take the order and you would make quota for this quarter. Sound familiar? For most of us, and particularly for those new to the field of sales, our over dependence on price as our primary sales tool has taken away more revenue, more income, than we realize. Price is an easy to use closing technique that may get you the short term sale but will hurt your long term margins, quota attainment and conceal other value points of your product or service from the client. Of course I am not suggesting price is not an important factor in the sales process but there are many other selling points that can help a professional sales person close the deal and create higher value, long term relationships. Selling points such as: 1. After sales service, the #1 complaint of businesses. Once the sale is made make sure you have thorough follow up with the client to ensure correct delivery, implementation or training and overall satisfaction of the client. This not only gives the salesperson a chance to correct any difficulties but will also put them front and center for any unforeseen sales opportunities. 2. Industry knowledge. You deal with this product/service range every day and have become an expert in what works and what does not. You can save your client significant amounts of money by advising them on what will best work for them given their resources and in house skill sets. 3. Warranties, in-house credit, delivery terms all need to play a significant role in your sales presentation. You can show the client how convenient delivery terms keep their shelves at the right inventory levels, reducing storage costs and maximizing sales. Warranties should provide a meaningful level of comfort for the client. Explain how your company will provide repair/replacement parts quickly and at no cost to the client. 4. The #1 closing tool is the use of meaningful references. This takes any uncertainty about dealing with your company out of the equation for the client. Carry a printed list of references your prospect can check. I used to carry a list of 50 references so that it did not look like I had just prepared 3 or 4 references. Of course I had verified with each client of mine that it was OK with them to be on my reference list and I only gave out the list if I felt there was a strong chance in making the sales. Where price becomes the strongest purchasing criteria is usually with 1st time buyers. In this situation it is even more important for the sales person to help the client understand the many additional value points involved with the purchase. Through effective listening to the client and emphasis on non-price value points you should enjoy an increase in sales and higher margins with those sales. Moving Beyond Price by Scott Armstrong www.stepupperformance.com