In my real estate business at MLSSoftware.com we have a complete price list that outlines our services and the associated pricing. So why would we get requests for proposals if we already have an online price? There could be many reasons, but most often the explanation is that our company is referred by someone. They are usually given our website address or given an e-mail address of one of our sales representatives. It could also be a situation where the prospect is short on time and is trying to funnel down their selection of vendors based on price, or how their handled from the beginning.

We had one that came in the other day that had all our competitors in the cc line of the e-mail. That’s cool, now we know who we are competing with. Depending on the competitor, sometimes we would be the lowest priced vendor, and sometimes were in the middle of the pricing pack, and once in a great while we’re at the high end.

So what would be the most strategic way to handle the request?

Over the years I have seen salesman just get right to the point when asked the question, “so how much is this going to cost,” long before the needs analysis is completed. The problem with giving prices like that doesn’t zero in on the prospects needs. The salesman however just starts throwing out all kinds of prices for various entry level products, upsell or upgrade solutions, etc. In the end, this approach often does nothing more than confuse the prospect on which solution is best for their needs and really doesn’t answer the how much does this cost question. Needless to say a confused mind doesn’t make buying decisions.

If you’re selling a manufactured item that doesn’t require any consultation then their really isn’t that many strategies that you could use.

Let’s say you’re selling t-shirts and you get a request for 100 Hanes t-shirts with a logo imprinted on them. That’s a pretty straight forward request. Sure there could be varying styles of imprint, two color versus one color, etc., but really not that much consulting or recommendation needed in fulfilling the request. In situations like this, you give it your best price, you try and sell the prospect on the merits of your company and you hope for the best.

If your company has products or services that normally require, or should require consultation to make sure that the product or service the prospect is requesting is a good fit, should you send off the prices first and hope to get an audience with the prospect somewhere down the road? In our case it’s an iffy proposition since we have all our prices posted on our website.

Here’s how we handled it…

We replied back to the prospect letting them know that all our prices are clearly posted on our website. We also informed them that in order to provide them the best recommendation based on their individual requirements and needs we really would like to talk to them to determine that their requirements will be fulfilled properly. We would like to engage them in a discussion of their needs to absolutely determine if what we offer is first of all a good fit, second that our pricing as posted will give them everything they are looking for. Often times, what we offer as a ‘standard’ package and what the client thinks is ‘standard’ are two different things.

Fast forward 48 hours, one of our sales reps did indeed have that conversation. We weren’t the lowest price vendor however we gained the clients business. The reason as told by the client was simply this… We were the only vendor that wanted to talk to them. The other three vendors simply quoted prices.

What message does it send to a prospect when you have their best interests at heart and the competition simply fulfills the request for pricing? Sure, you stand the chance of loosing the business by not fulfilling the request of the prospect by simply giving them a price. But isn’t it a better strategy to find out if your company can fulfill the request properly?

We could have spent a whole bunch of time trying to explain all the various options and features in the first reply e-mail and hoped the prospect understood them all, or we could say… hey, we want your business only if it’s a good fit for you and we’re capable of handling your needs.

If you ever feel this way, perhaps Derrick can help you. I know I’ll take a look at this now and again.

Here is the original post. http://www.zarias.com/?p=440

Another extremely thought provoking video from Zack Arias is Transform. Check it out here.

Watch it… it’s only a couple of minutes long, then read my comments.

In it Chris Brogan states the obvious to those of us that have mastered the art of what referrals is all about. The BNI International organization calls it Givers Gain®. Chris’s original blog post can be found here.

What Chris realizes and points out, is often times we only go so far as to offer help when we think we can get something in return. Robert Cialdini in his book Influence, calls it Reciprocation. When in fact, offering to help someone because you think they will be indebted to you does indeed work. However, it only really works a few times, then the recipient has their eyes and ears open, or shut for that matter, because they tend to think… why is he offering me this… and what am I going to be indebted back to him for?

I feel pretty confident even though Tim Sanders, author of Love is the Killer App, did indeed reach out to help Chris without expectation of any return, if the opportunity ever arises where Chris can repay the kindness Tim expressed he will, and will do it without wavering. In fact, I’m sure Chris is keeping his eyes and ears open for opportunities that might be right up Tim’s alley.

The next time you can lend a helping hand and you know it will benefit another person, reach out and offer it. But like Tim did, do your homework and find out what your network true needs are. It makes for a better referral.

Links to Sites in this Post

Chris Brogan

Tim Sanders

Robert Cialdini

BNI International

BNI International Brodcast

Typically we’re all taught that you have to establish a value for your product before you hit them (oops, I meant present them) with the price. The conventional wisdom says something like this; once you have established that your product or service can meet their requirements, then it’s a natural progression to present the price (or investment).

However, it really depends on the product or service. For example, have you ever been called on the telephone (pre do not call days), and asked if you wanted to start receiving organically grown milk delivered fresh and cold at 5:00am so it’s ready to pour on your cereal as you start your day?

Typically, I think the thought process would go something like this (your internal thought process). I really like organic milk, it has health benefits, but it’s expensive. So as the salesman starts to explain all of the benefits of drinking fresh organic milk, you interrupt him and say, “No thanks, I’m not interested.” I can tell you from experience that this is pretty much the end of the call for most salesman. When someone says their not interested, most don’t know what to do other than agree with them and thank them for their time. (I’ll leave the handling of that process for some other day.)

Why would that be? You already know the value of drinking organic milk versus that other stuff that’s full of humane growth hormones, etc. Why wouldn’t you want someone to deliver it to your door twice a week? You got it. The perceived value of the price of that one gallon container of milk has got to be expensive. After all you’ve given it a second glance in the store and it’s a little more expensive.

But what if the price isn’t really that much more expensive? By bringing up price ahead of time, you might give the prospect a chance to actually hear what you have to offer. Let’s say for illustration sake that the price of a gallon of milk is $3.50. Your organic milk is $4.50 a gallon. Yep, the price is more like we thought, but the value received is much greater; better quality, health benefits, etc. And not to mention the extra trips to the store to get that gallon of milk on your way home from work.

So to bring price out into the forefront of the conversation and to get past the price objection, it might just be worth mentioning it up front.

Here’s an illustration.

This could be a typical cold call where you are calling Mrs. Jones on the telephone.

Hi Mrs. Jones, this is Rick Thomas with Organic Farms and the reason I’m calling today is to introduce you to our company and ask if you’ be interested in receiving some of our organic milk delivered to your doorstep by 5:00 am, fresh and cold ready for your cereal first thing in the morning. As you know, organic milk is much better than regular store market brands because … and the features are laid out hot and heavy.

Not the greatest opening for a cold-call but nonetheless, I would imagine this kind of call happens every day. So what’s wrong with the approach?

Well just about the point where the salesman gets to the “ask if you’d be interested in receiving some of our organic milk delivered to your doorstep”, the prospect starts the mental dialogue I mentioned earlier, “like the thought of organic milk, better for me, and more expensive. So just about the time the salesman gets to the “ready for your cereal first thing in the morning”, the prospect chimes in with an interruption and says.. I’m not interested.

This is one of those cases where you know if your product or service is generally understood in the marketplace, organic milk versus regular milk, wireless telephone service, cable tv service, etc., then to get the prospect to stop and listen to your benefits before the objection you might want to just go ahead and get the price objection, or in some cases, the price comparison out of the way, so the prospect can make a quick determination about the price and give you undivided attention to what you’re offering.

Hi. Mrs. Jones, this is Rick Thomas with Organic Farms and the reason I’m calling today is to let you know that for the low price of only $4.50 a gallon you could have fresh and cold organic milk delivered to your door by 5:00am. As you know, organic milk is much better than regular store market brands because … and the features are laid out hot and heavy.

Given the opportunity to lay out the fact that your product is in line with other competitive products in the marketplace and bring price to the forefront of the conversation does a couple of things. It keeps your approach from being shut down because there is a perceived price/benefit comparison that has been done in the prospects mind many times… it keeps them from stopping you with the price or I’m not interested objection, and gives you an opportunity to explain your product a little more in detail without the price objection rearing it’s ugly head from the start.

Give it some thought, it doesn’t apply in large complex sales, but often times when your pitching (presenting) a product to someone think of different ways to make the process less obstructive to your end goal… getting them to listen and ultimately purchase.

Every week I get an e-mail asking me to buy something from them. Most times it some special. Nothing wrong with that per se, but you would think that a company that sells sales leads would teach their people how to sell? I can’t begin to tell you how many times each week I receive offers to buy something as a follow up to some information that I requested. Again, nothing wrong with that. But…

Has any number of these people ever thought that a phone call could actually begin a relationship with me? Perhaps a phone call to me to help uncover my true needs or even a lack of need. The first thing you have to determine whether you’ll ever get a sale out of someone is;

1.) Do they have the ability to buy?
2.) Is there a need? (You can create a need if your product truly will solve a problem, even if the prospect doesn’t realize it.)

I was recently reading an article, I think it was from The Harvard Business Review, that outstandingly said, one of things sales people could do in this time of crisis is get on the phone to qualify prospects and start the conversation. I guess marketing budgets are getting slammed, and salespeople are under constant pressure to meet quotas. So what might seem to be a novel way to make a sale these days is to talk to someone.

Sure we all want easy sales. Marketing fills the pipeline, salesman want to work the social network route, or they don’t want to work too hard on all the leads because marketing is doing their job (not knowing whether they are qualified or not), and figure if they send out enough e-mails surely something will drop in their lap and often times in a good economy it does.

I’ve seen it happen more than once over the past 30 years to salesman and businesses alike. They get a little going and leads start coming in, and they close sales, and they think, “hey I’m closing business on autopilot,” and they forget what got them their in the first place. Good ol’ fashioned selling., cold calling and prospecting. Then all of  a sudden, as it always does, the winds shift, the referral base quits referring, the purchasing agent moves to another company, their advocate in the company gets promoted, and so on. And guess what happens? Their momentum comes to a screeching halt and sales dwindle.

Professional athletes and coaches will tell you to win the big one; the Superbowl, the World Series, the Masters Cup or really even the weekend softball tournament, you have to perform the fundamentals consistently and execute the same every time.  When sales gets good we often times forget to prospect. Don’t let it happen to you. Set aside time everyday if possible, at minimum twice a week to spend uninterrupted time talking to someone that doesn’t come from your lead funnel or a referral source and you’re guaranteed to not have to worry about external forces writing your paycheck.

So why did I feel that I needed to vent?

For the third time, I tried to reply and unsubscribe and when I hit reply, the damn email came back as undeliverable. Seems the salesman doesn’t have a valid email address, even though it’s in his signature line. Go figure?

And here is the content of the email. Seems I haven’t been qualified, and I don’t have a need, but I am urged to pick up the phone and have my credit card handy! AND, I don’t belong to any Chamber so I couldn’t get that special discount anyway? I guess I wasn’t qualified properly would you say?

If you want to subscribe to the www.Salesgenie.com service, the price is only $180/mo with 13,000 credits or $1,800 annually with 15,000 credits, unlimited viewing and searching of every database. Also receive 15% off for being a member of the Chamber of Commerce!

Each prospect after the initial amount is only $0.10 per record to download thereafter.

We can also set you up with a one-time list purchase with a minimum purchase of $200. No contracts!

Please contact me at 888.999.0580 ext xxx with your credit card ready!

The Go-Giver Book Review - Buy it Now on Amazon

The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea – Buy It Now on Amazon

After sitting down for a couple of hours and reading this book, I would highly recommend it for new salesman, those that have been in sales for a while or even seasoned veterans, people that are looking to uncover the secrets to the referral mindset and those looking to gain a good overview of what networking and referrals are all about.

I’ll give you the information from the inside flap, and then some observations from my point of view.

The Go-Giver tells the story of an ambitious young man named Joe who yearns for success. Joe is a true go-getter, though sometimes he feels as if the harder and faster he works, the further away his goals seem to be. And so one day, desperate to land a key sale at the end of a bad quarter, he seeks advice from the enigmatic Pindar, a legendary consultant referred to by his many devotees simply as the Chairman.

Over the next week, Pindar introduces Joe to a series of “go-givers”: a restaurateur, a CEO, a financial adviser, a real estate broker, and the “Connector,” who brought them all together. Pindar’s friends share with Joe the Five Laws of Stratospheric Success and teach him how to open himself up to the power of giving.

Joe learns that changing his focus from getting to giving – putting other’s interests first and continually adding value to their lives ultimately leads to unexpected returns.

Imparted with wit and grace, The Go-Giver is a heartwarming and inspiring tale that brings new relevance to the old proverb “Give and you shall receive.”

To give you an example of the narrative of what I would dare say will become a classic in the personal development field…

Pindar smiled. “Please don’t misunderstand me. There”s nothing wrong with making money. Lots of it, in fact. It’s just not a goal that will make you successful.” Reading the bewilderment on Joe’s face, he nodded and put his hand up to signal that he would explain.

“You see,” Pindar continued, “the majority of people operate with a mind-set that says to the fireplace, ”First give me some heat, then I’ll throw on some logs.” And of course it doesn’t work that way.” Joe frowned, trying to parse the logic of Pindar’s example.

“You see? You can’t go in two directions at once. Trying to be successful with making money as your goal is like trying to travel a superhighway at seventy miles an hour with your eyes glued to the rear view mirror.”

——-
I liked the book. I started off wondering in the back of my mind as the story started where this parable would take me. I quickly discovered that it was heading in the direction I thought it would go. As you will discover in your sales career, things don’t always go the way you want them to… you will not land every account… and sometimes you’ll get the chance to land the ”Big Kahuna” as Joe called it… but fall short. But, if you take an active part, as Joe was requested to do, and follow a daily plan of following the Five Laws of Stratospheric Success I think you’ll come out on the other side of this book with a better understanding of how the referral process works and the untold riches that await you.

Peppered throughout the book is bits of wisdom, and insights into the referral mindset. If you are familiar with Bob Burg’s book, Endless Referrals, you’ll likely be familiar with Bob’s saying – “people will do business with and refer business to those people they know, like and trust.”

As so many books and articles you will undoubtedly read over your career about referral based selling and developing a referral network you’ll often come away saying to yourself something like… “Yea, that’s all fine and good, but I’m in a business where it’s almost impossible to get referrals.” And I would agree. There are professions and industries that don’t always lend themselves real well to receiving referrals. However, developing a giving mindset will lead you to greater riches; whether it be in your professional or personal endeavors and understanding the philosophy behind the giving without expecting anything in return will no doubt bring you untold riches.

The only part of the book… like most referral strategies that are taught or discussed, that absolutely got me shouting at the top of my lungs “Couldn’t you have found a better way to get this principle across…” was when the story focused on Debra Davenport the real estate broker. In that section, you”ll read about how Debra was a struggling broker, in fact, after a year in real estate sales, had yet to close on a home. She was giving a speech and telling the audience about how she learned a thousand closes, and none of them worked, and well I won’t give away what she said was the turning point in her career, but I will say this. The biggest rub I have with teachers of referral based selling is they try and tell you to ditch the closing techniques. Bah, I say. I know better. You”re bombarded everyday with sale closing techniques. And the reason is simply this. They work. Yea I know, if Bob were to read this post, he’d try to explain to me that if you’re coming from a giving perspective, and you’re likable, and trusted, someone doing business with you is a foregone conclusion. We’ll I’ll only say this to stay away from that discussion. It’s better to have an understanding of all those closing techniques, and if you need to use them fine…because you’ll find it”s not always the easiest to earn a living solely on referrals. If the prospect rolls over because you come to them with a stellar referral and testimonial beforehand… then the easier your job will be… just don’t ditch all the other things you’ve been taught about sales.

It wasn’t until I finished the last chapter and got to the acknowledgments that I recognized why this book was such a good read. As the acknowledgment reads…

To our friends who read the manuscript at different stages and offered their insights, wisdom, enthusiasm and suggestions: Scott Allen, Shannon Anima, Brian Biro, George Blumel, Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, Angela Loehr Chrsyler, Leigh Coburn, John Milton Fogg, Randy Gage, Tessa Greenspan, John Harricharan, Philip E Harriman, Tom Hopkins, James Justice, Gary Keller, Pamela McBride, Frank McGuire, Dr. Ivan Misner, Paul Zane Pilzer, Thomas Power, Nido Qubein, Michael Rubin, Rhonda Sher, Brian Tracy, Arnie Warren, Dog Wead, Chris Widener and Lisa M. Wilber. And of course Bob Proctor, the stratospheric mentor to multitudes and the original inspiration for “Pindar.”

Now that”s a collection of names.

All in all, as I mentioned, if you are looking to get on the fast track to understand what networking and referral based selling is all about, you can’t go wrong with a read of this book.

Oh… and one more thing. Like all good stories should be … Joe did close the Big Kahuna… but not in the way you’d expect.

I give it a 4.5 thumbs up!

What should I do?

Oh, how my heart and mind cringes when I hear those six little words!

If you”ve ever sold anything, or even have tried to get your kids, wife, friend, loved one or even perceived enemy to do something, or make any kind of decision, you”ve heard those dreaded six words, or some close derivative of them.

Stop and think about it for a moment. Oh, my, I almost said it, didn”t I? I’m asking you to think over what I just said.

You can see when you have to ”stop” and ”think” it ‘over’ that really should be self evident. What the prospect is telling you is that they don”t have enough information, or haven”t formulated a logical or emotional conclusion to what you”re requesting, or simply haven”t been able to come up with a decision; either yes, or no, about what you are asking.

It all boils down to usually one of two reasons. I”ll stick to a sales situation at this point, but you can take the discussion, and move it to other areas of your life and I’m sure you’ll find similarities.

The first reason it could be is money. Ok, this one is really easy to talk about. In some cases, it”s really too much money in the eyes of the prospect. Believe it or not, some people or businesses simply can”t afford what it is you”re offering. Sometimes, it”s just a tad bit, or even a significant more amount of money that”s available to the person or business at the time. I know that sales trainers will tell you to go through a series of questions to elicit the hidden it”s too much money objection. They”ll teach you to ask questions like, “Mr. Prospect, I know it”s a big decision, and I trust that you”ll give it some serious consideration, do you mind me asking what it is that”s causing you some concern?” Some trainers will go so far as to put at the end of the last statement, “is it the money?”, or if you want to be professional and not condescending you could say, “Is it the investment?” Actually, half the time, it probably is money. If the prospect does indeed fess up and say something like, “It”s actually more money than I have to spend,” or “It”s more than I had anticipated spending,” or something similar, then you have an opportunity to further the presentation/conversation. You could probe with questions like, “Well how much is not too much?” or in a light hearted way, “Am I way off the chart?” or possibly even more direct you could ask “What did you anticipate spending?” or again more professionally, “How much did you want to invest in this?” or anything similar that acknowledges the fact that it’s too much money. Relax, the sales presentation is not over. If you can ask the follow up question, in the right way, then you can literally re-start the conversation again. This time however, be more diligent in your presentation on the features and more importantly the benefits. This leads me to the other half of the “I want to think it over” objection.

You should take heed however, that there is another issue with the money objection. More thank likely the other half of the time, its more money than the perceived benefit of the amount of money you are asking for. This perception leads to a whole discourse on your sales presentation. The natural progression of a sales presentation should be one of mutual understanding and agreement, on all phases of your product and how it will benefit the prospect. When the prospect is engaged with you, is commenting and asking questions, if you have honestly and truthfully answered the questions then you are arming your prospect with the information he or she needs to make an informed decision. When a mind is confused, or can’t put two and two together, then it’s only natural that the mind will not want to make a commitment.

In future posts, I’ll uncover how to frame, or present, the features of your product or service, so the prospect, sees the benefit, and how when done properly, the only natural extension of the close is a mutually agreed upon premise that the money you are asking the client to spend is money well spent.

Photo courtesy of Anita Patterson Peppers

At that time, technical knowledge was literally replacing an IC (Integrated Circuit) for a particular symptom. The trick was knowing which symptom was caused by which IC. Oh, there was the occasional disk drive that was out of alignment, and no video, but those kind of repairs were very mechanical oriented and really didn”t take any ”technical” knowledge.

My dad had literally put together a talking paper. It had 18 boxes on it, with a selling point in each one. I can’t remember what the contents were, but I knew how to explain every single one of those points.

In walked a man and a wife. He was wearing his work clothes, as he worked some kind of a construction job, and the wife was modestly dressed. They were wanting to look at the computer to see if it could help them with her day care business. I can still remember thinking to myself, there is no way these people can afford this $2500 computer system. But nonetheless, I proceeded to explain all the points in the boxes on that piece of paper. As it was so long ago, I can’t remember all the finer points to the presentation, but I specifically remember when they left, my father came out and said that he was impressed by the way that I went through all the features and benefits laid out on that paper. I was of course ecstatic to hear that but told him… they didn’t buy. He said that’s ok, if you continue to present like that you”ll make some sales.

Fast forward to the next Monday afternoon. He walked in and asked for me. As I came to the front of the store I was surprised to see this man standing there waiting for me. He shook my hand and said, “my wife and I decided we want to go ahead and buy that computer.” Flabbergasted of course, and trying to play it off like I had done this a few times, I proceeded to get the paperwork together, wrote up the items he had decided on, tallied up the order form and presented it to him.

At that point without realizing it… I had broken two stereotypes. One, even a seventeen year old can sell… and two and more importantly never judge a book by it”s cover. You see, when I said they couldn’t afford to buy… I was basing it on the fact of the way he looked, and when I was talking to his wife, she had an awful cold, her nose was as bright as Rudolph”s and I just kept thinking to myself… there is no way. So what is the second lesson you ask. I’ll keep you in suspense no longer. When he took out his checkbook and proceeded to write me a check, he was sitting next to me at the table and wouldn’t you know it… he had roughly $57,000 as the balance in his check register. Boy was I ever wrong about them.

The basic premise of all sales has to meet two basic requirements. One is the prospect has to have a need for your product or service. Second, they have to have the ability to buy. Obviously in this case, they had a need when they walked in to the store. I just didn’t think they had the ability to buy.