This goes against conventional wisdom, where you want to establish a value for your product or service before price enters the sales conversation, but sometimes that’s not always true.

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.

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