Think your sales team could improve their ability to financially justify your higher prices?

The reality of business-to-business selling today is you don’t have to be the lowest price to win the business…but you do have to prove you’ll be their lowest total cost.

I see a challenge in sales team’s today in our Post-Covid environment. When Covid was going strong with distribution channel disruptions and lack of inventory, most sales reps only had to be order takers and expeditors to sell anything.?

Because of those years of just being order takers, most sales reps seem to have lost their ability to justify on paper how and why a buyer can see your proposal as a lower total cost to their business, even when you are a higher price than your competitors.

How effective are your reps at selling a higher price? Have they been trained and are they prepared to successfully respond to a buyer asking…

“You'er 10% higher priced than my other vendor options. Show me on paper how and why I’m going to get back that 10%, and even save a little more?”

Can your reps do the math to show how and why you can justify your higher-priced difference?

There are four steps to justifying your higher prices…

Step 1 – Make sure you’re talking “Apples to apples.” Is what your competitors are proposing the same quality, durability and functionality as your proposal?

Step 2 – How much hassle with the buyer have to do business with the cheaper competitor? Can your delivery reliability mean they can carry a smaller quantity of your stuff so they lower their carrying costs? Will you deliver and stock for them what you sell or will they have to do their stocking with your cheaper competitor?

Step 3 – Are there any “Hard dollar” differences you can highlight? A “Hard dollar” savings is where you include the price of something (like installation) but your competitor charges for that work?

Step 4 – Point out your “< Company Name >> Insurance Policy.” You might not be able to show a direct savings to a lot of the features and benefits you are offering, but selling your insurance policy means you talk about all the small things you do that will help lower your buyer’s risks, make their life easier, lower their total cost or increase their competitive edge?

Reps need to be prepared and need to have practiced walking a buyer through on paper how they will save enough money buying form you that they can prove… even though they’re not the lowest price… they can show the numbers how and why you’re a lower total cost. That’s the best way to sell even more!

In case you missed it…my most recent posts this past week:

Tuesday 10/29

“Ever hear of the “FORD” technique to lowering a buyer’s resistance?”

A great idea from a book called?“Ninja Selling”?by Larry Kendall talks about the FORD principle of lowering your customer's resistance to begin a sales call. The idea is to remind you there are four ways you can lower resistance in your buyers.

The “F” in FORD stands for FAMILY. Let's talk about your family to make things more comfortable.?

The “O” stands for talking about your OCCUPATION and your job and career.

The “R” stands for RECREATION and what do you do for fun.

The “D” stands for talking about your DREAMS.?

Applying the “FORD” technique to selling is a clever way to remember the different options your reps have to lower the resistance of your buyers to improve your chances of selling and closing the sale.

What can you do to apply this “FORD” principal to your team’s selling efforts? Think this could effectively start off a sales call by first talking about their family, their occupation, what they do for fun or talking about their dreams?

Today’s video talks about the four great options to lowering a buyer’s resistance to help improve the persuasive environment of your team’s sales calls…so they can sell even more!

Thursday 10/31

“Are you closing your business exactly at 5:01?”?

Does your business close exactly on time? Think this could be upsetting any of your buyers?

I needed to talk to my doctor recently. But when I called, their voicemail said they were closed since it was past 5:00 p.m. As I listened to their message my clock showed it was 5:01.

I was frustrated. I called right at their published closing time at 5:00 and they're not even answering the phone. Since they published they close at five and I called at 5:01, they were valid with my call going to voicemail.??????????????????????????????????

But look at the impact it had on me as a buyer. Now I have to hassle with calling them again tomorrow. What can you do as the leader of your sales team, to make sure your team under-promises and over-delivers in everything they do, especially the small stuff?

One of the easy ways you can over-deliver is to still answer your phones at least ten minutes after closing. And start answering fifteen-minutes before your official opening.

Today’s video about how your team can under-promise and over-deliver by being open more time than you publish. This way, even if somebody calls a few minutes late, you still have a chance to help them and hopefully…to sell even more.

Saturday 11/2

“Could you be getting better feedback from your customers?”

Do you trust the feedback you're getting about your customers motivations and why they either did or didn't buy??

It's always a positive to get feedback from anybody, whether it be salespeople, technical support, or your administrative people. But the most valuable advice to help you define your future and increase your competitive edge is likely going to come from your customers.

This isn't going around your salespeople. You're calling the customer as a “bigger pictured” manager thanking them for their continued business and asking how your company could help make their lives easier or save them money.

Some questions to consider:

• “What could we, as an entire organization be doing to be more effective for you?”
• “How could we have more impact on the success of your company?”
• “How could we help you lower your costs?”

And my favorite question from good friend George Walther… “If there was only one thing we could improve, no matter how small or insignificant, what would that be??

You’ll receive unfiltered information and insights as a manager when you can talk directly with your customers asking more probing questions about areas you might be able to improve.

Today’s video talks about the value for you, as a sales manager, talking directly with customers to uncover ways to increase your team’s competitive edge…so they can sell even more!

Interested in video-based learning to help improve the selling skills of your team??– Check out my two video training programs at?www.advancedsalesuniversity.com .

Ready to have a conversation about how I could be of help to you and your sales team? We can conduct on-site training, interactive video account planning, sales or sales leadership coaching and training to help your team increase their competitive edge…especially with the changes in selling today! Ready to talk about how I might help with your team’s challenges?

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Jim Pancero

“Helping you and your team become even more effective in sales.”?

[email protected] ?- (952) 913-8998