Value Exceeds Price

I want to start off by saying this article is my two cents on the topic of "value over price". I'm not here to boast that I know everything there is to know about the topic.

Moreover, some of what I’ve written in here is what I’ve learned from masters themselves on the topic and what I can relate to as a learning advocate of the sales industry. So why I chose to elaborate on this is because it's one of the biggest topic I’ve battled from day one of my sales career and still am, to be honest.

Ultimately, I want to able to share my impression on what I’ve learnt from studying all the greats in the world of sales and business. From Zig Ziglar to Jim Rohn, Grant Cardone, Warren Buffet, Tony Robbins and many other. This is to illuminate a younger point of view on the topic so it’d relate to many upcoming individuals looking to embark into one of the toughest industries known to mankind. Learning is the best thing you can do for yourself- now not every advice is great advice but any advice is better than no advice.

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”

-Henry Ford

The article is broken down into two sectors: Establishing Grounds and Integrity.

ESTABLISHING GROUNDS

What does establishing grounds really mean? You’d be surprised how it would mean absolutely nothing to most. I’m here to expand on this and fill in a good foundation for those up and coming sales associates or business owners.

Now in my experiences with the sales industry, the one thing I hate dealing with and you will hear it time and time again, “We can’t afford it.” I’ve hear this about 90% of the time throughout my early career and even till this day. So I’ll be very honest in saying, every time I'd hear that, I began to blame myself and play the victim. I'd start saying to myself,

“What can I do?”

“What can they afford?”

“What’s your budget?”

It was so bad to the point where I began to deeply doubt everything, from my training, managers, the market and even the product. I started to accept that customers were right; it’s not worth what I’ve been trained to advertise it as. Little did I know, I was going completely backwards.

On one hand, I was fortunate enough to have read many articles and watched many interviews on big business to small business and what really stood out to me was that when any business (small or big) fail to hit their weekly goals, monthly goals, even their quarterly goals- immediately they begin to doubt everything about themselves and their company. May it be the product, management, sales force- they started playing the victim.

Lets get one thing straight, we’re not wrong, we’re always right and we will believe it until it’s true. As soon as you play the victim, what good are you to the market? You can kindly turn over your company and close the door. Do not, and I repeat do not wave the victim card! Instead establish your ground and show some goddamn resistance.

On the other hand, who’s to blame them, I thought like that and it was my first response to the attack. What I’ve learnt over time is; it’s never the price, it’s the value. Have you made it a necessity, is there value in what you're selling and is this something that they should go broke for? Ask yourself that everyday.

Now it simply falls back to my main point, there was no established ground about the necessity of the product. Let me say that again in a different context- I simply did not do my job properly as a professional because I cared more about the sale than the prospect! Is that crazy? Read it again (this will be explained in detail under integrity). Affordability is not the real problem, it’s not even a rebuttal; it’s a buying signal. I want my readers to grab a pen and write that down,

“Affordability is not real, it’s not even a rebuttal; it’s a buying signal.”

Now here’s an example of a situation I ran across,

Prospect: “Sounds great and definitely something I’d want but the price is too high.”

The price is too high? Is that an honest answer? Maybe it is maybe it wasn’t, I believe it was and gave in. Something I learned and to note for the readers: whatever it is you’re advertising, a potential prospect will NEVER and I mean NEVER make a decision to buy on your offer, they will ALWAYS claim it’s “too much” or “it’s overpriced”.

Most transaction, a buyer will most likely, never have a price set before they meet- they came for the value. Now instead what happens is they begin to negotiate the entire deal and re-evaluate your self-worth. For those of you who went through it, doesn't feel good does it?

Back to my transaction-

“Sounds great and definitely something I’d want but the price is too high.”

So before I share my answer, I want everyone reading this to take a moment and ask yourself, “How would I reply to this?”…

Did you come up with an answer? Great, comment below then.

Me: “I see. Well, what price would you take it for?”

STOP! HOLD THE FREAKING PHONE! What am I doing? Am I out of my mind? What did I just do? I just single handedly gave Mr. Prospect all the power I worked so hard for the last damn 45 minutes! I’ve allowed the ball to be in his court. I'm being told in the nicest way possible that the product I’m presenting is not worth what I claim it’s worth. Well you're wrong Mr. Prospect!

Now this will go against the famous saying, “Customers are always right.” But honestly, are they really? They want to be right and most business let them (you can deny all you want but it’s true, we just never say it) because we value customer relations, which is great, most business do well because of it. However, it's not the end all be all of how the company preforms! It’s all psychological and everyone else believed that saying, so that’s why I replied the way I did. The honest answer is they’re not right; they’re negotiating.

You as a company or agent didn’t come to negotiate, to have an open discussion and surely not to advertise the “discount door”. What do I mean by the discount door? It takes place when the prospect will constantly ask or tell you: “I can’t afford that, can you bring that down?”, “It’s overpriced” and “I'll buy it if it was this much”. Well now, would you like some food stamps with that? How about a charitable donation or even my car? Would that make you happier? Are you freaking kidding me? The funny thing is, THEY KNEW THIS BEFORE THEY SAT DOWN! If you do not close that door, they will always open it, can we not agree? What I learnt from Grant Cardone is pure gold (by the way, the food stamps line is said by Grant Cardone and I could not stop laughing). My new favorite line is,

“I don’t have any money left to give you.”

Understand that line. Next time they open that door say that line.

Anyone in this industry can understand that the sales person is the one that drives the presentation, sets the mood and create the need in the presentation. A great agent would’ve killed the any rebuttal before it even came up, can we all agree?

INTEGRITY

This is an absolute MUST in any business. We can all agree that there are thousands even millions of business out there who operates on manipulation and fraud. I see it everyday on news. You hear "company A" being sued for this, "company B" being sued for that. It’s crazy how people operate only in their best interest and it happens still in 2017! Is that not mind-blowing?

“A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.”

-Henry Ford

Foundations and companies function on integrity, no matter the profession or business. A great business contains a great product, strong relationships and great customer service. A business without a great product will fail. A business with horrible relationships with will fail. And a business with sleazy customer service will definitely fail. Why? Henry Ford said it best.

So I’ll let everyone know that in my personal and professional life, integrity is the biggest thing for me. If there is no integrity, there is no trust. A salesman with integrity is a professional helping their clients, a salesman with no integrity is a manipulator seducing their clients.

Let me just say that the product for the company I work for is an amazing product. It’s something I feel exhilarated about. There is so much admiration and respect for anyone that decides to set their family up with the product I present. Heck, I have it and so does my family. Having said that, there were five questions I asked myself everyday to reinvigorate my love and passion for the job. I urge you all to take the time to answer it (regardless of what industry you belong to):

1)  The product I have, am I willing to give it to my friends?

2)  Do I believe what I’ve provide is something that WILL change their lives for the better?

3)  Would I advertise the product like my life depended on it?

4)  Would I myself or even my prospects go into debt for this?

5)  Would I tell my spouse and my family to get this?

If you haven’t answered YES to all of this, begin looking at your product and your integrity.

It will not matter what you’re offering, either it’s a $5 wristband or a $50 million real estate, value has to be established. We can argue there are many more factors that equates into the variables of the transaction like credibility, delivery etc.… but most business understands, if there was no value why would there a need to spend money?

Biggest thing to get out of this is operate with passion, conviction and most importantly integrity. Hold yourself and your business accountable for it. If you truly operate on those three cylinders, the doubt and fear will disappear.

"Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going."

-Jim Rohn

Follow me now on twitter: @itsjaidenvu.