Episode #62: The Proper Approach To Clients

Price is always a big issue. We salespeople are very happy to drop the price, because we see this as the easy route forward with the client. Whenever there is a price increase, we immediately whine about it, because we see this as making our revenue task more difficult. We are permanently happy to discount, to win the business, even when our commissions are tied to the size of the sale. The problem is we are totally focused on the wrong thing.

What should we be focused on is not the pricing. We need to do a better job of listening to our clients, to really, deeply understand what that business needs to succeed. Rather than carrying around a bunch of screaming monkeys in our heads, all fighting about price, commission size, boss anger, mortgage payments, personal status, which new car, etc., we should be 100% concentrated on the client’s problems, not our own.

Rather than going into a discussion about what price we can get the client to agree to, we would do much better to join the conversation going on in the mind of the buyer. The customer has goals and aspirations and our job is to help them achieve them. In their success is our own success.

When you think in terms of paying for your contribution from the increase in the revenues or costs savings for the client, then your whole mental framework shifts and so does the conversation. A focus on repeat orders rather than this one transaction is also a powerful mindset shift for us when engaging with clients.

Pricing is totally related to perceptions of value on the part of the buyer. If there is sufficient value from the exchange of the good or service, then the buyer is comfortable with the relationship between the two. Their perception is the key and this is the job of the salesperson to work on that buyer perception.

A test or sample is a good way to break through the skepticism. The results may or may not be immediately available, but at least the process is able to be confirmed. The buyers experience helps them to decide whether the outcomes suggested are reasonable or not, based on what they have seen.

So, how do we salespeople become better able to have the proper approach to clients? So we need to take responsibility and set down what is our attitude to our clients and how we do business around here. We need to understand we are building lifetime client value, our brand, our reputation and we are playing the long game. Salespeople need to repeat this to themselves endlessly.