06/ 23/ 2004
by Jeffrey Moses
Experienced sales professionals know that every sale depends on two all-important factors: the price of the product or service and the ability of the customer to pay this price. It’s true that many other factors influence a sale and can, in fact, make or break a sale. But no matter how completely the product addresses the customer’s need -- or how much the customer desires the product -- a sale will fall through if he or she can’t find a way to pay the amount required.
For this reason, sales pros begin to “qualify” customers from the first moments of a sales conversation. “Qualify” means determining as accurately as possible how much the person can spend on the product. Qualifying techniques include asking what the person does for a living, what his or her position is at a company, what other products the customer has purchased that are similar to the product under consideration (and how much they cost), where the person lives, what schools the person’s children attend and at what clubs the person is a member.
Qualifying can give an estimate of a person’s income, net worth and ability to pay, but it can’t determine exactly how much the person can afford to spend on the particular product under consideration. For specific information, the salesperson needs to present an overview of the different price and quality levels available and then ask which level the person feels most comfortable with.
When the quality level of the customer has been established, the salesperson should mention an actual dollar figure. This is just an estimate, and should be declared as such. When the customer agrees that he or she can afford to spend that amount, a benchmark level has been established for the sale.
At that point, the salesperson can begin working toward a close to the sale, showing how features and benefits of the product within the established financial parameters will solve a customer’s problem or address a need.
With this approach, the sale becomes about what the customer wants or needs, not about how much the customer can afford. It reduces the likelihood that at the very end of the sales presentation the customer will say: “I really love it, but it’s just too much money for me.”
In a way, approaching a sales presentation in this way offers the sales person the best chance to give great service to a customer. There’s no sense for a used-car salesperson to talk with a customer all afternoon about a Mercedes or a BMW, when the customer doesn’t have the finances to purchase a luxury car. The best sales pros -- and the most successful -- determine what a customer can afford, then meet the customer’s needs at that price level.
Final note: establishing a price that the customer can afford does not preclude the possibility of ‘moving the customer up’ to a higher level of quality, which of course will cost more. In almost every instance, when a customer agrees upon a general price level, that level is one that is within comfortable financial range. It is very likely the customer will be able to pay more when the advantages of a higher quality product are presented.
