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has added a new journalTHIS MAGAZINE IS MY BIBLE FOR BUSINESS! SUBSCRIBE IT AND STOP WASTING MONEY ON PLAYBOY! LOL thats if you do!.......haha
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khurram
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has added a new journalHow often do you hear this familiar response? If you're like most salespeople, you hear it far more often than would like to hear it. Unless, of course, your price is so low that your customers don't want the secret to get out!
Everything has a price. The question is simply this: What is someone willing to pay to get it? But there are other, more important questions, too. Like:
What are you willing to comfortably ask for your product?
Are you really sold on your product, its price and value?
Are you prepared to - and capable of - defending your price?
What is your product's perceived value to your customer?
What are the benefits and the long-term payoff of ownership to your prospect or customer?
Who are you selling your product to?do they appreciate value?or are they purely a commodity buyer?
How capable are you of presenting your product in such a way that it will never be seen as a commodity?
Are you entering accounts too low?so low that every purchase decision is driven by price?
Let's take a look at some basics as they relate to your ability to present, justify and ultimately withstand the inevitable price assault that will be made on you and your price. Here they are:
Never prematurely present your price until you are in a position to justify how its perceived value exceeds your asking price. If you prematurely or incorrectly present your price, you will never be able to justify it to your customer.
Unless you're sold, no one else will be either. Bottom line? If you don't legitimately, 100%, all of the time, believe your price is fair for what you are offering, you will never present it with conviction.
Never give the impression that your price is negotiable or that you are not presenting your best price the first time for every customer.
Always be ready to justify and defend any assault on your price. Be in a position to explain how the benefits of ownership far outweigh the initial price of acquisition and the cost of ownership.
The biggest lesson of all is to understand the power of gross margin. Gross margin is your selling price less cost of goods. The one, single secret to long-term success in sales is to understand that it is from this gross margin that commissions, bonuses, profit sharing, 401K plans, incentive trips, recognition programs and all else are ultimately paid!
The one, single person who can control gross margin is you! You can lose the entire ballgame in 45 seconds of poor negotiation. You can erode the entire profit picture by caving into pressure, gamesmanship, threats or intimidation on the part of a prospect or customer.
One of the secrets is to master the following 4 strategies for maintaining margin and price. And here they are:
Remember that the selling price you initially settle for is the one you'll establish as the ongoing standard for subsequent purchases. And this is true whether it is a high or low price!
Remember that you should never present price until you understand what your prospect or customer perceives as value. And only then should you present price as related to the benefits they'll receive in relationship to that value.
Always differentiate between initial price and the long-term cost of ownership. This is particularly true as compared to your competitor's price and cost structure.
Never cave into price cutting attempts. The only real way to do this is to have an ongoing supply of qualified prospects who are willing to pay your price, and to be able to justify your price, reinterpret its value and then be willing to refuse to do business if it is not profitable enough. You must know your cost structure and margins as well as you know your own name. You must know which components carry the highest perceived value and lowest cost - this is the only area for negotiation - and negotiate only on those items if you must, and then only as an ultimate, last resort.
Several years ago my property was annexed by the City of Greensboro. I had no choice in the matter. I discussed it with several city employees. To this day they have not convinced me of the value that I am receiving for the doubling of my taxes.
Maybe if they had learned about the power of questions, understood what I perceived as value, and were able to justify the increased price and long-term cost of the taxes, I would be a happy city resident. Unfortunately, that never happened.
Fortunately for them, the law was on their side. Unlike your customers, though, I didn't have a choice. Your customers, unlike unhappy taxpayers, do have a choice. And in the absence of value, they will actively seek another supplier. Don't give them a reason to do that. Sell value - not price!
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has added a new journalThere is no doubt?
In the absence of value-added components, any product or service can be driven down to the most bottom line - price.
The problem?
When you are only selling price, you'll never be able to make high margin sales where profitability, long term growth and sales success reside.
Let's take a look at 10 ways how you can add value to your product or service, no matter what it is you sell.
Some salespeople might argue by saying, "You don't understand, my product is different," or "My service is different." The truth is that every product or service can have value added to it. Let's take a look at 10 specific ways that you can do this:
1. Providing expert advice and a high level of professionalism. Lots of consulting organizations, accounting firms and medical professionals are paid a tidy sum for the level of advice that they provide. However, for you as a sales professional, in order for you to be able to provide value, you need to understand that you have to provide a level of advice that is significantly higher, more sophisticated and more valuable than that of your competition. What this means is a higher level of sophistication, wisdom and understanding about what it is that you do.
2. Bundling and packaging. I'm not only talking here about the way your product or service actually looks. I'm also talking about desirable packages, purchasing levels and a series of added benefits that are significant in value and are, themselves, a whole lot more valuable than simply the product is by itself.
3. Service levels. It is possible for you to differentiate yourself not only by providing a higher level of service but by adding different levels of service based upon someone's size, frequency or amount of purchase? For example, you may want to have gold or platinum or silver levels of service that people qualify for, are willing to pay for, and receive when they do business with you.
4. Frequent buyer programs. This is tied into the concept that the more someone buys from you, the more valuable service, pricing, benefits and related items they receive. It is somewhat like frequent flyer miles with an airline. I know people who actually fly thousands of miles out of their way to stay on one particular airline only because they want to build up the miles!
5. Transition and education. As new customers come on stream with your organization you may want to provide action or transition teams to help them to be better able to utilize the products or services that you sell them. By the same token, the more education they have related to those products or services the more capable they'll be at utilizing them. What does that mean? Happy, satisfied customers who eagerly buy more.
6. Recognition and reward levels. This is somewhat different from frequent buyer programs in that with this particular concept you actually provide recognition to clients or customers based upon their ability to utilize your product or service, maximize its potential, buy certain levels from you, etc. What this means is that they, themselves, are recognized for being outstanding customers. Several years ago we included a Hall of Fame in our newsletter and had lots of clients very interested in appearing and becoming a part of our Hall of Fame. It's a fantastic way to utilize good relationships and good will.
7. Qualitative preference. Based upon someone's level of purchase, involvement or interaction, you provide a higher quality of product, perhaps a more sophisticated level of service, dedicated personnel, dedicated phone lines, fax lines, or the like, that gives them a greater opportunity to be treated better than the run-of-the-mill customer happens to be.
8. Dedicated personnel. This works particularly well if you have a technical product or service or one that requires extensive support. It is not difficult to understand that the more someone is familiar with another customer's account, products, machinery, equipment or way of doing business, it is far easier to do business with that organization. In this scenario, you can simply assign dedicated account people to handle your customer's accounts personally.
9. Speed of service or delivery. One of the ways to differentiate yourself is to guarantee some sort of on time or faster delivery. It is very well known that on time delivery is a key component for charging full or maximum pricing. It is also a component as it relates to providing value-added services and products.
10. Insider information. This is very common when people are selling information as it relates to technical products, new and innovative products, or anything related to information or time specific data. Utilizing this process, you may want to consider a regular newsletter (electronic or printed) that updates customers on a regular basis as it relates to very key and important information they need to have.
These 10 ways to add value can all be applied in your day-to-day sales activity.
There's little doubt it requires creativity, innovation and a willingness to out-work your competition.
But the real truth is that if you continue to sell the way you always have, price will continue to rule.
I also guarantee you that you'll have a competitor that will take one or several of these 10 ideas and put them into place.
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has added a new journal1. When things don't go your way, go another way.
2. When you think you can't take any more, change your attitude to,
"Bring it on."
3. As soon as you start thinking how bad you have it, start thinking what a
great day it is because you didn't see your name in today's obituary.
4. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither is your life. Make everyday a
masterpiece regardless of the challenges you face.