Value, proposals, negotiation.
This is a short section on thoughts about value, proposals and negotiation.
Value
Customers buy because we add value in some way. It’s normally a mix of value to our customers company plus any additional value we bring to the individuals themselves. A starting point is the cost of the implications of the customer not changing against the benefits of changing (less the cost of changing). This is the reason that understanding the implications of customer problems is so important.
We can give case histories of the benefits other have achieved however it’s really the customer who has to estimate the value for themselves. We can’t tell them as such, but we can facilitate them through the discovery phase of working out the likely cost of not changing and the benefits of changing. We can also help them understand the costs of making a wrong decision in implementation. We can help with this facilitation at the start of the buying process, and as part of helping them write a case review or case study after implementation.
In doing this we may be adding more real value that the actual cost of our product or service.
(Obviously there are some buyers who know what want and the value they want is the lowest price. We have to make a call if supplying this market segment works for us.)
Proposals
Let’s assume we’re in a situation where we’re adding unique value through our services, rather than selling a commodity service.
it’s normally best not to ‘bundle ‘ our services too much. We want to offer a range of services, with at least one aspirational service higher than our customers budget. Some some customers will look for the lowest price while other will look for the greatest value and we want to be able satisfy the customer looking for the greatest value. When customers want to negotiate to reduce their costs we can say “We can reduce our costs, however what value (ie which additional service) are you happy to loose.” Customers are often less happy to negotiate prices down when they’re losing something at the same time.
Negotiation
We can only truly negotiate if we’re prepared to walk away. So it’s worth thinking through our position on this before we get involved in negotiation.
Customer’s can (and do) make up all sorts of reasons to negotiate lower prices. And often we simply have to hold our ground. However there are two situations when they’re in a particularly strong position a) They haven’t identified any unique value in what we’re offering b) They are in a position to give us an order.
In the second case its worth thinking through how much having a real order is worth to us. It maybe worth giving something if we’ve agreed that beforehand that it will get us the order.
The next sub-section is about: Implementation, case studies, referrals and testimonials
NLP Sales Section Index
Recommended Sales Books
1: Introduction
2: Customer’s buying cycle
3: Questions to identify your initial problem and value statements
4: Getting appointments (framework script)
5: Handling classic and specific objections when getting appointments
6: Handling other objections when getting appointments
7: Advancing the sale
8: Closing
9: Value, proposals and negotiation (This page).
10: Implementation, case studies, referrals and testimonials
11: New Media
12: NLP approaches that make the difference.
