How much?

I had a lady come up to me at my book-signing table recently and asked that infamous question – “How much?”  “Wow!” was her response when I answered.  That’s a challenge with certain ways buyers respond to sellers, true?  If you think about it, her “Wow!” was vague.  On its own, you couldn’t tell if she thought my book was a lot, or a little. 

Being the trained sales professional I am, I clarified, “I'm curious. Is that a good Wow!, or a bad Wow!”?   Turned out, it was a good Wow! in her opinion and she bought my book.  Crisis averted, LOL! 

In sales, that’s the thing about the “money question”.  I’ve learned that the definition of, “How much is a lot” is client-defined.  My job as a sales professional was to address the money question in a clear and confident voice and then clarify my prospects’ reaction.  You see, when our prospects ask us the money question they already have a number in mind.  They have already decided what is a lot or a little.  We might as well find out, yes? 

In his book Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play ©, Mahan Khalsa put it this way: 

If you walk out of qualifying meetings with clients and do not know how much they are thinking of spending, and they do not know how much you are thinking of charging, you will both be guessing.  This is mutual mystification. 

Many salespeople say they’re uncomfortable addressing price up front.  They’ve been trained to “develop trust & rapport” first.  They’ve been trained to say, “Oh, I’d have to do a thorough analysis of your needs before I could possibly hazard a guess.”  And that’s called the money flinch.  Unfortunately, here’s the reality of flinching. 

When the prospect directly asks you the money question, “How much does something like this cost?”, if you don’t respond to their direct question with a direct answer, then the prospect notes your flinch and draws their own conclusions.  We as sellers won’t like their conclusions, either: 

Sounds complicated

Sounds expensive

I think we’ll stay status quo 

and they're gone.  Now, before you go…  

… please realize, in B2B selling I’m advocating that the salesperson answer a direct question with a direct answer to avoid creating doubt.  I’m prepared to discuss money with my prospects early, late and throughout their buying process.  It’s my favorite topic! 

I rely on the skill of clarification.  What I’ve given them is an “answer; it’s not a “quote”.  There’s a difference.  But we can get close enough money wise quickly to determine if it makes sense to move forward.  We still need to complete a thorough needs analysis to clarify exactly what the prospect is buying and correspondingly what we will charge, aka give them an actual quote. 

I agree with Mahan.  Let's avoid “mutual mystification” starting out. 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.