When making a personal purchase, have you ever thought, “That’s a lot of money?” Buyers can suffer from sticker shock if they are presented with the price before understanding the value of their purchase.
At Sandler, we explore at length how different people feel about money. It can be a difficult subject to approach, and not everyone is comfortable having the conversation. Some people grew up in a house where it was acceptable to talk about money, or they had a lot of money growing up, so it was never a point of contention. We refer to this as an “abundance mentality”. Perhaps they didn’t grow up with money, but have a lot now, and fall into that category of a plentiful attitude.
Others may have grown up without money or were simply raised to believe it’s rude to discuss it. These folks may fall into what we call a “scarcity mentality”. If they’re extremely frugal, clipping every coupon and looking for deals even though they could pay full price, some people still lean towards the “scrimp and save” attitude regardless of how much they have.
What about yourself? In a selling situation, have you let your money mentality influence how your prospect makes a purchase? Have you shied away from the budget conversation for fear of offending your prospect or losing the sale?
One of the things that salespeople struggle with in the budget step is the affordability of their product or service. Salespeople who can’t personally afford what they sell may have trouble talking about money. Because their product is too expensive for them, they might assume it’s too expensive for their prospects. A good rule of thumb to remember: never look in your prospect’s pocket.
Imagine you are selling BMWs, and the average price is $65,000. Besides the company car, which costs you nothing, you own a five-year old Chevrolet worth a few thousand dollars. Your prospect has enough pain to move to the Budget Step, but you choke.
Why?
Subconsciously do you think that spending $65,000 for a car is extravagant? Your customer empathy may show on your face and suddenly the only thing in the way of making the sale is you. When you look reluctant about the cost of your product, do you think the prospect reads that? Absolutely! And they use it to drive the price down.
Don’t project your feelings about money to your prospect. Get out of the way of the sale. Let your prospects buy your product or service, because it satisfies their pain. Learn that, and you’ll go to the bank more often!
When your prospects are really in pain, it’s not rude to talk about money. In fact, it would be rude not to.
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