This strategy is for you if your clients argue with you about your pricing. When I was selling light industrial staffing, my clients would ask for a lower markup, even though temporaries were already a lower price than an employee with the benefits of healthcare, a 401K, two paid weeks off, and other perks available.
My price was a little higher than my competitors’, as we believed that revenue is vanity and profit is sanity. Over time, in conversations about pricing, I noticed that my contacts complained about their results from many competitors.
Explain the Models & Concessions, Not the Just Price
You can do what I did by making a list of the concessions that companies accepted for clients. I sat down to make a list of my competitors. The first model was the “lowest price,” with a large set of concessions that caused clients to suffer poor results. The second model was one that was a little better because it was able to invest in its product or service. The third model is something you can call “good enough,” and the last model I titled “Best in Class,” with the only concession being paying a higher price to eliminate the many concessions found in other models.
To play this game, you have to pay attention to what your contacts complain about regarding your competitors. You do not talk badly about your competitors. Instead, you talk about the different models, knowing what is good about each model and what the difficult parts of each model are. Using this strategy will elevate you over your rivals by positioning you as a trusted advisor in your contact’s eyes.
Most of your competitors believe that they need to talk about their company, their clients, and their solutions. The only time you should provide the “why us” is at the end of your sales conversation, not the beginning.
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