How many times have you heard “It’s too expensive” from your prospects?
Hundreds of times, right?
The weirdest thing was – prospects who told me that they bought products and services from my competitors at higher prices!
They told me, “It’s too expensive,” while paying even more to my competitors.
I felt that I hadn’t understood something in life and business.
A few years later, I finally figured out what “it’s too expensive” meant –
THE PRICE FOR A PRODUCT OR SERVICE IS HIGHER THAN THE PERCEIVED VALUE FROM THE PROSPECT’S PERSPECTIVE.
Obviously, in your perspective, your product or service is super valuable as you know it perfectly. But not the client!
So, your role as a salesperson is to convey the value to a prospect. And not the value as we see it, but the value your prospect wants.
For example, I coached a tennis trainer.
He told his prospects how great the tennis was! He wondered why prospects backed out after the first trial lesson.
I asked if he knew why his current clients hired him as a tennis coach.
“They wanted to learn tennis?” he asked with a doubt.
“I don’t know for sure, but I’m certain that is not the main reason,” I answered. And we agreed he would do a survey.
After asking 10 current clients, he discovered the primary reason was losing weight! The secondary most wanted thing was – to energize!
And none of them wanted to learn tennis! Tennis was a tool for something more valuable to them. I confirmed that as I started to play tennis with my trainer because I wanted personal development.
He was shocked! He miscommunicated the value to prospects. He was selling them learning to play tennis, but they wanted absolutely different things.
We all, as service providers (or product creators), make the same mistake – we communicate the thing that is important to us! There is a 95% likelihood that prospects want something other than that.
That was true with me when I started coaching 14 years ago. I loved personal development, so I thought people wanted it as well. I lost tons of sales because I was selling “personal development.” People wanted a better lifestyle! And to have that, they needed to make more money. So, a few years later, I stopped talking about personal development and started to talk about making more money. Since then, my income skyrocketed!
The big mistake we all make – we think that people are like us. But they are totally different. You can not guess what they want – you need to ask them and listen carefully, catching every word. Remember the words people use to describe their desires and communicate the value of your service/product in the exact same words.
When I started to use this strategy, never again I heard, “It’s too expensive.” I raised the price for my personal coach-session 4 times, and people continued to buy it.
Do you know why? They wanted the value I communicated, so the price was not an issue anymore.
Conclusion:
- Your clients value totally different things than you
- Ask your clients what they value
- Communicate the value your clients value
