Mark Hunter of SalesHunter wrote a guest post for the Sales and Management Blog, and it’s a must-read if you’ll be raising prices in 2009.
First, if you’re still working on your 2009 marketing plan and haven’t yet decided to maintain, lower, or increase prices, be sure to read up on how to manage through the downturn. This won’t apply to everyone, but in general I’d argue that you absolutely should not lower prices (it may help sales in the short term but will kill your perceived value in the long term)
- Boost Sales by Offering a Third Choice
- How to Market in a Recession
- Recession Cost Cutting No-Nos
To pique your interested and hopefully convince you that you really do need to read this article, I’ll recap some of Mark’s advice on how to sell a price increase during a recession, but I highly suggest you read the original article for all it’s salesy goodness.
Key Takeaways:
- Especially in a recession, it is imperative for a salesperson to understand that regardless of what the market or economy is doing, if a price increase needs to be sold, it needs to be sold.
- If you go into the sales process expecting the customer to reject the price increase and demand a discount, then expect to fail. A customer will never pay more than a salesperson tells them to.
- When introducing the price increase the customer will likely bring up the recession and say a price increase just doesn’t make sense.
- As an sales executive, you cannot agree with them, even casually! Ignore the comment and ask how they intend to use what they’re buying and whether or not they’ve been able to achieve the results they’re looking for.
- If the customer continues with their line of discussion about the economy and they can’t accept the price increase, then the salesperson should ask about the steps involved in their buying process. The objective is really to get the customer talking.
- Tip: After they get done explaining their process, the salesperson should question them about how their own customers decide to buy from them.
- If the customer says they’ll just buy from another vendor, this is often a veiled threat to get the weak-kneed salesperson to cave in with a discount.
- As an sales executive, thwart this discussion by ensuring the end-user fully understands the value and benefits they will receive from their product, as well as by clearly communicating the amount of pain the customer will go through should they decide to switch.
- As a final line of protection, Mark strongly believes the salesperson communicating the price increase should not have the authority to make any price concessions.
I’ve only touched on Mark’s article, so go read the original post.
Mark Hunter, “The Sales Hunter”, is a sales expert who speaks to thousands each year on how to increase their sales profitability. For more information, to receive a free weekly email sales tip, or to read his Sales Motivation Blog, visit www.TheSalesHunter.com.
Photo credit: Nicolette Neon
