Risk, Value and Price
Risk, Value and Price, and how your explore these areas with the buyer are the cornerstones are sales success.
Or sales failure.
How you position these three facrors with your prospects are leading indicators of how likley it is you will be able to close them!
Fact.
Get it wrong and the buyer doesn’t have confidence to make a fast decision…
Get it right – and it’s a ‘no-brainer’…what does he have to lose?
We cover this extensively in our Sales Improvement Workshop – check it out, because once you get this part of your sales pitch right, then converting prospects to sales, either from warm incoming leads or stone cold outbound, will be much easier for you!
Because it will be easier for your buyer!
How do Buyers View Risk, Value and Price?
The relationship between risk, value and price in the eyes of the buyer/prospect is complex…but what has happened over the last few years is that, in many markets, the importance of price has started to diminish, and instead focus is being drawn towards buyers assessing the amount of ‘risk’ that is involved in a purchase…
To such a degree that the speed of the decision, the sales cycle duration may be highly influenced by the:
- Quality of the guarantee
- Relevant social proof
- Your user base profile
- Quantity of the existing customer base
All these things are now weighing much heavier in the buying decision than they used to.
And that comes at a cost for the sales rep!
In a nutshell…It seems buyers are open to paying slightly more if it reduces the risk and negative exposure they might receive if they get the buying decision wrong…after it, it’s often their reputation that is at stake here!
That’s a fact.
And via the Sales Rep’s Lens?
The relationship between risk, value and price in the eyes of the sales person is not always as well defined as it might be.
In fact it is often confused and assumptive.
And the assumption is this
Buyers are making price based decisions only!
Wrong!
Sadly, it’s a common failing, often seen in experienced and new sales reps…based on extensive research and 1000’s of sales rep conversations.
How do you fix your Risk, Value, Price Mindset?
For a win-win sale to be made there needs to be clear line of sight in the buyer’s mind in terms of the financial outlay and the broader cost implications (time, stress, adoption, change etc) versus the value received from the purchase, and the associated risks.
The risks is double loaded – you need to be able to look at two sets of risks:
- The risk involved in making that purchase
- The risk involved in NOT making that purchase.
Both equally important in terms of buyer peace of mind, Both big influencers in terms of
- Sales cycle duration
- Shopping around competitor comparisons
- Discounts required
Both elements of risk have different levels of influence on buyers.
Again, being able to unpack and explore the full risk spectrum is a critical success factor
For the sales person, that’s a lot of things to uncover, explore, define and incorporate as part of the sales process.
That’s why the level of the sales rep’s sales confidence and their ability to openly explore risk, value and price with the buyer needs to be razor sharp.
Some sales people do better than others.
Refusing to Explore the Risk, Value and Price Relationship Costs Sales
Some sales people will ignore the exploration to a large degree, hoping that the features and benefits will sell their solution easily enough.
WARNING: This breed of sales person won’t exists for much longer.
They create little value, they treat their product/service like a commodity and invite the buyer to do the same. To a large degree this type of sales rep has been replaced by a good website, and maybe even an AI solution.
Either way, failure to master this leads to a no sale or low margin sale…and no-one really wins. The sales CRM gets clogged with zombie leads and the sales forecast is a disaster… tissue paper in rain!
Some sales people will conduct a low level discovery around the issues associated with risk and value, maybe erring more on the value side than they ought. Quite often they’ll lose sales because they are simply selling the ‘positives’
According to Cialdini, an expert on influence and persuasion, people will invariably do more to escape pain than they’ll do to seek pleasure…and so now you can see why just selling the positives will stifle your sales conversion rates.
Know this – if you can explore risk with the buyer, you’ll go to the top of the list.
You’ll do this because so few sales people do it!
What’s the Buyer Really Thinking About?
A typical buyer, hearing a typical sales pitch will, primarily not be focusing in on all the good things your solution will deliver. He’s looking for the catch!
For a sales rep who is spouting positives all over the place, it’s easy to see why there is a seller – buyer disconnect.
As your typical buyer’s mind is be reaming through the endless list of risks involved, they are mentally drawing up the list the sales rep needs to fix their minds on.
Unpacking the list of buyer specific negatives is the where the sale is made (or lost)
That’s the list the ambitious sales person concerns themselves with, because that’s the list that needs taking to pieces, flushing out, polishing, minimising and shaking hands on.
These risks will typically revolve around what happens if the buyer takes your solution and pays your price….if you are niche specific and have a good insight into your Perfect Prospect Profile then there is a fair chance you already know 99% of what’s on the buyers list
Some sales people, in their efforts to keep away from anything overly contentious, will avoid this MUCH BIGGER area of risk completely, and therefore deprive themselves of one of the most powerful sales tools, that, if only they could capture and use this, would almost certainly lead them to close more sales. Faster!
YET, still they stay away. Head in the sand. Ruled by fear.
So? How Can Uncovering this Unexplored Area Help You Get the Sale?
It is exploring this much bigger area of risk where the sales person can be of greatest value to the buyer. And in doing so can also positively and ethically help the buyer arrive at the most suitable solution.
The key element that is the missing link for many under performing and mediocre sales people is simple. It’s the discussion around the ‘cost of doing nothing’.
The cost of not buying.
The risk, value and price of NOT buying from you.
Whilst it’s crucial to remember that demonstrating value is the minimum entry level focus of the sales exchange, the sales person will rarely achieve the sales they could without consideration and balanced exploration of value against price and risk, both in the areas of ‘buying’ and ‘not buying’
What many forget, to their loss, is that there are two opportunities in a well defined sales process to explore pain.
Two opportunities to explore risk. Two opportunities to understand the buyer’s perspective on both.
Using both risk laden opportunities to their fullest extent, helps you and the buyer to shorten the sales cycle. Helps create raving fans. Helps you protect/defend your margins in instances where there is price resistance.
Summary
The relationship between risk, value and price in the eyes of the buyer/prospect is complex.
Unravelling it for the buyer has a high level ROI. It’s more than worth the effort.
The relationship between risk, value and price in the eyes of the sales is often ill defined. It is often lacking clarity and focus. That alone is costing business, orders, margin and market share.
It needn’t be that way.
Discover how you can gain razor sharp focus in exploring risk, value and price during sales exchanges, because it’ll make the biggest difference to your sales conversion rate, your sales pipeline and your sales acquisition costs.
Just hit the link – The Sales Improvement Workshop
Happy Selling
Carol
0779 002 1885
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