How to Kill Price Resistance In Sales (Step by Step)

So in this lesson, you're going to learn a tool you can use to address just about any type of price resistance. You've already learned some tools and techniques to address very specific variations of price resistance. This one you can use a little bit more generally. Now, I call this the four bucket technique. The goal is to isolate your buyer's price resistance into one of four categories, or buckets, and then begin to dismantle their resistance based on which bucket they self select into. So you're going to present them four buckets, you're going to get them to choose which one applies to them, and then you're going to solve accordingly. Now, here's how it works. When you're negotiating with a buyer and they express pricing resistance of any kind, try saying this. You know, when most people have issues with price, at this stage in the process, it's usually for one of four reasons. First, you don't believe that the value is worth the price. Second, you believe in the value, but you think you can get it somewhere else cheaper. Third, you believe in the value and you'd like to move forward, but you can't for some logistical reason. Maybe it's budgets or something like that. Or fourth, you're simply just being a good steward of your company's capital and you're trying to get the best deal possible. Now, after you present those four options to your buyer, you then just ask them which of those is most true for you. Now, I want to give you a little bit of a warning. Some buyers are going to say, well, several of them are true. And if they say something like that, then you want to get them to stack rank. Okay, which of them is most true for you? Let's solve these one at a time. Now, your goal, like I said, is to get the buyer to self select into one of those four buckets. Because here's the beauty. Based on whichever answer they give, you can run a predictable playbook to overcome it. So, for example, if they say they don't think the value is worth it, if they select into the first bucket that you present, that opens the door to asking a question about the business value. You might say something like, has champion's name gotten you up to speed on the business case? And then if they haven't, then you've just opened an invitation to walk them through the business case you've put together, assuming you have one. There's a few situations you could use here, but walking them through the business case or maybe doing some discovery on their business problem. Now, this is probably the worst answer to get. Just as a side note, because usually if you get this answer, you still have a lot more selling work to be done than you do negotiating work. But at least you know now. Alternatively, if they say that they think the value is worth it, but they think they can get it cheaper somewhere else and they self select into the second bucket you see here now, your move might be okay, I think I've skipped some steps in the process. So how about we do this if this is truly the issue, if you believe in the value, but somebody else is offering it cheaper and you think you can get the same value cheaper without sacrificing any of that value, how about we do this? Let's schedule a short 20 minute meeting with the people who are involved in the decision on your end, where we can spend the entirety of the meeting making our case for why we're different and can deliver far more value than anybody else. If we have succeeded in that meeting by the end of it, we can continue our negotiations. If we haven't succeeded, you guys can tell us and we can part ways as friends and you can go with a cheaper option. In other words, you are negotiating with them to make a case for your differentiated value. You need the right people in the room. If that's the bucket they self select into, it's going to be a lot easier for them to this meeting, assuming they're telling the truth. Alternatively, they might self select into the third bucket. They might say they have a logistics issue, they believe in the value, the believe in your value. They want to move forward, but they can't for some logistical reason. Now your move is to sit on the same side of the table with them and problem solve the situation and try to find a creative solution, such as doing something creative with payment terms or billing terms or something like that. But the spirit of this is, if they self select them to this third bucket, your job is to say, help me understand the situation so that I can help you craft the right solution to this potential issue. Okay? And finally, if they say they're just trying to get the best deal that they can, which is unlikely, but it happens occasionally, your move is simply to convince them that you're truly at your floor, you've put together a fair deal and push them to move forward. Right, you might say something like this, I understand where you're coming from. You're trying to be the best steward of your company's capital as you possibly can. I would do the same thing if I was in your shoes, but rest assured, we have put together our best and final here. This is the best we can do. We think it's fair. We hope you think it's fair. So you've got to say that with some level of conviction. But the point of this lesson, price resistance, is going to always stem from one of these four buckets. So if that's true, it's an effective technique to simply call out those four buckets, get your buyer to self select into one of them, and then solve that root of price resistance accordingly.