Negotiate Pricing With Customers? My Opinion, Why, and How

So should you negotiate? This comes up a lot. And I had someone, by the way, comment on a recent video. What did I think of drop calls, meaning dropping the price in the home and dropping the price one more time and having those price tiers. And you know what's crazy is those tears that I hear about and I hope, by the way, let me take a step back, I might offend some people. And I just want to say it's not my way or the highway, and I'm not always right. And what works for me doesn't necessarily work for you. So as I share my own opinion on this, if it's working for you, don't change it. If it aligns with your values and it's fine. That's all good. I'm just sharing my view of things. And the way that I teach sales is how I personally like to be treated in a sales experience and how I like to buy. So back to this whole drop call thing. What the comment was is that you come in at X price and that you immediately have a price to drop by X amount, which was a significant percentage, 10 to 15%, if I remember right, and then ending at about a 25% discount, which was rock bottom. And to me, the first thing that comes to mind when I'm in that experience is this is a gimmick. You're just trying to take me for what I can. And it reminds me of the horrendous taste that I had in my mouth when I went to go get a gym membership years ago, well over a decade. And I sit down and there's no price list. The guy's sitting across the table from me and he puts out his little legal pad and he writes down a number and slides it over the desk. And I look at it. I'm like, $89 a month. That's where it started. $89 a month. We go back and forth, drops to 60, drops to 40, through further negotiation and deciding to prepay for the year, got it down to $21 a month. $21 from $89 a month. Now, do you think that I walked out of there feeling good for a minute? I said, hey, I got a deal. And then you know what I thought? Every time I went to that gym, I said, these folks are a bunch of sleaze balls. Because this is a gimmick. No displayed pricing, trying to literally take me for what they can and looking for the easiest sale. And I'll be the first to tell you, this stuff works. But there's a Difference between what works and what feels right. And there's a balance. It's a delicate balancing act. And I want to give you just one more example. And this is a true story. This last weekend, I was calling different companies to purchase one of the pager type systems for elderly for my grandmother that she could wear on her neck. And if anything happens, she can push the button. And I had no idea how aggressive these companies are from a sales organization standpoint. And one of them, this is homework. It's a delicate time. It's not a fun thing to work, to shop for. And if you've ever been through something like this, you know, like, you only begin shopping for this, not in a great spot. And this guy on the phone is hard selling me and pushing them. Like, you know, I got to talk with the family. I got to see if someone's out there that can help get this thing set up. And he's like, yeah, well, if you do this today and today's price, and then if you do it now and if you upgrade for the year. Hey, can I call you back? What's a good number? No, you know what? I'm on commission only, and you won't get me. So let's just close the deal right now and we'll do this. I'm like, listen, I got to think about it. Well, if I can give you free shipping. No, how about if I drop the price even more? And it just keeps going down, down, down and down. And it was relentless. Then not only did I choose a different company, which, by the way, I chose a company because the salesperson had empathy. They didn't negotiate. There was a fixed price, and she was focused on answering my questions. And I literally picked up the phone for the first company that had robo. Like, I shouldn't say robodal. It felt like that because the guy was actually leaving me messages. I am not joking. I got four calls within 10 minutes. Two voicemails within three minutes apiece. And I picked up the phone and I said, matt, I take me off your list. I don't like the way you guys are doing this. And I hung up on them because it's not right. So you can tell I get a little passionate about this. So I want to answer this question right now because even though I've been very passionate about this negotiation thing, there is a time and a place that I do think it's appropriate, and I want to talk about those pros and cons. So let's get to it. Should you negotiate first? Welcome or welcome back. My name is Adam Bensman, the roof strategist. Everything that I do here is designed to give you and your team the tools and resources that I wish I had when I was getting going in order to fast track my success. So thanks for being here. And my mission is to help you and your team smash your income goal and give every customer an amazing experience. And that amazing experience, by the way, is a memorable one. I call it the sales aftertaste. And that's the experience that that salesperson, excuse me, that the customer has with you. The salesperson, how they remember that experience. And it's either great or not great whether they buy from you or not. And again, it's a balance to blend what works in a sales way while also treating people like human beings. So let's get to it. Should you negotiate, There are going to be arguments for saying yes, there are going to be arguments for saying no, and there are going to be arguments for saying maybe. And I would like to begin that right now. By the way, spoiler alert, I fall into the maybes, meaning sometimes or conditionally. And I'm going to quantify what that means in a minute. So the arguments for yes. Should you negotiate? Some companies know that customers don't always ask to negotiate. You'll get people to say yes at a higher amount. That means higher ticket prices, more profit, more commission. Again, I'm about treating people equally in my company. I don't negotiate. I have purposefully structured our investments at the lowest possible they can competitively, where we can stand behind it and offer the best value and offer a transparent experience for all of our new customers. You also see, so I'd fall into the no category. Meanwhile, you go in, you buy a Mercedes, you buy a BMW, you buy a truck, a Ford, a Chevy, a Dodge. Can you negotiate there? The answer is yes. You walk into a Toyota Scion dealership. Can you negotiate? Now, I don't know if they've updated their policy, so if they have, you can drop a comment and share that with me. But their whole entire brand positioning at the beginning was no. And again, because it provides a transparent pricing. I work with companies, by the way, that do both. So if you're one of my companies that's doing this, that's cool. You'll see the conditionally. Maybe you'll swap your approach around in the no camp. I work with one of the region's top retail companies and they don't negotiate. They have one price that they come in in the home with. That's it. And again, it provides transpar, because what we don't want is for that customer to always think, well, what more would they give me? And this might date me, which isn't that difficult. I'm 35. The book When I was growing up was give a mouse a cookie. And the whole story was, you give a mouse a cookie, he asks for a glass of milk, you give him a glass of milk, he asks for a chair, you give him a chair, he wants a table, you give him a table, he wants a meal. And again, it's that whole thing, take, take, take. When we start negotiating, people see no end. You get taken advantage of or they think that you're trying to take them for too much. It's just how it goes. And again, I sell the way that I experience it and the way that I want to buy. My position is generally, no, no negotiation if you must. I want to get into the maybe or the conditional side right now. Alright, and again, quick disclaimer. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If you disagree with me, I invite a healthy conversation in the comments and I invite you to drop it again. I learn as we go, I learn from others. And my mission isn't to say, hey, listen, I am the say all, end all. That's not it at all. I'd be a total arrogant moron to tell you I have all the answers. But my reason in sharing these conflicting viewpoints is to foster a rich discussion in that comment section so we can learn from each other. Because what works for this person might not work for this person, or it might be required because everyone in your market negotiates. So you just got to roll with it. So if you have something to add, drop it in the comments. Now, let's talk on the conditional side. I'm going to change that word maybe to conditionally. I just didn't have room for it before. What do I mean by conditionally? Meaning on certain conditions. So when you give something, the customer also has to give something. The way I don't like negotiation is you're a customer, I want $1,000 off. Okay, done. No, if you are negotiating, you are going to give something in return for something that in return can be a commitment. A commitment by a certain date, getting a deposit, a number of referrals, anything that they're giving in exchange. Okay, now disclaimer. Hail claims, wind claims, hurricane claims. State law pay deductibles. They need to pay their deductible. You're not paying their deductible, period. You're not negotiating on deductibles. I just need to get that out of the way. We clear? All right. No deductible negotiation. If you need help on that, click right here. I've done lots of videos on the deductible and I'm going to click to this one because this is about beating deductible eaters and showcasing the scary truth behind what that means. Alright, disclaimer aside, let's get back to it. So you give, they give. Okay, now next what I want to do is start negotiating on items that have a high perceived value and a low cost. Now what do I mean by this? Give you an example. High perceived value and low cost could mean certain upgrades. Whether that's ridge vent, whether that's ice and water shield, whether that's upgraded shingles, upgraded colors, and specifically things like warranty warranties that we might be able to provide to that homeowner. That like a warranty, for example, the sticker price and that warranty is whatever you put it as, your cost as a company is usually fixed, either a fixed amount or a small amount per square. So you can say hey, if we can conditionally negotiate where this item I'm going to include which has a high perceived value to say, hey, well I'll include this $4,000 warranty, $3,000 warranty at no cost if you decide to move forward today. And again, that warranty may cost you x dollar amount depending on and I'm not quoting prices, you guys know the prices on warranties depending on the manufacturers that you're selling. All right, the final area that we're going to do this on is price. So I am always going to go through in this order first, if I give, they give. Next I'm going to go on high perceived value items or items that are low cost as an add on versus giving hard money away. Final piece is price and this is my least favorite and for the reasons I showcased before. So there you have it. Those are my thoughts on should you negotiate and I'd love to hear yours. So drop a comment in the comment section below and I'm really looking forward to hearing from you. Now if you want to continue your time with me. Just because our time here is up doesn't mean your and my time has to be. Click right here to watch that video on deductible eating and why and how to overcome that. So you get your customers to willingly pay their deductible. And believe me, when you get this down, it's game changing and if you haven't done it, I want to get you a free copy of my pitch. Like a pro Roofing sales training video library, 100% free right here. And I will see you on the next one.