Sometimes the words of others make the most impact

When I read Jeffrey Gitomer’s column in the August 27 Idaho Business Review, I found enough pieces that I wanted to share them directly. Below are some excerpts I found interesting.




The Biggest fear of Salespeople is NOT. . . fear itself!

Salespeople have two major fears: #1 is rejection and #2 is price or fee.

Most salespeople (not you, of course) are hesitant when it comes to talking price or fee. The reason is, in their own mind, they think their prices are too high.

When it comes to price, the first thing you have to have, as a professional salesperson, is a deep-rooted belief that the value of what you're offering far exceeds the price or fee that you're asking. If you don't believe this, the highest level you will rise in your sales career is to the level of mediocre. And worse, your prospective customer will sense that your belief system is not deep enough by your language.

Here are the telltale signs that you don't believe deep enough:
1. You try to justify your price.
2. You apologize for your price.
3. You rationalize your price.
4. You have to go back into your presentation to clarify your price.
4.5 You try to ignore the signs that are evident hoping that they will go away.

And worse than that, you go back to your boss and say, "We lost one on price." Let me share with you - you did NOT lose on price, you lost on perceived value and you lost on perceived difference. If the customer doesn't perceive the value of your offering, if the customer doesn't perceive a difference between you and the competition, then all that's left is price.

Too much emphasis in any sales environment is placed on price. Salespeople moan that their product or service, whatever it is, is becoming a commodity. Commodity is your word, not theirs.
If you spent as much time concentrating on value and differentiation as you do moaning about price, the issue would disappear. There's one more key. Your customers are better at justifying and extolling the virtues of your price than you are. If I were you, I would have a few one-minute videos on my laptop of existing customers who believe in you, who have gladly paid your price, and who are proud to do business with you.

Those customers will help you gain new customers, faster and better than your sales presentation. BUT they do not replace the sales presentation. They enhance the sales presentation.

Also, check out Gitomer’s website...