One of the most problematic objections that customer pose us is the “too expensive” or “how much” one. Many sales trainers talk about piling on the value which is so right but here’s another little tip that’ll help you out next time your customer tells you that your product is too expensive.
Living out here in the country doesn’t allow us to have the luxury of gas laid onto the property so we have to have Kerosene heating oil which is extremely expensive at the moment.
To prevent the central heating being on all the time, we use a wood burner which can chuck out the heat in the mid winter months and uses sustainable fuel i.e. wood.
So each August I ask a local woodsman to deliver two huge truck loads, dump them on our field and I then spend hours moving them all into the woodshed I proudly built a few years ago. The end result is that we have enough to keep us in wood all winter.
Sure enough he arrived yesterday but this time I asked my two boys to do the work of moving every log into the wood store and I’d pay them for their effort.
Four hours later my two weary sons had finished, done a fantastic job and I handed out their hard-earned cash. Admiring their work I said we had enough wood now to last us until next Spring so we’d all be lovely and warm so well done guys.
“Wow Dad, how much did all that wood cost?”
About to give them the answer, I stopped and thought I’d use the technique of comparison.
“Well”, I began, “Everytime I fill up the oil tank which works our cooking and central heating that costs me about £750 pounds a throw and will last between three to four months.
“Blimey Dad that’s a lot of money”
“And the woodsman charges me £210 for all that wood that you boys just loaded into the wood shed”
“Cricky Dad, that’s cheap”
You see when someone considers your price; in their head they’ll be comparing it with something else that they think is similar. And it’s this comparison that makes them think your price is cheap or expensive.
So next time someone tells you you’re too expensive, ask them politely what they are comparing your price to in their heads. You’ll be surprised with the answer and you might be able to reassure them with all the extra value you provide.
Or you could use my trick and quote them the price of oil first.
