There is an age-old debate about which came first, the chicken or the egg? 

While that debate may never be solved, there is one “which comes first” situation that shouldn’t be up for debate and that is, “See the solution first OR know the budget first?

In our work helping client’s develop their sales talent, there are two topics that get avoided on a regular basis.  Plus, both are to the detriment of the salesperson.  Those two taboo topics are discussing the incumbent and discussing the budget.  We will address the incumbent discussion in a later blog.  For now, let's talk about the "dreaded" budget discussion.

When we refer to the “budget”, we are referring to it in three categories commonly known as
TMR—Time, Money, and Resources. It is our experience that the stronger sales professionals don’t shy away from that discussion.   They aren’t afraid to ask, “How much have you set aside to make this problem go away”?

They are successful because they follow these rules:

Rule #1— Have the conversation.  The 800 lb budget gorilla is in the room, so talk about it.  If you have taken the OMG sales assessment, look at the section on “Ability to Discuss Money” to see if that is a weakness or strength.  If it’s a weakness, put a plan together to help overcome this obstacle.

Rule #2— Provide context.  Regardless of the investment your prospect needs to make to fix their problem, it needs to be framed in the context of their pain and your ability to eliminate it.  If the pain is minimal, then your solution won’t seem that great.  We’ve had prospects tell us their problem is a “two comma” problem, meaning their cost of turnover was over $1 million dollars.  That’s context.  Know their cost before you proceed!

Rule #3— Don’t show your solution until you know the budget.  It’s really that simple.  If you have ever provided a solution to a prospect only to hear them say, “that’s more than we intended to spend”, then you have an issue discussing the budget.  Does it make sense to know their appetite for change, including budget, before you provide your solution? Here is where the strong sales professional is different.  If the prospect doesn’t want to discuss budget, they know it can be for one of two reasons.  You haven’t uncovered enough pain or they simply want to use you as a pencil sharpener for the competition.  You don’t get paid to be a pencil sharpener so don’t become one.

In closing, don’t be afraid of the conversation.  In the history of sales, no one died from discussing budget, I doubt you will be the first.

Without revenue, a sale cannot be made.  However, making a sale is not all about the money, and it is a salesperson's duty to overcome their prospect's money problem and be prepared for what objections are thrown their way.

In this article, we discuss the preparation involved in overcoming this common problem, and ultimately, the notion that, "If you win on price, you’ll also lose on price."

Money is a critical part of every effective sales process, and yet, sometimes that very discussion causes us to get “off track” and lose focus on the objective of the call.

While I won’t argue that price is part of the decision-making process, what do you do when the prospect tells you it is the driving factor? This can be challenging, but you can use this information to your advantage to make critical decisions. Once you understand the motivation of the buyer, you can and should decide early in the sales process if it makes sense for you to work on the opportunity or not.

So, what should you do when you find out that it’s a price-driven decision? Well, you need to recognize the following:

1. It’s part of the official buyer’s manual. Buyers have been conditioned to believe that there is always a lower price and a salesperson desperate enough to go there.
2. Sometimes they buy on price because that is how THEY personally make buying decisions.
3. When the prospect tells you up front that this is a price-based decision, you need to ask what else, besides price, is driving this decision and, if the answer is “nothing”, be prepared to move on.

So, what can you do to overcome the money problem? 

Answer: You must be prepared.

• Make sure, in your pre-call preparation, you have specific questions to respond to the price issue, i.e. questions that look for things that are important to them other than price.
• Ask questions to help them discover that low price may not mean lowest cost. Price is what you pay for something; cost is what you end up paying or losing out on because of that decision.
• If you are committed to achieving your goals, then you must find prospects that place value on something besides just price.
• In order to do that, you must look at why others are doing business with you.
• Keep a full pipeline. The lack of an abundant pipeline puts pressure on us to work on low probability opportunities.

When you sell off of price, you sacrifice margin, trade “building the kind of business you want” for revenue today and constantly need to “defend” the sale. Unfortunately, we know that if you win on price, you’ll also lose on price.

Don’t let your business be driven by price shoppers.