.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} For most salespeople, the price of whatever they sell carries with it a discomfort. They’re hesitant to bring up price because it’s the final element in completing any transaction – or so they think.

Actually, price or fee or rate is a logical progression of a presentation. If the rest of the elements of a presentation have been properly communicated and transferred, price is not a barrier to sale. Better stated: Price is not a barrier to the customer deciding to purchase.

Why do salespeople have reluctance or fear of price presentation? Because it determines outcome – yes, no or delay (which usually means no). Price also brings truth. The “I can get it cheaper, we’ve decided to go with someone else, we’re putting this out for bids, I’m not the only decision maker.”

But the main reason salespeople get nervous about price is that their belief system is weak. They’re not certain of their product, they’re not certain of their ability to deliver their message, they’re not certain of the customer’s desire to purchase, and they’re not certain of themselves.

When belief is weak, price is a bigger barrier to the salesperson than it is to the customer.

As a professional salesperson, your job is to be as personally prepared as you are customer or prospect prepared. Mental preparation will lower the barrier to your own price reluctance.

If you’re ready for the customer, if you’re proud of your company, if you’re proud of your products and services, if you believe in the value of what you’re offering, if your communication skills are excellent and your self-confidence is high, then you don’t have to worry about price.

There are 5.5 keys that will help you in moving forward with price confidence:

1. Study your past successes. Look at all the reasons customers bought from you in the past. If you don’t know the reasons, now would be a good time to call the customers and ask. Customers have all the “price and value” answers you could hope for. Most salespeople never ask for them.

2. Prepare your presentation in a manner that discusses prices and fees along the way, not at the end. Personally, I bring up prices and fees in the first five minutes; that way all the anxiety is gone. The customer knows there is a price attached to your product or service. The sooner it’s discussed, the easier it is to make value the heart of your presentation.

3. Convince yourself that you’re offering the best products and services in the world for value received. If you are not totally convinced, don’t start the presentation. Your belief in what you sell is evident to the prospective buyer, whether present or absent.

4. Believe in your heart that the customer is better off purchasing from you. That he or she will profit more and produce more, and that the value of what you offer far exceeds your price. When your belief is so powerful that it becomes transferable to the prospective buyer, then you have become believable and trustworthy.

5. Bring testimonials to the presentation. Introduce the voice of other customers who talk about the value, the peace of mind and the confidence they have in you. People who have paid your price and are glad they did.

5.5. Bring your best self to the meeting. In my “Little Red Book of Selling,” you read that the workday starts the night before. It’s a quote from the grandfather of a friend of mine, who coincidentally was a multimillionaire. The better prepared you are, the easier it will be to deepen your belief system, raise your self-confidence level and walk in with a feeling of relationship, rather than sale.

If you want ideas on price negotiation, go to www.gitomer.com, register if you’re a first-time visitor, and enter the words PRICE POINTS in the GitBit box. Jeffrey Gitomer can be reached by phone at (704) 333-1112 or by e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com. © 2007 Jeffrey H. Gitomer