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The Sales Buzz Issue 134-Price and Value and Selling Against Competitors
August 08, 2011
Hi,

In this week's Sales Buzz:

Are your prices higher than other goods and services being offered to customers in your market.

Do you often feel that you can’t compete because customers object to your prices.

Would you like to overcome pricing issues and increase your sales.

Read this week’s Sales Buzz... ...



Price and Value and Selling Against Competitors


Show the value of your products

It’s very rare that what you sell will be the cheapest products or services on the market. In any one product market only one can be seen as the cheapest.

So how do you, as a sales professional, show why what you sell is the best value and prevent objections to your prices.

We are often told by sales trainers not to be negative about our competitors and their products.

There are several reasons for this and I agree that being negative will hinder your sale not help it.

You can actually be very positive about your competitor’s goods and services and show why your offer is far better value.

You can use this sales technique when you have 2 or 3 main competitors that your prospect will know about and will have contacted, and when selling against an incumbent supplier.

It works especially well if your competitors have lower prices than you.



Add the competition to your sales presentation

As part of your sales presentation add one or more relevant products or services from your competitors. Do this in a positive way and be sincere as you show the features they offer. Only present features not benefits, and include prices wherever possible.

Once you have presented their products you will have established a baseline. You will have attached a value to the features offered by that product. Even if you don’t know the exact prices you are still giving your prospect something to compare your product against.

Be factual and logical as you present the competitor’s product or service. Avoid feelings or opinions. You can state factual negatives, eg a mechanical fault or a service failing, and wherever possible include evidence to support these facts.

Remember: You are not being negative about your competitors, you are presenting facts.


Present your added value product

Once you have presented or demonstrated the features offered by the competition it’s time to present the benefits that you can give the buyer.

Present the benefits that your product or service will offer the buyer. Features are only vehicle to supply the benefits.


For more on presenting to prospects and understanding features and benefits open Sales Presentation Training...


Use the baseline that you set up when presenting the competitors product. Demonstrate how your product can give all the positives that the competitor’s offers and then show the added value benefits that make your product worth the price.

If your product is priced lower than the competitors then you have shown that not only will the prospect pay less but they will also receive more.

If your product is more expensive than the competitors then you are showing why and presenting the additional value that the buyer will receive for their investment.

The more relevant benefits you can present the more value you can add to your product. Consider what the buyer will get from your product that they will not get from others. You are looking for a way to show that your product may cost more, but they are getting more for their money.


Selling against competitors

Selling against competitors that are cheaper or more expensive is all about presenting the value of your product.

When selling against a high priced competitor you need to show why yours is better value by showing the benefits. A good sales technique in this situation is to present the features of the higher priced item that the buyer will not use.

When selling against lower priced competition show what the lower priced item does, use that as a bench mark. Then show how far above that your product goes and the valuable benefits that you can offer.

Price and value are a perception. You may not be able to change your prices and be the lowest every time but you can change the perception of the buyer. See more free sales training on overcoming price objections by opening Handling Price Objections...




I'm Stephen Craine from the website Sales-Training-Sales-Tips.com

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