Taking the Pest Out of the Cheapest

Cheeeeeeea...!

For yes, let's then take the 'p' out of cheap...

Beyond my punning, there's a serious issue of selling against those undercutting us.

You gets what you pays for.

What do you think the alternative is not offering for their allure of supposed lower price?

There's plenty of cultural signposts that enter the field.

One classic being;

buy on price, pay twice.

I also remember a few years into my solution selling career citing Steve Buscemi's Rockhound from mega-disaster movie Armageddon (1998). His quip of the space shuttle his motley crew are about to be blasted off aboard;

"270,000 moving parts, built by the lowest bidder".

Moving across from rocket science, here's another oft-cited angle;

who ever selects the cheapest brain surgeon?

Which can introduce the deliberately provocative;

'when was the last time you went and bought the cheapest of anything?'

Then there's the wrapping of a perennial favourite;

service, quality, price; choose your two.

I enjoyed my regular reminder of all these when discussing the perils of being asked for a rough quote-price up-front.

Specifically, prospects insisting on emailed prices during their first conversation with us before agreeing to going any further.

Those on occasion stuck by this already having discovered that to acquiesce means never getting any forward motion. Even when they try claiming, 'we just want a rough price guide then will agree to ...'

Spoiler alert; they never do.

What I liked about how this particular team were evolving was how they'd gained the confidence to simply say, 'no'.

'We're not a transactional company'. 'That's not how it works our side...'

I ran through with them a few handles. Tested and proved down the years.

Ones they especially liked included the ol' framing of;

'we don't ship a commodity, you wouldn't be comparing apples with apples, nor even with pears, maybe not even another fruit or foodstuff at all'.

Alongside the routine that begins;

'well, there's a matrix depending on what you want ...'

Leading to the broad "range" of amounts your customers typically can pay, depending on their personal, unique, needs.

There's all sorts of online guidance around this I'm sure. Yet what can also give you comfort to not pluck a figure out of thin air, is that price is actually hardly if ever the chief consideration. For at some stage, you'll likely begin a conversation later down the line with the supposedly money-sensitive;

Beyond price, what’s most important to you in this?