Worm Patter Price Punch
"The vulgar topic of bills was avoided. He did hint that carers would be paid more but there was no explanation how. Sales people use the same technique. They are trained not to mention the cost of a subscription until the end of their patter. Worm yourself into their confidence. Whack 'em with the price only at the last moment."
Yes, there’s another one. Tenth “this time it’s different” reset in seven years. And yes, they’re not getting any better.
The latest British Prime Minister, continuing his tour of the country, alighted on an old people's home to offer free-for-all palliative care for the elderly "and - drum roll - a 'dementia tsar'".
The above summation from the eminent Westminster political sketch of this age of decline, Quentin Letts, is indeed noteworthy transplanted onto our realm.
Great-great-great-granddaughter of Adam 'Wealth of Nations' Smith, Alice Smith, has this tweet pinned atop her posts.
Cartoon capitalism: A fat man, smoking a cigar, hoarding wealth while workers sweat.
— Alice Smith (@TheAliceSmith) February 25, 2018
Real world capitalism: An entrepreneur, working crazy hours, risking her own money, to provide goods or services others want, while investing profits back into her business.
Where capitalism has its cartoonish misrepresentation that mystifyingly persists - particularly by those peddling the entitlement of expecting everything for nothing - Sales has the version referred to here.
Truth is, the same mismatch afflicts us. Any solution seller that is all front and no substance won't be around long. Front being the confidence-tricking wormery. Substance being the prospect financial outlay.
That is not to say the underlying theme ought not apply. We must gain our prospect's genuine trust. Investment required must be contextualised and probably atomised with returns. Just don't lower it to these exaggerated caricatured depths.
Long ago when just out my cubreppin' crayons, a sales manager of mine once gave me a car trip's full of chat on 'when you eventually have to deliver the bad news of price'.
I already knew for myself a key truism. Prospects tended to ask for 'cost' right at the start. With guaranteed loud wince their pre-programmed instant response. Yet price is never the reason they truly pet pen to paper.
If you deliberately stall on the money, to the point of 'last moment' holdout, you build up momentum against yourself.
There are many ways of averting this. One I come back being the 'range' outline up front, 'these things normally sit between X and Y' keeping things vague, 'as it really does depend on what's going to work for you'.
This does several things at once. Shows confidence in your pricing. Signals that you’re tailoring the solution. Removes any looming, later “price ambush”. And keeps the focus on value and outcomes.
In any case, have you ever felt ‘wormed’ by a supplier? Or been guilty of it yourself? Might be worth a quick sanity 'worm check' audit with a couple informal questions of your pet clients just to be on the safe side;
“When we first spoke, how did the investment conversation land with you?”