Winning Pricing Strategies for You and Your Customers by Myra L. Corrello
January 1, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Today we are faced with enormous changes in our economic climate. Prices, in part due to the rising price of oil, are rising on everything. In turn, we are paying more for everything in our businesses. Our expenses are rising.Have you adjusted your pricing to compensate for your increased costs?
Many business owners are reluctant to raise prices for fear of alienating good, long-standing clients. This reluctance can drag on for years and slowly erode your profit margin till you are practically working for nothing.
Raising your prices is one of the most important tools you have in managing your profitability. There are even measures you can take to mitigate any negative reaction from existing customers if you execute them properly.
First, let’s review some important principles of pricing:
- The more distinct your product or service is in a way that your customers care about, the less price sensitivity you’ll encounter. People will pay more for something if it’s giving them what they need or want and they perceive there are few or no good substitutes. Seek to “brand” your uniqueness and find effective ways to communicate your distinction.
- Add value to your existing product or service by combining it with a complementary product or service to create packages.
- Carefully plan a price increase so that you, your staff, and your customers have time to adjust. You can create goodwill, yes, goodwill even during a price increase if you handle it properly.
How do you create goodwill with current customers during a price increase?
- First, start by setting the price increase a few months out. Three months gives you a good working timeframe.
- Next, create a pre-increase sales promotion program. Communicate with all your customers, the more personal the communication the better, about the increase and suggest they stock up on your product prior to the increase. A sense of time-urgency is a powerful motivator.
- Be prepared to have lots of orders the day before the increase! By contacting your customers personally, they will perceive that you care about their welfare and value their patronage.
- Consider offering a bulk-purchase discount, if you don’t already, to make their stock-up strategy even more beneficial.
Raising prices is a stressful issue for most business owners but it is the most efficient way to greater profitability. Just remember to plan your process well, use it to reconnect with your customers in a positive way, and offer your current customers an opportunity to adapt to the change.
What specific activities could you plan for to make a price increase a successful experience?
Myra
Helping Individuals and Organizations Increase Their Image, Influence, and Impact
MyraCorrello.com
Developing a ‘Needs’ Questioning Sales Strategy, by Tiffanie Lyon
November 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Do you “ask” or “tell” when you are in a selling situation? Most people think they ask a lot of questions, but most likely they talk and tell vs. ask and probe. Worse yet, they may have a killer questioning pattern, but neglect to follow up and continue the selling process. Your questioning strategy can easily determine how far you get in the sales process, how long and painful your sales cycle might become, or even if you get the sale at all. Additionally, by dropping the ball and not following up, you lose your momentum to facilitate the sale. Sound familiar? You are not alone. Your questioning strategy: When meeting with a prospective client, your primary goal is to better qualify the candidate and truly understand their current state and primary needs. You really need a questioning strategy that works. Questioning appropriately and in the most advantageous sequence will help you maintain control of the conversation flow, without the prospect feeling controlled. Most questions within four categories:
1. Needs
2. Decision-making
3. Timing
4. Budgetary
The “Needs” category will be the focus of this article. Here are some examples of good questions to begin analysis of your prospect:
* “Tell me how XYC Company started, and when you came aboard.”
* “What is your primary role within the company?”
* “How has your position evolved?”
* “Who do you work with closely, and how is that working relationship managed?”
* “Tell me what you like best about your job, as well as your biggest challenges?”Continuing with the needs stage, your questioning should become more focused upon the reason you are meeting. Now you strategically ask questions, knowing (but not sharing yet) how you may be able to help them resolve their problem, or help them avoid any painful mistakes they have made in the past.
Here are some examples of questions related to the specific problem:
* “Walk me through your____ process, as it stands now.”
* “Tell me how you handled ____ situation in the past.”
* “What are the consequences of not addressing ____ quickly and/or appropriately?”
During the needs questioning stage, and as the prospect opens up to you, don’t use this time to tell them what you can do for them, why your products and services are best, why they should buy, and so on. Instead, share examples of cases in which you’ve helped others in similar situations. By using these real cases you are selling passively, yet in a very powerful and credible way.
Listen and Empathize: In order to ask these powerful questions, it is equally important to listen carefully as well. Be empathetic as the prospective customer is sharing, and as you engage in dialog. Always seek to truly understand them and their situation, and re-enforce with an empathetic ear and response, such as “That must have been difficult to handle” and “I can see how that would be disruptive to your business.”
Your Follow-Up Plan: Questions are key, but if there is no follow-up plan in place and follow-through, then all the questioning efforts are moot. After every conversation or meeting, be certain to confirm what is to happen next and when. Will there be another appointment? Who is to call who? Will a proposal be submitted? And what is the timeframe for each.
Assign Homework: As a part of your follow-up plan and whenever possible ‘assign homework’ to both yourself and the prospect. This will create a sense of ownership and commitment for both parties to ensure the business relationship is moving forward before it is even formalized.
Perhaps there is more information you can provide the prospect, such as an article, references, or data. The prospect may need to talk to a colleague, confirm budgets, or verify the status of another project. Assign homework and set a date to talk or meet again.
The marketplace is competitive, you are in business, and you offer something of value. But if you don’t ask engaging questions to your prospective clients, you won’t know how to best position yourself to win the business.
The Bottom Line: If you ask great questions, position yourself nicely, and have a prompt and professional follow-up plan to facilitate the sales process your sales will increase.
Tiffanie Lyon
Lyon Sales Institute
Sales is not a Dirty Word
The 5 Foundational Steps to Sales Success – Part 2, by Tiffanie Lyon
October 9, 2008 | 1 Comment
Here are the first 3 foundational steps to sales success from the previous blog posting:
Step #1- Believe in your value: You provide a product or service of high value. Bring back the passion for what you do and share the benefit they receive by investing in you and your company.
Step #2- Fine-tune your USP (unique selling proposition): This is your elevator pitch. You might believe in the value you offer and have passion for it, but how do you convey this to others when they ask what you do?
Step #3- Build rapport, trust and relationships with people: People buy from people they like. Be real. Be genuine. Be approachable. Now let’s continue with the last two steps that are more tactical sales techniques. But don’t fear! They still will be in your nature and somewhat easy to implement:
Step #4- Communicate with strategic questioning and active listening: When you first begin a dialog with someone, especially if you’re trying to qualify them to see if they are a viable candidate to purchase your product or service, it’s beneficial to use open-ended questions (“how”, “what”, “why”). You want to be genuine and sincere and really try to understand them, before trying to be understood (from Stephen Covey’s book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People). In the next feature article below, I go in more detail on this topic and provide actual examples and a downloadable form.
Strategic questioning is moot if you don’t use active listening to really absorb the information and process it. Active listening involves 1) you are listening with a purpose, 2) you give your un-divided attention to the person and 3) you verify your understanding. Verifying simply means you will use confirming statements to repeat back what you heard to make sure you understand. For example:
“Let me make sure I understand you correctly:”
“If I heard you correctly:”
“Let me confirm what I think I hear you saying:”
Step #5- Understanding the sales process for getting the results you want: Everybody has a sales process, but not everybody recognizes it. It’s important to understand your own sales process so you will know your next steps and ideally shorten the process to make sales faster.
Some people have a fast sales cycle (instant-3 days) and others may have much longer sales cycle (3 weeks- 12 months or more). Again, this is NOT high pressure selling; it’s just having a “system” that will get you results. If you’re following the first 4 “steps” and selling from within, the sales process will flow seamlessly. For you visual folks, the sales process is likened to a sales funnel-prospects go into the funnel and as they move through the funnel they are going through the steps of the sale and then ultimately come out the bottom as a new customer. An example of a sales process might be:
- Identifying a new opportunity
- Approach/begin a dialog
- Schedule appointment (face to face or telephone)
- Analysis Complete (this is your questioning)
- Proposal submitted (if appropriate)
- Contract signed (if used)
Keep these 5 foundational steps in mind and you WILL see that implementing sales techniques and selling your services is easier than you thought. Happy Selling! ☺
Tiffanie Lyon
Lyon Sales Institute
Sales is not a Dirty Word
The First 3 Foundational Steps to Sales Success- Pt. 1
May 23, 2008 | 3 Comments
Whether you have “sales” in your title or not, it’s important to realize that EVERYBODY SELLS!™ You may sell your spouse or significant other on a vacation destination or you may sell your boss on why you deserve a promotion. If you’re self-employed, you are very aware that YOU are your most important sales representative.
The first step is: believe in your value. In your role, you provide a product or service that is of high value. You help people, solve problems or you may even advise and counsel. THAT is valuable and what you’re selling is the result or benefit people receive by benefiting from that value. What are the end results or benefits people receive from your role, product or service?
Once you understand the benefits people gain from the value you provide, then it will be easier to implement step two: fine-tune your unique selling proposition. This is your elevator pitch, but on steroids! You want to be creative, powerful and succinct, so that your listener says, “tell me more!.” By stating your USP clearly and consistently, you will look and sound confident and “salable”. What’s your USP?
The third step: Building rapport, trust and relationships with people. People buy from people they like. If you’re not naturally magnetic to people, do not worry. You’ll just have to work a little harder at becoming more approachable and building small talk. Are you approachable? Are you a good conversationalist?
In the next blog positing I’ll share the final two steps to this foundation of sales success. Let me hear your thoughts….. Until then, Happy Selling☺
By: Tiffanie Z. Lyon, MBA
Lyon Sales Institute, LLC ~ Inspiring Non-traditional Salespeople to increase their sales-confidence and grow their business by helping them better understand and appreciate he concept of “selling.” Because… EVERYBODY SELLS! ~ www.lyonsalesinstitute.com
