245: That Sounds Pricey!!

<p>Japanese salespeople should love to hear “that sounds pricey” from buyers.  Why?  Because they know that this statement is the most common objection to arise in response to their sales presentation and they are completely ready for it.  It is one of the simplest buyer pushback answers to deal with too.  Well, simple that is, if you are trained in sales and know what you are doing.  Untrained salespeople really make a big hot mess of this one.  They want to argue the point about pricing with the buyer.  Or they want to use their force of will to bully the buyer into buying.  Or they want to use one of those American style aggressive response statements, to try and push the deal over the line.  This is all nonsense.</p> <p> </p> <p>The only words emerging from our lips should be “Thank you.  May I ask you why you say that?”.  We could say something else like “compared to what?”, which is a pretty snappy rejoinder, but it is a bit too aggressive in this situation and doesn't really yield enough information about buyer thinking.  We could simply drop the price to be “competitive”, but that is the mark of the weak, whining, unwashed, pathetic salesperson.  We need to do better than that, unless that proffered discount is directly linked to certain purchase volume prerequisites.</p> <p> </p> <p>When we first hear “that sounds pricey” we may feel some pressure to justify our numbers.  That is totally the wrong way of thinking.  That number of ours is there for a reason.  There is a justification for that number, based on the value it provides.  There are plenty of clients willing and happy to pay that number for the goods or services they receive in exchange.</p> <p> </p> <p>When we sweetly ask why they say that, we now have moved the pressure for justification back to the buyer. This is called “tossing back the porcupine”.  The comment “pricey” is like a spiky porcupine being thrown to us and it is tricky to handle, without incurring lots of pain. We ask “why” thus shooting the porcupine back to the buyer and we can