know that Jennifers executive vice president, Vince, had thirty-three years experience in drafting corporate center designs and that three of his designs had won national awards? The dialogue might have gone something like this:

Jennifer: I understand that experience is crucial in your decision process. Just what do you mean by experience?

David: Basically the number of years that a company has been in business.

Jennifer: Well, that sure makes sense. When you say number of years a company has been in business, does that include individuals within the company?

David: Well, yes.

Jennifer: Wouldnt you also want to know the experience levels of the people who will be working on your project? Like how many years of experience they have, how many corporate centers they have designed, how many awards for design they have won?

David: Of course, those are important issues also.

In this example, Jennifer did two things:

1. She asked David his definition of experience: Just what do you mean by experience?

2. She inquired if other factors relating to experience were also important: Wouldnt you also want to know the experience levels of the people who will be working on your project? Like how many years of experience they have, how many corporate centers they have designed, how many awards for design they have won? These factors would have helped to differentiate her company from its competitor.

If Jennifer had explored Davids definition of the experience criterion, she might have won the sale.

2. LOOK FOR RISKS OTHER THAN PRIcE. The second step is to ask yourself, are there other risks to the customer besides price? You need to identify, reduce, or eliminate any risk you can to help keep price out of the discussion. That will help you avoid lowering the price if you dont have to. While the customer is comparing the various offerings against his or her decision criteria, ask questions about what he or she sees the risks to be in choosing your solution.

If the prospect measures risk in some quantifiable way-for example, in terms of price, penalties, or delivery terms and dates- you may have to enter into negotiations to resolve the customers specific concern. However, before you negotiate, see whether resolution of these particular concerns will result in an order. (Again, this is so you wont lower the price when it isnt necessary.)

For example, you might ask the customer, If it werent for our price compared to that of our competitor, would you select us? In other words, Jennifer should have asked, David, is price the only thing keeping you from choosing Lumber & Board?

The buyer may have other, deeper issues that need to be resolved, such as:

A A wrong decision could affect my career.

A The seller has a history of poor postsale performance.17

Addressing these issues by lowering your price is solving the wrong problem. Dr. Fred Webster, author of Market-Driven Management and professor of marketing at the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, used to say that as businesspeople, the most frustrating business experience we would ever encounter would be the discovery that we had solved the wrong problem.18

Negotiation of prices should always be the last thing a salesperson does in the sales cycle.

3. search for creative solutions. Even when youve made sure that the only remaining obstacle to the sale is price, there are still creative ways to avoid lowering it. IfJennifers problem was truly price, perhaps she could have inserted a performance clause into her proposed contract that would have made David and his staff feel more confident. Other creative examples might include:

A Providing additional implementation support

A Stretching payments out over a longer time period

A Decreasing the up-front retainer money

Top performers use creative solutions to reduce price concerns. Top performers also have the advantage of experience and knowledge of whats possible, especially when it comes to meeting difficult customer requirements. Of course, there are certain requirements that even a top performer cant meet or chooses not to meet. In this case, the salesperson should be candid and honest about saying so.19

ACTION POINTS

4Identify and develop customer needs. Ask yourself, Does the customer view his or her problem as sizable enough to solve? (For a fuller discussion of this, see Sales Trap 3, Its Best to Offer Solutions to Problems You See. )

4 Identify and develop ways to differentiate your offerings from the competition. Customers cant differentiate among their options unless the criteria theyll use to decide are stated in measurable, quantifiable terms. (This is discussed in Sales Trap 10, Rank Decision Criteria Relative to Competitors. )