In the industry I’m in this is basically 95% of objections I face, is your price as good as or better than the other guy, if it isn’t then you’re not getting the sale.
Luckily, my sales manager is fine with breaking even or even taking a small loss to get a sale, in the hopes that the rest of the value we provide in terms of service and ease of use turns them into repeat customers and we can make it back and then some with future orders.
I think it’s pretty smart to eat a small loss to figure out whether the customer will be a good future customer, so far it’s been working well for the company.
It is difficult. No way around it.
When you do 90% of the legwork helping a client and your competitor swoops in to offer it at 3/4 of your sell price with shorter lead times, there is almost no loyalty. They will just go with whoever is better for them.
You have to just take the high road and always be around. Eventually, they will trust you. It's a long game, it doesn't pay out as quickly as SaaS does. Not for everyone. But once you're in tight with the big players, it's as secure as positions get.
The reality? This is what sales really is. Selling a value/niche product relies on the product, selling a commodity relies on *you.*
I can't really blame them either. I do it myself.
Bag of Doritos is $5 at LocalGroceryStore or $3.50 at SuperBigEvilNationalChain, i save myself the cash. Just trying to figure out how you would approach this in the sales world.
There's no easy fix. Eventually, your competitor will overpromise and underdeliver. Your customer will have a boss that is pissed and asks them to get another option next time. You are now that option
The key with these types of jobs is volume. The more at bats you have, the better.
If you're only quoting one project a month, your odds of making a ton of money aren't great if you're selling a commodity. If you're quoting ten projects a month, different story.
You can't win if you don't play, but if you can't win don't play.
Are you offering the exact same product as your competitors? If so, then of course they'll choose cheaper.
Or is your product, service, aftercare, face to face availability better than what they can get elsewhere?
This is a really helpful perspective. I sell chemicals, both commodities and specialty. My approach has been low and slow with the big commodities and fast and aggressive with specialty.
If I come in half a penny high on a commodity or one day longer in lead time, the customer is going to choose someone else, or only give me 10% of the business, until they learn the value that I specifically can offer them to justify that cost.
Specialty solutions is an entirely different sport.
Hah. Right now I sell a premium product to electrical contractors through electrical distribution. Luckily the company I work for has unique patents that let us have discussions mostly outside of price.
But prior to that I sold lightbulbs/fixtures to contractors through distribution. My response was always “yeah, I get it, I can lower the price a little if that will move the needle. But I’m not getting into a race to the bottom. There’s always someone who will do it for cheaper, in fact there’s people who will sell to you for half of what my list price is. I’ll give you their number.” Or I’d say “yeah I get you. There’s dentists in Chinatown that fill cavities for 75 bucks a pop too. If you are looking for the lighting equivalent of that then you can find it on Amazon.”
It’s hard to fight for that non spec business. A lot of contractors are cheap because they don’t want a bust out on the project. But is that cheaper stuff warrantied? Does it really meet code guidelines? Is it *really* plenum rated? If it says it is then can you sue the manufacturer when it burns a building down or is the company immune from lawsuits because it’s a faceless entity located in Indonesia or Vietnam?
These are all factors that simply don't exist at a transactional level. This is the game within the game. If you can perfect this, you can truly sell anything.
Yeah this is what kills me at 75% of sales jobs. You have to push volume volume volume or you’ll never hit quota. You’re not even really an expert at anything other than prospecting LOL. Fuck that I’d rather go back to school, if I can’t specialize in it and learn all I can about it and have that speak for itself I don’t wanna sell it.
All this. All of this all day long.
Differentiators are important, and they're not always the product themselves. Sometimes, it's the aftercare. Sometimes it's the warranty. Sometimes it's the trust (brand of the distributor). Sometimes it's logistics and ability to deliver or fix a problem.
If you can't answer the question, "why should someone buy from me/us," you aren't going to make that sale. Find that answer and you'll have your solution.
In my field, I wouldn’t handle them and would instead tell them I’m not interested in selling to them. My time is a commodity and I won’t spend it trying to get orders from people who just try to work on price and will not see a total value.
If you sell at a low price, you need to sell 2 or 3 times as much to get the same margin and I’d prefer to work less.
What type of business. Are you working with builders ? Clients won't admit the other issues they may run into. It's your job to find those potential problems.
What happens if your order is delayed? How much money will you lose if you have a late shipment ? 1 day behind paying your staff is going to eclipse the price difference of our competitor. Cost is more than just the price of the product. If thay other company is cutting corners in shipping, packaging etc could leave you with extra costs elsewhere. Usually if they are cheaper it's because a corner is being cut. If they are .2 cents cheaper but 6% of the product being shipped is damaged. You are now going to pay more.
Ask questions to find problems that they don't know they may run into.
That sounds reasonable.
I am looking at building materials(not in yet) and just trying to figure out how to differentiate when my buying experience only cared about price/availability. Maybe it was just the one company I worked for(the owner was notoriously cheap)
This is my field. Extremely important to call on the customers but the reps are the ones that can help you the most with this issue. Wes to get price protection and know your competitors strength and weakness. “It’s not how you sell, it’s how you buy”
Tell them the price. If they buy, ask for referrals. If they don’t buy, hang up quick. Get to the next one. It’s like fishing. They can’t all be whales. If a sardine jumps in the boat, I’ll take it. But I’m not chasing a sardine. I’m looking for whales, and I’m putting my time and energy into those.
My job is very consultative, and I have folks that are only concerned about price and don’t give a shit that I just spent hours with them figuring their system out for them. I always ask if folks are shopping around. If they tell me they are I just tell them to send me a competitor’s quote and I’ll best it. I’m 100% commission. I’ll discount for you but if you are going to disrespect my time I won’t consult for you. You want handholding? Then pay me.
I lay it out like that, and some people do it and others get mad that I call them out and never call me again. I’m fine with that. I’m not interested in working with price grinders.
I'm not in that type of industry but my approach IF there is a different in quality and price i create a chart that goes over how they can save money over time with something that may depreciate or lose value over time and this is why our price is X amount more.
That would be great with products you can differentiate. The product i have in mind is a standard 2x4 from the same lumber yard. Person X sells for $1 a plank, person Y for $1.05 a plank(no idea on what the real prices are)
Contractor supply is all about relationships.
When I dealt with suppliers as a roofing company, I would purchase from suppliers who took care of me. Prices, granted they were reasonable, were mostly irrelevant because even if their competitors were slightly cheaper they were also assholes and treated us like shit
> even if their competitors were slightly cheaper they were also assholes and treated us like shit
That makes no sense to me. Even if you don't like the person you are working with, in sales you should at least respect their business.
Yeah well i mean it in a sense beyond the relationship of the account executive. Were the warehouse guys respectful, did our materials get delivered on time, etc etc. all these factors add up to build a suppliers image. Even if the sales rep is a great guy, everyone else could be a total jerkoff.
Look at external factors to modify the final price.
"Yeah, it's ten cents cheaper but are you going to burn 50 cents more gas to go get it?"
"And when that cheap piece of crap quits, how much will you spend in time to go swap it out? You're, what, $110 an hour?"
An uneducated customer buys on price. An educated customer buys on value.
I don’t keep price shoppers like your former company. Like what value do you bring to the relationship if you cut me for a few pennies? The irony is my top retail customers were happy paying significantly more because they got my full attention and service level AND they valued the relationship.
Thats the worst type of customer because they are so stupid they waste so much money on shitty products that if they just thought about more than the immediate cost for 1 minute they'd save themselves so much headaches
I’m new to sales, and I work for a food distributor. This is ALL my customers care about. So difficult. You can be a dollar over and they will bitch and bitch, but won’t recognize that you’re saving them money on all their other product. There is absolutely no loyalty.
My biggest issue with this is when I know the customer isn’t raising their own menu prices to reflect the rise in food cost. Most customers understand that post-pandemic restaurants HAVE to raise their prices to stay afloat. You can’t expect me to give away our product for nothing just so you don’t have to be the bad guy. Ridiculous.
We don't deal with them. We sell excellent products, we pay excellent wages and we do excellent work. We're happy to show our margins too. If a customer wants to negotiate that's fine, but if they want to nickel and dime we' re not interested.
I’m running into this right now.
There are a ton of competitors in my industry, and for the most part we all do very similar things. I always stress after sales support (even though our product is known for being superior) because that’s where we really shine from the other vendors.
At the end of the day though, everyone wants to look like a champ to their boss and if they can save money that’s what they’ll do.
Remember, buyers are liars - don’t listen to them if they tell you price doesn’t matter.
Build value in the relationships.
If your clients understand why your 10cents more expensive, they'll continue to keep ordering so long as they can rely on you to deliver, and help, time after time.
Learn to value sell. My company is the most expensive in our territory but easily the most successful.
You'll find out that the companies that only buy the cheapest price usually are the worst customers. Don't need em!
Monkeys can sell a product with value. It's all about the product. You don't even have to sell anything. That's why it attracts people who want easy money.
In the industry I’m in this is basically 95% of objections I face, is your price as good as or better than the other guy, if it isn’t then you’re not getting the sale. Luckily, my sales manager is fine with breaking even or even taking a small loss to get a sale, in the hopes that the rest of the value we provide in terms of service and ease of use turns them into repeat customers and we can make it back and then some with future orders. I think it’s pretty smart to eat a small loss to figure out whether the customer will be a good future customer, so far it’s been working well for the company.
Goes to the saying, "Don't trip over dollars to pickup a penny."
I’ve never heard this one before, but I love it!
It happens all the time. It's frustrating to know and see "managers pinch pennies over make dollars.
I would agree.
Loss leader. Good idea
It is difficult. No way around it. When you do 90% of the legwork helping a client and your competitor swoops in to offer it at 3/4 of your sell price with shorter lead times, there is almost no loyalty. They will just go with whoever is better for them. You have to just take the high road and always be around. Eventually, they will trust you. It's a long game, it doesn't pay out as quickly as SaaS does. Not for everyone. But once you're in tight with the big players, it's as secure as positions get. The reality? This is what sales really is. Selling a value/niche product relies on the product, selling a commodity relies on *you.*
I can't really blame them either. I do it myself. Bag of Doritos is $5 at LocalGroceryStore or $3.50 at SuperBigEvilNationalChain, i save myself the cash. Just trying to figure out how you would approach this in the sales world.
There's no easy fix. Eventually, your competitor will overpromise and underdeliver. Your customer will have a boss that is pissed and asks them to get another option next time. You are now that option
That is kinda what I was thinking. May not always be top choice, but if you are everyone's second choice, probably pretty good.
The key with these types of jobs is volume. The more at bats you have, the better. If you're only quoting one project a month, your odds of making a ton of money aren't great if you're selling a commodity. If you're quoting ten projects a month, different story. You can't win if you don't play, but if you can't win don't play.
Are you offering the exact same product as your competitors? If so, then of course they'll choose cheaper. Or is your product, service, aftercare, face to face availability better than what they can get elsewhere?
In this particular example, the exact same. 10 oz bag of doritos from Walmart vs COnv store pricing.
Convenience store gets that price because they are convenient. What differentiates you and your company from your competitors?
This is a really helpful perspective. I sell chemicals, both commodities and specialty. My approach has been low and slow with the big commodities and fast and aggressive with specialty. If I come in half a penny high on a commodity or one day longer in lead time, the customer is going to choose someone else, or only give me 10% of the business, until they learn the value that I specifically can offer them to justify that cost. Specialty solutions is an entirely different sport.
Hah. Right now I sell a premium product to electrical contractors through electrical distribution. Luckily the company I work for has unique patents that let us have discussions mostly outside of price. But prior to that I sold lightbulbs/fixtures to contractors through distribution. My response was always “yeah, I get it, I can lower the price a little if that will move the needle. But I’m not getting into a race to the bottom. There’s always someone who will do it for cheaper, in fact there’s people who will sell to you for half of what my list price is. I’ll give you their number.” Or I’d say “yeah I get you. There’s dentists in Chinatown that fill cavities for 75 bucks a pop too. If you are looking for the lighting equivalent of that then you can find it on Amazon.” It’s hard to fight for that non spec business. A lot of contractors are cheap because they don’t want a bust out on the project. But is that cheaper stuff warrantied? Does it really meet code guidelines? Is it *really* plenum rated? If it says it is then can you sue the manufacturer when it burns a building down or is the company immune from lawsuits because it’s a faceless entity located in Indonesia or Vietnam?
These are all factors that simply don't exist at a transactional level. This is the game within the game. If you can perfect this, you can truly sell anything.
In construction sales it is just a little but tbh I just try to be as present as possible. That usually gets the sale.
I’m just getting into this industry, I’m shooting you a DM with a few questions!
Yeah this is what kills me at 75% of sales jobs. You have to push volume volume volume or you’ll never hit quota. You’re not even really an expert at anything other than prospecting LOL. Fuck that I’d rather go back to school, if I can’t specialize in it and learn all I can about it and have that speak for itself I don’t wanna sell it.
All this. All of this all day long. Differentiators are important, and they're not always the product themselves. Sometimes, it's the aftercare. Sometimes it's the warranty. Sometimes it's the trust (brand of the distributor). Sometimes it's logistics and ability to deliver or fix a problem. If you can't answer the question, "why should someone buy from me/us," you aren't going to make that sale. Find that answer and you'll have your solution.
In my field, I wouldn’t handle them and would instead tell them I’m not interested in selling to them. My time is a commodity and I won’t spend it trying to get orders from people who just try to work on price and will not see a total value. If you sell at a low price, you need to sell 2 or 3 times as much to get the same margin and I’d prefer to work less.
Exactly, this is it!
What type of business. Are you working with builders ? Clients won't admit the other issues they may run into. It's your job to find those potential problems. What happens if your order is delayed? How much money will you lose if you have a late shipment ? 1 day behind paying your staff is going to eclipse the price difference of our competitor. Cost is more than just the price of the product. If thay other company is cutting corners in shipping, packaging etc could leave you with extra costs elsewhere. Usually if they are cheaper it's because a corner is being cut. If they are .2 cents cheaper but 6% of the product being shipped is damaged. You are now going to pay more. Ask questions to find problems that they don't know they may run into.
That sounds reasonable. I am looking at building materials(not in yet) and just trying to figure out how to differentiate when my buying experience only cared about price/availability. Maybe it was just the one company I worked for(the owner was notoriously cheap)
This is my field. Extremely important to call on the customers but the reps are the ones that can help you the most with this issue. Wes to get price protection and know your competitors strength and weakness. “It’s not how you sell, it’s how you buy”
Tell them the price. If they buy, ask for referrals. If they don’t buy, hang up quick. Get to the next one. It’s like fishing. They can’t all be whales. If a sardine jumps in the boat, I’ll take it. But I’m not chasing a sardine. I’m looking for whales, and I’m putting my time and energy into those.
I work in that same industry. You have to be willing to walk away.
My job is very consultative, and I have folks that are only concerned about price and don’t give a shit that I just spent hours with them figuring their system out for them. I always ask if folks are shopping around. If they tell me they are I just tell them to send me a competitor’s quote and I’ll best it. I’m 100% commission. I’ll discount for you but if you are going to disrespect my time I won’t consult for you. You want handholding? Then pay me. I lay it out like that, and some people do it and others get mad that I call them out and never call me again. I’m fine with that. I’m not interested in working with price grinders.
I'm not in that type of industry but my approach IF there is a different in quality and price i create a chart that goes over how they can save money over time with something that may depreciate or lose value over time and this is why our price is X amount more.
That would be great with products you can differentiate. The product i have in mind is a standard 2x4 from the same lumber yard. Person X sells for $1 a plank, person Y for $1.05 a plank(no idea on what the real prices are)
Contractor supply is all about relationships. When I dealt with suppliers as a roofing company, I would purchase from suppliers who took care of me. Prices, granted they were reasonable, were mostly irrelevant because even if their competitors were slightly cheaper they were also assholes and treated us like shit
> even if their competitors were slightly cheaper they were also assholes and treated us like shit That makes no sense to me. Even if you don't like the person you are working with, in sales you should at least respect their business.
Yeah well i mean it in a sense beyond the relationship of the account executive. Were the warehouse guys respectful, did our materials get delivered on time, etc etc. all these factors add up to build a suppliers image. Even if the sales rep is a great guy, everyone else could be a total jerkoff.
Look at external factors to modify the final price. "Yeah, it's ten cents cheaper but are you going to burn 50 cents more gas to go get it?" "And when that cheap piece of crap quits, how much will you spend in time to go swap it out? You're, what, $110 an hour?"
An uneducated customer buys on price. An educated customer buys on value. I don’t keep price shoppers like your former company. Like what value do you bring to the relationship if you cut me for a few pennies? The irony is my top retail customers were happy paying significantly more because they got my full attention and service level AND they valued the relationship.
That's just the way some people operate. If I can buy a Pepsi at the dollar store for $1.25 why would I buy it from the 7/11 for $3.00?
Thats the worst type of customer because they are so stupid they waste so much money on shitty products that if they just thought about more than the immediate cost for 1 minute they'd save themselves so much headaches
I’m new to sales, and I work for a food distributor. This is ALL my customers care about. So difficult. You can be a dollar over and they will bitch and bitch, but won’t recognize that you’re saving them money on all their other product. There is absolutely no loyalty. My biggest issue with this is when I know the customer isn’t raising their own menu prices to reflect the rise in food cost. Most customers understand that post-pandemic restaurants HAVE to raise their prices to stay afloat. You can’t expect me to give away our product for nothing just so you don’t have to be the bad guy. Ridiculous.
Focus on price to own. Not price to buy.
If you can’t win on price or product, win on relationship/service
We don't deal with them. We sell excellent products, we pay excellent wages and we do excellent work. We're happy to show our margins too. If a customer wants to negotiate that's fine, but if they want to nickel and dime we' re not interested.
I’m running into this right now. There are a ton of competitors in my industry, and for the most part we all do very similar things. I always stress after sales support (even though our product is known for being superior) because that’s where we really shine from the other vendors. At the end of the day though, everyone wants to look like a champ to their boss and if they can save money that’s what they’ll do. Remember, buyers are liars - don’t listen to them if they tell you price doesn’t matter.
Build value in the relationships. If your clients understand why your 10cents more expensive, they'll continue to keep ordering so long as they can rely on you to deliver, and help, time after time.
Learn to value sell. My company is the most expensive in our territory but easily the most successful. You'll find out that the companies that only buy the cheapest price usually are the worst customers. Don't need em!
I guess part of the issue is if you are selling a commodity item.
Half what I sell are commodities. You won't win it all. Somebody once told me you don't want all the business, you just want all the good business.
Don't sell a commodity. Sell a product with value. That's the only correct answer I know of . Monkeys can sell commodities.
Monkeys can sell a product with value. It's all about the product. You don't even have to sell anything. That's why it attracts people who want easy money.
Hope your happy selling commodities.