| In sales seminars I often ask the question: How | | | | match and avoid the intimidating tactics of their |
| often do your customers and prospects tell you | | | | opponents.Perhaps there is a book on the "inner |
| that your prices are too high?Typical answers: all | | | | game" of selling, but if there is, I've never read it. |
| the time; daily; just about every time I quote.It's | | | | I do know from experience, however, that a |
| easy to lose confidence in the competitiveness of | | | | salesperson's willingness to prepare to make a |
| the prices you're authorized to quote when | | | | sales call is as important, if not more important, |
| customers and prospects continuously and | | | | than the willingness to make the call itself.Bobby |
| consistently tell you that your prices are not | | | | Knight, the controversial, but highly successful |
| competitive as compared to the prices your | | | | coach at Indiana, and now Texas Tech, once said, |
| competitors are quoting in the marketplace.When | | | | "The will to prepare to win is more important than |
| you lose confidence, you become vulnerable. Your | | | | the will to win." He was talking about practice.Did |
| gross margin is at risk of deteriorating. Pricing | | | | you ever play high school football, basketball, |
| insecurity leads to a general lack of courage.In my | | | | baseball, tennis, soccer, etc.? Most of us did.Did |
| younger days, my wife and I were both avid | | | | you practice before the big game? Of course you |
| tennis players. Except for the time we were | | | | did. If you played a team sport, did you ever |
| engaged in church-related activities, we spent the | | | | watch game films? Of course you did.You were |
| majority of our weekends on the tennis court. So | | | | an amateur, you weren't paid to play, yet you |
| I knew a lot about the game of tennis.Soon I had | | | | practiced like crazy. Your coach made sure that |
| enough confidence in my game to begin playing | | | | you practiced hard enough to get prepared for |
| some tournament tennis. Although I have several | | | | going up against an opponent.Now you're a |
| trophies to prove my ability to occasionally win | | | | professional! The amount of your income is |
| tennis matches, I would, of course, sometimes | | | | influenced largely by your ability to make a sale at |
| would lose. And on some on those occasions I | | | | full price without having to resort to discounting. |
| would actually begin the losing process during the | | | | But how much do you practice? How much time |
| warm-up, you know when you and your | | | | do you spend preparing to defend your prices? |
| opponent spend a few minutes before the match | | | | Even though you know that the probability is quite |
| hitting forehands, backhands, overhead smashes, | | | | high that your customers and prospects will |
| serves, etc.How could you possibly lose during the | | | | question the competitiveness of your prices, I'll |
| warm-up, you might ask? After all, you don't | | | | bet you rarely, if ever, go through the preparation |
| even keep score while you're warming up. Well, I'll | | | | that is necessary to raise the odds that you will |
| tell you. And if you've ever played against a really | | | | get the order at full price.Most salespeople merely |
| good tennis player, you can hopefully relate to my | | | | "wing it." Sure, they work long hours (play hard), |
| explanation. I became intimidated by the speed of | | | | but they don't practice. They do little to prepare.If |
| my opponent's serve. My opponent would serve | | | | you want to see your gross margins improve |
| the ball with such incredible velocity that I made | | | | along with your sales, make the decision to |
| up my mind before the match ever began that | | | | allocate some time for preparation for the sales |
| he was going to wipe me off the court.Has | | | | call. Ask your supervisor or a fellow salesperson |
| something similar ever happened to you? Perhaps | | | | to play the role of the customer to give you an |
| it wasn't before a tennis match, maybe it was | | | | opportunity to practice. If you can't perform well |
| during a golf tournament. Your opponent birdied | | | | in practice, odds are you won't perform well when |
| the first hole and you had to scramble like crazy | | | | the sales call is for real.Even if all you do is to pull |
| just to make a double bogie. Your confidence was | | | | your vehicle over to the side of the road before |
| shattered. You made up your mind after the first | | | | arriving at the sales call, spend a few minutes |
| hole that your opponent was a far superior player. | | | | anticipating the kinds of objections you're likely to |
| You quickly forgot about the birdies you've made | | | | encounter. Then prepare the kinds of responses |
| over the years. All you were able to concentrate | | | | you will use to overcome them.Your willingness to |
| on was HIS birdie and YOUR double bogie.It's | | | | prepare a defense will largely determine how |
| funny how our minds play these kinds of tricks on | | | | much resolve your demeanor will reflect when |
| us. But any competitor knows that most | | | | you quote your prices. If you sound at all pathetic |
| sports-related games are as much mental as they | | | | when you quote your prices, your customers and |
| are physical. If our "minds are not right," neither is | | | | prospects will instinctively pick up on your |
| our game.The same psychology holds true in | | | | insecurity in a heartbeat.Athletes spend more time |
| selling. Salespeople that allow customers and | | | | practicing than they spend playing. How about |
| prospects to "get to them;" that is, get "inside | | | | you? Are you a practicing sales professional or a |
| their head" with a whole host of negatives often | | | | salesperson who merely plays hard?Bill Lee is |
| lose their pricing conviction before they ever get | | | | author of Gross Margin: 26 Factors Affecting |
| out of the starting blocks.I read a book once -- I | | | | Your Bottom Line ($29.95) and 30 Ways |
| don't remember the author's name -- called the | | | | Managers Shoot Themselves in the Foot $21.95). |
| Inner Game of Tennis. The author attempted to | | | | $6 S&H. |
| teach the reader to mentally prepare for a tennis | | | | |