Price without Fear

Episode Notes

I call it the Negotiation Variables Value Mapper - a simple tool based on the principle that in a negotiation we shouldn't give anything away without getting something back in return.

"If you can do this for me, I may be able to that for you"

Of course we can make concessions where and when we need to, however we should trade areas of low cost to us and high value to the customer, in return for any concessions we want to protect our position with aspects of the deal that are of high value to us. These are the things we ask our customer for.

Preparing two lists - 1. what we can ask from the customer and 2. what we are prepared to give them are crucial in this process otherwise we run the risk of giving too much away too soon. Prioritise these lists in terms of cost and value.

If you create this tool and use it consistently it will help you protect your margins and value in the deal.

Value negotiating is focused on the idea of negotiating using your value - the results and outcomes you help your customer achieve through your products and services as the main source of strength or leverage in the negotiation.

This may not sound too dissimilar to other definitions of negotiating, however we know that as Price is THE most powerful profit lever you have, an approach that emphasises value and not price as the key lever in the negotiation stands much better chance of protecting margins than any other approach.

Over the course of future episodes we'll explore this in more detail and give you some frameworks and tools that will help you in your value negotiating.

Discounting may be useful in some limited circumstances. If we do decide that discounting is ok then we need to make sure we do it in the right way.

By managing how you discount and who to will discount to, you will be in a much better position to secure and protect your prices and margins.

Don't discount without a good reason, do the numbers first and understand the impact on your market and customer positioning. If you do decide to discount your prices, do it in a controlled way that delivers the objectives you want.

If you want to win more deals more often at higher prices - manage discounts and price reductions.

These three tips will really help, they've helped me and my clients get the prices we deserve. They will give you more confidence, and this confidence will translate to the customer in terms of their confidence that you can deliver the results and outcomes for them.

They will not only help achieve the prices you deserve, they will also give you more confidence to talk numbers.

And make this part of the value selling process easier, simpler and more enjoyable, yes enjoyable.

Oh and the bonus tip is crucial!

Value can mean different things to different people, we all value things differently.

So if we want to be more concise and clear in our language, using some other words and phrases may be more useful. 

This episode will give you three other words you can use that will have an impact in your value conversations, increasing your chances of getting the right message understood by your customer as you discuss what you can do for them in their business.

Customers won't necessarily 'get' the full value of what we deliver for them through our products and services, they'll have many things to think about and supplier performnce is just one. If they're happy with you they will know it, but not necessary just how value you are to them.

So it's up to us to make sure our customers really understand the value, results and outcomes we help them achieve. And if we can quantify this and monetise it then we're communicating our value in a powerful way.

This episode will give you three reason why this is so important, one of which makes winning future deals at higher prices much much easier.

In order to be able to 'value' price effectively we need to be able to understand value in our customer's terms.

In the third episode in this 'mini' series I talk about how you can begin to identify what is important - or valuable to your customers - in the more intangible areas they may be interested in.

Sometimes outcomes and value may not be measured or quantifiable in terms of money, improved conversion rates, win/loss ratios and so on.

They are more difficult to put a figure on, issues like feelings, or a sense of safety and reduced risk.

However these are all areas we need to consider when understanding what outcomes and value means to our customers because we know people buy on emotions as well as rational drivers. 

In the second episode in this 'mini' series I talk about how you can begin to identify what is important - or valuable to your customers.

By providing a framework to understand what is really important to our customers we can begin to focus in on the key issues impacting their business and how we can help them improve.

The upcoming episodes will put more detail into this area so we can really get to grips with what is important to our customers and how we can ensure we deliver the outcomes and results they will value - which means we will then have a much better chance of winning deals, more often at higher prices.

In order to be able to 'value' price effectively we need to be able to understand value in our customer's terms.

This isn't necessarily that easy as value can mean different things to different people and can be very contextual and depend on the situation they are in.

What is crucial is to understand what is important to customers, in this episode I introduce a simple idea and tool to help us get started in this area.

The upcoming episodes will put more detail into this area so we can really get to grips with what is important to our customers and how we can ensure we deliver the outcomes and results they will value - which means we will then have a much better chance of winning deals, more often at higher prices.

Driven by the fear of rejection, challenge or disagreement - and potentially losing the business.

We may practice overcoming price objections, how about avoiding them in the first place.

So anything that can gives us more confidence to handle these conversations more effectively will help, yes?

In this episode I'll give you one word change that can turn this stressful part of the conversation into something much more positive and enjoyable.

I suggest you practice using the phrase, frame it with the words you want and feel comfortable to you then practice your new wording until you become familiar and confident with it.

Try it and see how it goes - it could make all the difference to you winning more deals more often at higher prices.