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Price objections. Salespeople expect to get them and customers expect to give them. Most of the time we greatly exaggerate their importance and significance and I can prove to you that I’m right.

There have been numerous studies on the most important issues to buyers when they choose a vendor. The issues identified in these studies are consistently and virtually identical. These issues are (ranked in order of importance):

1. Availability of product or service
2. Risks of partnering with the vendor
3. Service
4. Quality
5. Price

Notice that only items one and five have an objective measurement associated with them. We can tell the customer if we have the product or not and we can certainly tell them a price.

However, we can’t provide meaningful quantification regarding risks, service or quality. Our customers know that we can’t accurately give them this important information so they don’t ask about it.

But they do ask about availability and price. Customers seem to have an unending stream of questions about price, which makes us think that it’s a priority to them. It’s not, but they know it’s a question with an answer.

How do our customers get data in order to answer their higher priority questions about risks, service and quality? They get it through time and relationship with us. Over time a customer’s experience with us and our company will fill in those information gaps for them.

Evidence of this can be found in long term customers’ price sensitivity. Generally speaking, the longer we do business with a customer the less price sensitive they become. Why? We have provided them with answers regarding risks, service and quality, so price has been relegated to its proper place in their perspective, fifth.

Remember that most price objections are stated objections, not real objections. Our prospects and new customers are simply trying to learn something about us when they ask about price. We’ve got to be careful not to read too much into questions about price.

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Tags: objections, pricing

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