Pricing objections will come, as a founder or business owner it’s important to prepare yourself (and your team) for when a client prospect says, “No thank you.” Whether it’s because it’s too expensive or they don’t know if they need it or something else, knowing what to do next can feel confusing or even a bit scary. Certainly it can leave you wondering how to overcome pricing objections and respond in the best way possible.
It’s not uncommon to feel confident telling people about your offer, after all that’s your thing. You could talk about that all day long. At the same time when it comes to talking about how much people need to invest in your product or offer, you might feel a total lack of confidence. Many people feel that way. Then add to that the fear of someone rejecting your offer and “Bam!” you’re in uncharted territory – nervousness kicks in and it gets harder to know what to say.
My clients often voice concerns about handling pricing objections confidently (some even ask how to avoid them – you can’t and shouldn’t strive to). And they are curious about what arguments they can use to defend their position. And while you do want to understand the value and communicate it well, launching into a defense when you get an objection is not the best response.
This episode was the result of countless questions from people just like you who asked themselves, “How can I overcome pricing objections?” The urge to defend your pricing is natural, but there’s a better way forward.
Join us as we delve into the art of asking the right questions and truly grasping the objections raised by your customers.
In This Episode
Listen and discover invaluable insights into the skill of handling objections gracefully and strategically. Learn simple techniques to get to the bottom of why they are objecting. Getting curious about their response takes the pressure off you so you can more confidently and uncover mutually beneficial solutions with your customers.
Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur fine-tuning your pricing strategies or a newcomer seeking guidance, don’t miss out on this episode. Bid farewell to the fear of pricing objections and embrace newfound confidence in your pricing journey.
Podcast Episode Highlights
- 0:00 Intro
- 1:50 Strategies for Responding
- 4:13 Unveiling the Real Reason Behind
- 6:36 Turning Objections into Opportunities
- 8:02 Wrapping it Up
Favorite Quotes
“(Often) when people ask for help (with objections)…they ask “Janene, what arguments can I use when people put pressure on me or say no to my offer? …when they object?”” Janene
“The reality is you don’t know why they’ve objected. There are myriad reasons why they might have said that. And many of them have nothing to do with the price at all.” Janene
“They may just be saying no (that’s too expensive) to shut the conversation down. it’s a simple way to do that. It could also be that they don’t really know why either. Your objective at this point is to understand what’s behind the objection.” Janene
Episode Links
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Episode Transcript
Janene: Hello, my friend, it’s Janene back here. Once again, this is Live with The Pricing Lady, the podcast. Welcome back. For the past eight weeks, we have taken a little break of releasing new episodes, but we did bring you my value vault series where we shared retro soaps, tips and resources on various topics over the past few weeks.
I hope that you enjoyed the series, and if you have not had an opportunity, go back in your emails and have a look at what was in there, or head on over to LinkedIn and take a look at my post there. You’ll find all those resources, tips, and retrosodes there. Today we have a brand-new episode for you, and what I want to talk to you about today is the worst way you can respond to pricing pressure.
Strategies for Responding to Pricing Objections
Now, this episode came to me as a result of the questions that I get from people when it comes to the objections they get from their customers. And most of the time, when people ask for help, this is what they ask me for. They say, “Hey Janene, what arguments can I use when people put pressure or say no to my offer, when they object to my offer?”
And this led me to understand that most people feel that when they get a pricing objection or any sort of sales objection, that they have to first defend themselves and their offer. And to me, this is the worst way you can respond to an objection, pricing or otherwise in that, for that matter.
Why do I say that? Well, if we just look at the pricing part of it, when someone says, Ooh, that’s, you know, no, thank you. That’s too expensive for me. A lot of times people are using that response to simply shut the conversation down. And, and it works because it’s not like you’re going to say, well, prove to me that you can’t afford this.
Yeah. You would never say that to someone that would be incredibly rude, right? It serves a very good purpose to shut the conversation down. The reality is you don’t actually know why they’ve said that there are a myriad of reasons why they might have said that. And many of them have nothing to do with the price at all.
So how can you overcome pricing objections?
What to do?
What I want to share with you is what you can or could be doing when you get such objections. Now, the first thing for many of you. It will feel, when you get an objection to your offer, it might trigger you a bit. The first thing that you want to do is you want to breathe. And the reason you take a nice deep breath is to keep the cognitive part of your brain functioning properly.
You don’t want to go into fight or flight mode or panic mode. You want to be able to think clearly when this happens. Take a nice deep breath. You might even try to have a little smile in your eyes, not a goofy smile on your face, but you know, just try to relax yourself and stay in a good frame of mind.
Unveiling the Real Reason Behind
So that is the part number one to overcome an objection. The second thing you want to do is you want to ask them a question. So rather than launching into a list of, well, this is why you should buy from me and this is why you should buy our product or this is why you should download our app, so on and so forth. You want to ask them a question and it might sound something like this.
Someone says, Ooh, you know what? That’s a bit too expensive for me. You might say, Oh, that’s really interesting. Can you tell me more? And then just zip it. Don’t say anything and wait for them to respond. What you’re doing here is you’re actually putting the responsibility on them to explain what’s behind that answer.
And that is a beautiful thing for them and for you. As I said before, they may just be saying that to shut the conversation down because it’s a simple thing to, a simple way to respond. It could also be that they don’t really know why. They don’t want to take that offer right now. And so now you’re giving them the opportunity to vocalize that and you get the benefit of hearing it.
Listen to What They’re Saying
The next thing you want to do is simply listen to what they’re saying. Try not to think about what you’re going to say next or what you need to, you know, defend your offer. Just listen to what they’re saying, because then you’re going to ask some clarifying questions. Because your objective at this point is to understand what is behind that objection.
Is it really the price? Could it be that they have a different understanding of the value? Could it be that they are just looking for a second offer so that they can accept another one? Now they may never tell you that. But you want to understand as much as you can about what’s behind that answer.
Because that is how you can understand where to take the conversation next. If they say, well, you know, I’m not really sure that this will work for me, you say, Oh, okay. It’s not about the price. It’s actually about how we might work together or what this can really bring you. What is it do you feel that’s missing?
Turning Objections into Opportunities
Cause then you can take the conversation in that direction. Now maybe your offer doesn’t include that thing that’s missing. That’s good information for you. Maybe you could include that missing thing in what you offer if it is, or maybe it’s there, but they just didn’t realize it. Right? So, by understanding what’s behind their objection, whether it be a pricing objection or any other sort of sales objection, it helps you understand better where to take the conversation from there.
So, to summarize, the worst way that you could respond to pricing pressure is to go into defense mode. Your first action should be to breathe, second action to ask them a question, then listen and then ask further clarifying questions so that you know in which direction to steer the conversation next.
Now, this is a shorty, but it is a great episode because I want you to start feeling more confident and not so afraid of those of hearing that first “no” from your customers. Yeah. Cause if you’re afraid of it, then you’re going to get more triggered when they come your way. Use them (pricing objections) as an opportunity to understand your customers and the situation better and find the right path to come up with a mutually beneficial way forward for you both.
Wrapping it Up
That’s all for today’s episode. I also want to take this opportunity to let you know that the next cohort of the Fair Price Formula is now open for enrollment. This course is all about helping you understand step by step how to set your prices. Over about two weeks, I take you through that process. We look at the customer, we look at the offer and the value, we look at the willingness to pay, and we get into the competition.
And your cost and profit. It’s a fantastic course. If you just head on over to thepricinglady.com on the homepage, you will find the link to it there. We will also put it in the show notes. It would be my great pleasure to have you join me. If you have any questions about if that course is fit for you, please book a call with me and let’s have a chat.
I wish you a great day and as always enjoy pricing my friend.