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The more founders I coach and more sales calls I review, I see a similar pattern showing up in regards to lost deals.

When they get pushback on pricing or no response at all, the default idea is that the deal was lost because the pricing was too high.

But, it's rarely that simple.

When you go back through the call(s), you'll almost always find one of four things got skipped before the price ever came up.

Deals get lost for a variety of reasons. But, if you’re continually losing on price or feel that is the “make or break” in your sales process, see if the four suggestions below would help you prime your buyer prior to that discussion.

The real problem isn’t the surface problem. “Needing more leads” isn’t the problem. It’s what the lack of leads is doing to their business. Or, the decisions it’s causing. Or, the money it’s bleeding.

We have to find the actual friction underneath that, and what it's costing them by staying unsolved.

If you don't know the impact of the problem, or it isn’t a high level priority, they won’t see the price as worth it.

What was their buying criteria?

How were they going to make a decision?

What does success look like for them on the other end?

If their decision ends up being a “gut decision” then you have nothing tangible to tie it to so pricing can become hard to justify.

When you skip this, it makes the pricing discussion more abstract instead of using concrete numbers and business drivers.

You may have shown some cool slides and rattled off a bit of knowledge about the topic but did you connect the dots?

Like what a partnership really looks like or the path from start to finish or what milestones they’ll achieve along the way.

Buyers need to envision themselves in the story. They have to see themselves as the hero.

If you don’t create that visual, you’re talking in theory versus absolutes.

If the first number they see is the number on a slide (or worse a PDF you sent over through email), you're already way behind. Unless you got lucky and they’ve already thought about budget, then you’re doing yourself a disservice by not talking about budget earlier.

That may be by asking them about their budget or that may be by providing some ballparks.

How it might sound:

(asking them)

“Did you have a budget set aside for this project or are you still figuring that out?”

“Are you familiar with what these types of products/services typically cost?”

(sharing yours)

“Let’s set up a call so I can go through pricing in depth but typically partnerships range from $7,500-$15,000 over 90 days. Once we confirm some details I can get you an exact cost structure.”

“There’s a one-time implementation cost and an annual subscription cost. We price the annual subscription off of employee count so you’d be around $12,000 per year. The implementation cost varies widely based on a few factors, anywhere from $10-$30k. Let’s use the next call to confirm some of those things to solidify pricing.”

When you think about your lost deals, especially the ones where you got pricing resistance, ask yourself if you did everything in your power to prime the buyer to make this a no brainer type decision.

If you discuss pricing early and they aren’t walking in blind, it makes the proposal call much more about the overall partnership and less about the price of the product.

That doesn’t mean they will always buy, or buy from you, but it does mean that you can have an open and direct conversation about their thought process for a decision and the barriers that still stand in the way.

“Old” sales tactics would say to keep the pricing close to the vest in order to have that leverage to make people show up.

But, that’s not how people buy any longer. And nor should you want to work with people who are only looking for the cheapest price.

As I shared last week with my new sales framework, ORBIT, people are coming in and out of the buying process and there is more conscensus decisions than ever before. But, also a more informed decision on the market, too.

So, lead your buyer.

Share information, advise them, challenge them and most importantly, show your cards. They’ll appreciate that you’re not wasting their time.

Plus, that transparency will make the pricing discussion that less awkward.

Pull your last deal that you think lost on price. Go through all four.

Which one did you skip?

Try to add that into your next call and get really specific on the details.

Reply and tell me which one you skipped. I read every one.

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