Carlos Garcia is an EWTS Certified Guide sales coach for financial professionals, training and teaching financial professionals to be more effective communicators. He specializes in helping accountants and bankers in the finance space elevate their Critical Conversations.
During his recent Critical Conversations webinar, Carlos shared his advice on how to lead a negotiation with the value you can provide rather than your prices.
The Price vs. Value Dilemma
How can you convey your value without fixating on price with your clients?
This notion is very difficult to communicate and takes a lot of practice to get the balance just right.
Carlos thought he knew exactly how to do this – until he took the massive step to start up his own company. Without the backing of an established business, he wasn’t sure how to properly convey his value to his prospective clients.
He turned to his brother for advice, who is an expert in this area, and explained his business concept – he wanted to sell his unique sales training to his own clients.
The first thing that his brother told him to do was to create his product and then find a customer. Carlos managed to do both of those things, but then faced the dilemma of what he should charge for his training.
The first mistake he made was to pick a price based on what he thought would make him a sale. He wasn’t leading with all of his years of experience or the results that he could provide. Instead, he just wanted to price it so that he would make a sale.
His brother pointed out his mistake, highlighting that this initial price was way too low. Carlos was advised to charge another amount – an amount 5 times the initial cost.
The mistake Carlos made was a common one. He was basing his prices on what he thought would sell, he wasn’t thinking about the value that he was creating.
Have you ever done something similar? Most people have done this at some point in their professional careers, but you must remember your worth.
Carlos’ brother reminded him that as a result of the training on offer, the attendees would learn how to become better salespeople and this adds a huge amount of value to the company he has been hired by.
How To Craft A Compelling Value Proposition
If you’re worried about conveying your worth to prospects, then you need a compelling value proposition. But how can you create yours?
Carlos believes that there are 4 steps to the process.
You should first change your mindset – you don’t have to calculate everything based on the hours that you put in.
Price is what you pay, but value is what you get.
Focus on the outcomes that you’re going to create. Assign your value toward the results you can generate for your customers.
By doing this, you are going to allow your customer to shift their mindset away from price and get behind the outcomes you’ll deliver instead.
Next, recognize your value.
Carlos had 15 years of training experience, and he put his heart and soul into his content and training, knowing all the while that what he was providing would help others significantly to get results.
By following his tutelage, his clients would get a great return on their investment in him. Backing yourself will show your clients that you know what you are doing.
The third is always to rely on your evidence that you’ve done all of this before, and you’ve done it well.
You’ve served your customers, they’ve raved about you, they’ve come back to you, they’ve referred people to you. Present your prospects with evidence of this from reviews and recommendations.
The final step is the return on investment.
What is the long-term return that they could get out of your product or service?
Whether it’s financial, spiritual, emotional, or mental, let your clients know what they will get from working with you.
When putting your value proposition together answer the following 4 questions:
- What problem do you solve?
- What are your qualifications?
- What's the unique solution that you provide?
- What results, outcomes, or benefits can the end client get?
Simple Swaps
Could it be possible that by making some Simple Swaps you could sell more on value instead of price?
For this, you might need to change your approach. So let’s talk about some significant differences between price and value.
When you think about value, you tend to focus the conversation more on the impact that it can have and the outcomes that that solution is going to create.
Price is often seen as a tangible figure, whereas value is perceived as a holistic and intangible benefit.
There are certain things that you can’t put a price tag on, for example, having peace of mind. You simply can’t put a price tag on that.
If you use the language of price, then you are creating the perception of cost.
But if you use the language of value, then you reflect the worth to the buyer.
The price might not consider the return on investment, whereas value does focus on the return on investment.
So here are a few Simple Swaps for you to consider:
- Swap cost for investment - Cost typically creates a perception of price, whereas investment creates the perception of value.
- Swap problem for challenge - A challenge is something that can be overcome, whereas a problem seems like something that can't be solved.
- Don’t say cheap! Try saying: ‘Here's an option that might fit within your budget’ instead.
Exactly What to Say To Better Convey Your Value
Now, let’s talk about exactly what to ask to create value.
Did you know that the person in control of a conversation is the person asking the questions?
Stay curious and you’ll find out so much more about your prospect and if you can actually help them.
Here are a few questions that you could ask to help convey your value.
- What are you looking to accomplish?
- How important is it to you? What issue do you need you to solve?
- What is your experience in this area? This allows you to establish what they know and what they need.
By asking these questions and staying curious you can start to confidently change perspectives.
You can find ways to stay in the game. You can find ways to go deeper into the conversation around things that weren’t just related to price.
You might wonder when and how to ask these questions, but there’s not really a science to it.
The best way to plan for a conversation is before the conversation takes place, so make sure you prep ahead of time.
Anticipate any potential objections, have planned responses, and try to think of some opening questions to get the conversation going.
Then simply deliver your value through curiosity-based questions that will demonstrate your key skills and build a strong relationship.
This blog is part of the EWTS Critical Conversations webinar series. In each episode, a Certified Guide shares their expertise to help you be more successful both personally and professionally. To see more of our webinars, click here…
