Services Are Not Widgets
The quality of services you receive—and give—are not the same when you grind down your provider or when you allow yourself to be ground down to a bottom-dollar price for your services.
The services you provide are not gaskets or widgets or wicker baskets.
While a Black Friday toolbox you get from the local hardware store at 50% off is a great deal and will perform just as well as the same toolbox purchased at full retail, you and your customers suffer when you allow yourself to be negotiated down to nothing.
(See "Why you should hire a $25 Infusionsoft consultant on eElance.")
In my sales training programs, I'm continuously reminding my members that
It's better to pay more than you wanted than less than you should."
Buyers Will and Do Pay More For Better Service
Over the years American Express has conducted studies and found overwhelming evidence to support this statement.
In 2011 they surveyed 1,012 Australians and found 73% of respondents willing to pay up to 12% more for a product if accompanied by excellent customer service.
In 2014 they conducted an online survey of 1,000 consumers aged 18+ years and found 68% said they’d be willing to spend more with a company that they believe provides excellent service while 74% said they have spent more in such a situation.
In 2018 PWC found that 63% of U.S. consumers would share more information with companies that provide great experiences.
Buyers Enjoy Paying More
Your customers will pay for two things:
- Experiences
- Exclusivity
- (And Millennials are willing to spend more on sustainability.)
To create a great experience, you must raise your prices so you have the funds available to focus on service.
To create exclusivity, you must raise your prices so not everyone can afford to work with you.
This has been proven in multiple studies whereby consumers had their brains scanned with MRIs while tasting what they believed to be expensive wines and cheap wines.
When they were told they were tasting an expensive wine the pleasure receptors in their brains lit up much more so than when they believed they were drinking cheap wine. (In reality, the wine was just the same bottle of cheap wine.)
Know Your Role In Sales
When you understand and embrace your role of "hurt and rescue" in sales, you'll be able to uncover the true concerns of your prospects so you can recommend the best solution to meet their needs.
When I say "hurt and rescue" I mean it's your job to ask difficult questions that your prospects cannot easily answer and/or may be difficult and/or even embarrassing for them to answer so you can get to the truth.
Until you get to the truth, whatever you recommend will be met with resistance.
Besides, if your prospects could answer the questions you ask...they wouldn't need you!
Once you have helped your prospect discover their own truth—the hurt—then you can offer a solution—the rescue.
But now since your prospect has admitted the truth and put a price on the impact, then you can price your services accordingly.
When your prospect has a $10,000 pain and you have a $2,000 or $5,000 or even a $7,500 solution that will make the pain go away forever, they'll buy from you.
It all starts when you understand the value that you bring, which helps you stand your ground, which helps you ask the tough questions, which helps you get to the truth, and the truth shall set you free.
Market like you mean it. Now go sell something.
