Want to sell more? Use purchase triggers during your sales process.
Basic economics tells the story of a codependent love affair between supply and demand. We also learn about the impact price changes have. In general, if prices increase, demand goes down, if prices decrease, demand goes up. This all has a direct impact on supply, of course. In real life though (and particularly true for technology) high prices don’t necessarily mean less demand.
In a technology selling scenario, price isn’t really the problem, not if you figure out your customer’s triggers of value. Figure that out and you will sell.
The challenge is not to communicate value, the challenge is to calculate it. To succeed, you must not only speak the same language as your customer (click here to learn more about that), you must get on the same page. You must be able to calculate triggers of value the same way your buyer does. And you must make sure that sales reps are constantly offering something new, understanding your buyers’ needs. You must know if your sales reps are closing. That is exactly what companies can measure by doing a sales journey assessment.
How it works
You are in technology, so buyers come to you because they have a problem or fear. Today’s technical world is confusing and scary. Devices and apps not working together, cyberthreats, and so on. If something goes wrong, people can lose their jobs. If something goes really wrong, companies can go down. Your buyers need a solution, they need a backup plan. You have the answers, answers that can take the confusion and angst away. The next thing for you is to figure out how to communicate the value of that to your buyers and charge for it. That’s where purchase triggers come in handy.
Assuming other aspects of your buyer’s journey are fine, you can find purchase triggers by assessing, from the buyer’s perspective, how big the problem you solve is for your buyer. Just remember that assessing is not guessing, assessing is finding out. Once you find that out, you need to know how much the buyer is willing to spend to get their problem solved or to get their needs met. Buyers are willing to pay for value and a low price might make buyers think your solution isn’t so good.
Knowing how big the problem is and how much your buyer is willing to pay will place you ahead of the competition. But to price your offer correctly, it is also important to understand how big the impact of the problem (and the solution) is. Does the benefit of solving the problem affect the whole company? What is the return on investment for your buyer? Technology is truly scary for many of your users and they come to you for peace of mind and that is golden. If you provide peace of mind you provide high value for which you should charge.
Last, don’t forget that business users (as opposed to IT) are increasingly taking over the decision power of technology purchases. Business buyers have their own balance of calculations that trigger the purchase, none of which are particular to your solution. Help them understand what you offer. Have your sales reps understand their fears, their concerns. Then make sure they are loaded with purchase triggers to close the deal.
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We give our clients an in-depth view of the strengths and weaknesses in their entire Customer and Sales Journey and support them as they make major transitions from product to software, software to services or build funnels for entirely new platforms such as Azure. Building Customer Experience excellence.
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