Price objections are among the most frequent and challenging issues that salespeople encounter daily. However, it’s important to understand that price is often not the real concern. When buyers lack sufficient knowledge about a product, they tend to focus on price alone.

As a sales professional, your role includes educating clients on what they are paying for with your products or services.

Instead of being tempted to automatically drop your price, here are some options to manage this objection:

• If you can, find out in advance what their budget is and then offer them products and services accordingly. One advantage of this approach is that you will create a proposal that meets their budget, which makes it more attractive. The disadvantage is that you may have left money on the table. However, a subsequent sale (once they realize how valuable you are!) can open that additional opportunity to you.
• You can give them the pricing in layers of options: the platinum version, the mid-range version, and the economy version. Frequently the client will pick the mid-range (and sometimes they’ll even pick the platinum range), but rarely do they like the image of their company buying the economy version.
• Use a differentiator if you have one. Yes, your fee may be higher than that of the competition but you can demonstrate the added value the client gets when they choose your product/service. This works when you do indeed have a feature or benefit that puts you in a competitive position. For this one, you have to do your homework ahead of time. You want to be prepared with your USP and know what the competition can offer as well.
• Make it easy to say “yes.” Suggest a payment plan or a lower up-front cost with the final payment after the product/service has been delivered.
• Once they state their objection and you answer it, ask them if they have other concerns. Then answer the next one and ask again. The idea here is that the first objection they raise may not be the real objection that they have. You will need to ask skillful questions to get at the heart of the matter.

There are some things that you should always emphasize when dealing with this objection.

• The value of ownership versus the cost of purchasing
• The value of the service versus its cost
• The value of long-term benefits versus the up-front costs
• Benefits rather than features