It’s the dreaded response to a proposal or pitch. Sucking air in through their teeth and saying “it’s pretty expensive isn’t it?”
What a slap to the face! Even if you’ve discovered their budget and you’re within that budget, customers still have a problem with price. They don’t want to commit right away and they’re telling you “you’re too expensive”.
That’s a lot of money. We don’t have the budget. It’s more than we expected. We’ve just bought another service. Your competitor is cheaper.
Two MASSIVE points that we need address before moving onto the closes.
- Price is a myth and it isn’t an objection. You can see I haven’t said “turn the expensive and price objection”, because price isn’t an objection.
- You must agree to reach an agreement. Whatever your customer says, you’re going to agree with them. Because if one of you disagree, then both of you disagree. And if you disagree on one thing, you can’t agree on the big thing.
If we want to answer the customer, close them and get them to sign and hand over the deposit. Remember – price is a myth and it isn’t an objection. It’s a complaint. And we’re going to agree with them. Let’s do it.
I know it is. Sign here
It’s expensive? It’s a lot of money? Our competitors are cheaper? I know. Sign here.
We agree with the customer and we hear their complaint. We don’t validate it by talking about why it’s so expensive. We agree with them and demonstrate that we’ve heard them. So let’s sign here and move on.
Someone saying that you’re expensive or a lot of money, is not a no. It’s like complaining about the weather. It’s just voicing an opinion about something.
When you complain, what do you want to happen? 99% of the time, it’s to be heard. People want to be heard and when you complain, you want other people to listen.
“Yes Mr. Customer, you’re right. It IS terrible that XYZ is happening isn’t2 it?”
Agree with them. Tell them to sign.
We could look at the $15K version?
This is one of my favourite closes. After the customer says “wow, $10K is a lot…” you reply with “well we could look at the $15K version?”
WHAT? They’ve just told you that $10K is a lot of money! Now you’re upselling them? They haven’t even bought!
This close works for a variety of reasons. First, it shocks the customer and brings them out of their thought pattern. It’s sometimes called “thought disruption”, the act of disrupting a train of thought to reset the thinking process.
Hypnotists use this technique a lot, by saying something genuinely random and out of context, it makes the listener search for context. It can pull them out of a negative train of thought and help you re-frame the conversation.
They’ve just told you that $10K is too expensive. Their current thought process is about cost, and they’re expecting you to justify the price. The last thing that they’re expecting you to say is “well if you can’t afford that level, let’s look at the more expensive level.”
It’s a bit like walking down the street and someone saying to you “the fences in my Spanish house are too high”. Absolute nonsense. It would stop you in your tracks. In fact, one of the best ways to stop an attacker is to use thought disruption to reset their brain and give yourself time to think/run away.
The second thing this close does is re-frame the first product as more affordable. By comparison, your $10K solution seems way easier to afford. However, a very interesting thing happens when you dangle a bigger carrot in front of people.
The re-frame then sets the standard as the $15K solution. I guarantee that if someone says “$10K is too expensive” and you tell them there’s a $15K option, they’ll at least ask what’s included in that version.
Don’t need to worry about the price
“Mrs. Customer, you don’t need to worry about the price until we agree that you’re getting everything you need.”
This is another reset close. When a customer complains about price or cost, you can tell them that they don’t need to worry about the price. The price is the last thing they need to think about, until you’ve understood everything they need.
You’ve told them the proposal, you’ve told them what they get and then you tell them the price. They respond with “wow that’s more than we were expecting.”
No big deal. Again, most funnel builders will try to excuse or justify their price or worse, argue with the customer. We are going to tell them that they don’t need to worry about the price until they’ve got what they need.
Repeat back to them “Mrs. Customer, you don’t need to worry about the price until we’ve agreed on what you need. So, tell me, we’re including the landing pages to drive more traffic, is that correct?”
“Yes, that’s good.”
“OK, we’ve also got [feature] that’s going to help you [benefit], is that right?”
Keep going through all the deliverables and remind them of the benefits. Ask them “do you still want to be able to send more sales emails without being at the office yourself? Do you still want to go home earlier?”
Chances are, they’ll still want the features and widgets. They won’t want to budge, which is good.
When you get the last “yes”, say to them “fantastic, so that’s everything you need. That’ll be a $5000K deposit and we need a signature here.”
Simple.
We’re still under budget
“$12K is over our budget.”
First of all, as a rule, if a customer has $10K, they’ve got $12K. You can add 25% to a budget and still be within a real budget.
This close requires knowledge of the customer’s current expenses. I.e. advertising costs, previous expenses, their cost per hour and what they wanted to spend. It’s also a good idea to know what they want to spend per month. You might have to split your payments over a monthly payment plan.
“Mr Customer. You told us that your budget is $10K. You also mentioned that your budget per month is $2K. The project requires a 50% deposit which brings our initial cost of $5K. With a 8 month payment plan, which only starts after we reach the second phase, the rest of the $8K is split into $1K per month.”
Understanding everything you can about their budget, payment plans and what they have to spend is critical. Not even just for this close, but for all closes and the sales process in general.
The more you know about your customer’s money, the easier it is to work with them to find a payment plan that works.
Remember, end all your closes with “we just need you to sign here, and we can get started” or whatever your call to action is.
Everything is expensive
“$10K is quite expensive.”
“Mr. Customer, I totally agree. Everything is expensive. You’re already over budget on your sales and tax, as well as travel, rent, credit cards, school payments, bills, food, holidays, credit cards, car payments. I know I am! Sign here and we can get started.”
Everything is expensive. It’s a complain, not a “no”. Tell them to sign, send the deposit and show them that you agree and that you’re listening.
