Have you ever heard this from a client or a prospect? If so you failed to sell value or you were not delivering results.
So what can you do if a client or prospect says “we want a cheaper solution”?
- decide if you missed something in your sales process and take a step back. Go back through things and make sure you covered everything. Because if they are say this, chances are you talked money too early in the conversation.
- say “Next!” and move on, they were not a good fit fore you.
I had an ex-client call me today looking for some help. It seems their website is down. They were unhappy with our prices and thought they would just manage things on their own. They left 8 months ago or so.
Sadly their new IT Firm broke the website. IT guys are pretty smart about computers and networking, but they usually fail when it comes to branding, marketing, lead generation and the like. So being replaced by an IT firm goes to show how poorly we sold the client. Now their website is down because the IT firm pointed the whole domain to their current server stationed inside the client’s office.
The problem here is this… the client’s brand is being destroyed by silly acts. So who’s fault is this? Well, I’ll take the blame for this. Although, I really like this client, I have made some mistakes. The biggest one was not proving the extreme value of the new brand and trainning the client on how to manage it. All the money invested in developing a strong brand is eroding each day by doing silly things like, not knowing how to manage a domain.
Although today’s value of your brand never makes it on your P&L, the errosion is certainly costing you. It may be easy to overlook this since it doesn’t show up in your accounting software until you get your company valuation done to prove brand value.
For this client, any person that sees the host-server-link-welcome-page, is going to think they have gone out of business. What is this costing in future business?
I am hoping all our current and future clients will never run into this problem. We are setting better expectations for new clients. And because we have a more defined idea of who our best clients are, we should get better results and build better relationships.
Cheaper solutions can be good, but many times you get what you pay for. Paying a few extra dollars now typically saves you a bundle down the road. If you have heard this “cheaper” statement from clients/prospects, how did you deal with this issue? Leave your thoughts below.
Dale, fast food is typically a cheaper alternative, initially. Future payments might include obesity, heart issues, or extra time exercising to shed the unwanted calories. Most of us expect cheap toys to break within a few minutes. Whereas, higher quality toys may be used my future generations. A college education can be a huge investment of time as well as dollars, but often pay off much better than cheaper, or no cost higher education. Even air travel…I typically fly first class. It’s usually 2-3 times the cost of the cheapest seat on the plane, but I’m first on, first off. I’ve got a seat that’s big enough for my body. I don’t pay extra for luggage. I get food and drinks on the plane. I accumulate more miles per flight. It’s a higher initial cost, but I’d have to pay for all the benefits and some are priceless.
Dale, fast food is typically a cheaper alternative, initially. Future payments might include obesity, heart issues, or extra time exercising to shed the unwanted calories. Most of us expect cheap toys to break within a few minutes. Whereas, higher quality toys may be used my future generations. A college education can be a huge investment of time as well as dollars, but often pay off much better than cheaper, or no cost higher education. Even air travel…I typically fly first class. It’s usually 2-3 times the cost of the cheapest seat on the plane, but I’m first on, first off. I’ve got a seat that’s big enough for my body. I don’t pay extra for luggage. I get food and drinks on the plane. I accumulate more miles per flight. It’s a higher initial cost, but I’d have to pay for all the benefits and some are priceless.
Rick, thanks for your thoughts. It seems the majority of people like fast food and this is why America has the health issues you mention. It is true in business that the majority is making these same mistakes. From the outside many people will agree with fast food, low end higher-education and economy seating on a plane. Then sadly they grab the Bigmac on the way to the technical school or seats in the back of the plane.
Again, this is why it is important to qualify/disqualify prospective clients so you get only the ones who like yourself are ok paying a few dollars more for their first-class seat, education or meal.
Great analogies by the way Rick. They really clear it up for people when you look at things like fast food and life time health. Thanks!
Rick, thanks for your thoughts. It seems the majority of people like fast food and this is why America has the health issues you mention. It is true in business that the majority is making these same mistakes. From the outside many people will agree with fast food, low end higher-education and economy seating on a plane. Then sadly they grab the Bigmac on the way to the technical school or seats in the back of the plane.
Again, this is why it is important to qualify/disqualify prospective clients so you get only the ones who like yourself are ok paying a few dollars more for their first-class seat, education or meal.
Great analogies by the way Rick. They really clear it up for people when you look at things like fast food and life time health. Thanks!