The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

What is the best response when asked, “Is the price negotiable?”

Your first reaction might be to lower the price to close the deal.

• Interpreting their question as a request will result in lowering the price.
• Offering to lower the price, only to find they will continually ask for more.

A better response is to demonstrate the value of your offering.

• Work with your prospects to help them better understand the value of your services, products, and deliverables.
• Show them the great deal they are already getting when evaluated in terms of the specific value you’re bringing to their company and how doing business with you will help them meet their goals.

Habits are routine behaviors that are repeated enough to become automatic. Habits help enhance productivity, build relationships, and increase overall performance.

Many AEs need to add new habits to their priorities. Adding some or all of the below will help improve your chances of closing deals and achieving your sales goals. Take a look!

The initial encounter with a prospective client can feel like navigating a minefield of uncertainty. This delicate phase is fraught with what we call relationship tension—a natural byproduct of unfamiliarity and the inherent skepticism that accompanies interactions with sales professionals.

Understanding and effectively managing this tension is paramount to fostering productive conversations and building trust, which are essential ingredients for successful sales outcomes.

Studies show that reaching out to leads within an hour of them contacting you makes you seven times likelier to have meaningful conversations, and up to 50% of sales go to the vendor who responded first.

There’s also a tenfold decrease in your odds of making contact with a lead if you wait more than five minutes to reach out after they submit a web form.

Whether from clients, management, or themselves, salespeople are under a lot of pressure to perform faster in their sales processes. We live and work in a fast-paced, “want it now” culture that can feel overwhelming at times. Sometimes, there’s only one solution to closing more deals, and that’s to SLOW DOWN!

The best way to fall flat on your face in a business conversation is to start the conversation talking about business.

Cultivate the art of small talk, and chances are good that once you do get around to bantering about business, the conversation will be meaningful.

Here is a truth bomb that might just revolutionize your sales strategy. Brace yourself because I'm about to tell you why your meticulously crafted pitches about features and benefits are falling on deaf ears. 

Yes, you heard that right. It is time to shift gears and move beyond the traditional features and benefits spiel.

The goal of any discovery meeting is to truly learn about the needs of a prospect or client.

So why doesn’t it happen on every discovery call?

Why do some meetings end without a clear understanding of the business results the account wants to achieve?

One of the most important, and often most fun, parts of the sales process is discovery meetings. These are often referred to as “needs analysis meetings,” and their main goal is to uncover the desired business results of the prospect or client.

The success of these meetings lies in both the setup and the execution.

It’s important to:

• Prepare yourself and the prospect or client by sharing an agenda and expectations for the meeting.
  
  
• Create psychological safety to help prospects and clients let their guard down and open up for a more honest discussion, whether in person or with a shared screen remotely.
  
  
• Master the art of asking questions to uncover key information.
  
  
• Use a Needs Analysis process to uncover desired business results, prioritize the most important needs first, and confirm next steps.

It takes a lot of work to get a first meeting with a prospect.

While connecting with a prospect and getting a meeting is a series of events and second chances, that’s not the case with your needs analysis or discovery meeting. The discovery meeting is your one chance to gather information critical to creating a proposal the prospect will be interested in purchasing.

Let’s look at seven signs that you might be doing your needs analysis wrong.