Not sure whether it is due to a gravitational force, personality disorder or mental defect, but there are a lot of salespeople walking around with the mistaken belief that trumpeting “we will save you money” is enough to earn you a next step is your sales process.
It isn’t.
In fact, let me be a bit bold. You are insulting the intelligence of your best potential buyers (and scaring them away) with your “we will save you money” sales prospecting pitch.
When your phone script focuses on “we will save you 22%” you actually reduce the chance of getting in the door of a worthwhile sales prospect. If you do, your chance of closing that sale rests on a narrow and weak foundation.
“I can’t tell whether you are representing a credible company with a track record, lots of clients, experience and expertise, or representing some fly by night and calling from your parent’s basement.”
That is what I say to coaching clients who first read their “we can save you money” sales scripts.
“Hi this is Myrna from Mega Industries a local company here in East Yazoo and we help companies with _______________. We save companies 40% with our direct from manufacturer pricing and would like to find out more about your company and how we can help you. Would you have time for a short 20 minute meeting?
Ouch. There is much wrong with the above prospecting phone script. Unfortunately, it is also not that uncommon. But let’s focus on the core message from a buyer’s point of view.
The typical decision maker’s point of view to making a decent sized purchase is this. They have easy access to a lot of information today. They probably are half way there to deciding who the suppliers are they wish to talk to, what to expect on pricing and overall costs. What qualities they expect from a vendor. What risks they wish to avoid.
Buyers focus not only on the price of a purchase, but the COST of the purchase. Price is different than cost.
If I get a low price on a service, but things don’t happen on schedule, there are unexpected costs, problems come up that are beyond the vendors expertise, there are problems with the transition, much more management time is devoted to the change, employees don’t get the proper training which inhibits productivity, the customization wasn’t right, service and follow-up is slow, there are unplanned work interruptions… all of a sudden that low price doesn’t look so good.
Buyers are sensitive to the price they pay and their overall costs. A low PRICE is not necessarily their lowest COST without consideration of other factors.
So let’s go back to that all too typical example and sorry excuse for a decent phone script. Keep in mind that they buyer has easy access to a lot of information and probably has already narrowed down the sources they will speak to about their purchase.
Does your “we will save you money” prospecting script communicate…
Experience?
Credibility?
Dependability?
No it doesn’t.
Does your “we will save you money” prospecting script do anything to …
Separate you from the frauds, the fly-by-nights and those that make false promises?
Offer them anything they couldn’t easily find on their own?
No it doesn’t.
Does your “we will save you money” prospecting script do anything to …
Make decision makers uncomfortable with their current purchase plan?
Enable them to grasp that you offer superior quality?
Enable them to understand that you are a top tier provider?
That you are worth some of their time?
No it doesn’t.
Remember this Channellism. “Don’t make it easy for them to lump you in with the idiots.”
If you do represent a company with a superior offering, with a substantial track record of success that can customize to buyers specs, delivers on time and on-budget, has a ton of knowledge and expertise that is valuable to clients, is experienced in smooth transitions and knows how to avoid common problems and costly headaches….
and all you talk about is price.
Shame on you.
Your “we will save you money” pitch not only insults the intelligence of buyers that have many buying factors to consider, but makes it very easy for you to be lumped in with the idiots.
If that is all you got, buyers know that you truly don’t understand all that is involved in making a purchasing decision. So you will hear “we are all set” and “not interested” from buyers that will soon be writing checks to your competitors.
Broaden and deepen your sales prospecting scripts.
Don’t cheat yourself by relying solely on saving them money.
