Tips to have better pricing conversations -
When you conduct price calls How do you convince a prospect that your price is correct?
You could tell them the reason why your product is superior in comparison to the other products...
However, it is only going to get you so far.
Here are two ways to improve the quality of your pricing calls in B2B SaaS environments that has each of Sales Development Representatives (SDR) as well as Account Executives (AE) are engaged in the sales process. Let's start...
Value Coaching
Pricing negotiations are bound to end in failure if there's the need to differentiate between what you and your prospects view as value. It's tempting (and frankly more scalable) to regurgitate the company-wide values and talk points, it's likely to cause a disconnect between your and your potential customer. Sometimes it's simply semantics but it's important to understand your prospect's business. Then, you can design your product or service around what's valuable to their company.
This process is what I refer to as the value of coaching. This is a complex concept, but begins with understanding and listening instead of talking. There are two methods to start understanding what prospects perceive as value:
1) A successful discovery process with an ongoing dialog.
Ask your potential customer the following questions:
- Your sales team employs (TOOL X). Which component of this solution do you use the most with your team? What are you doing to address the issue today? Are you using any tools and do you have any responsibility for it?
Consider this quote from Scott Sambucci, Founder of SalesQualia:
"Price is a measure of customer perceived value. If customers aren't satisfied with price, they're telling you that you've not yet expressed the value necessary for them to justify spending the money ."
Sales reps are often unable to comprehend their customer's stack, and they often make statements too soon. These probing questions about how the prospect perceives the value of their present stack can help you discover how your product fits in it, and to communicate that value to them.
Before you enter pricing, make sure you identify the similar tools that they are using. You can then shift your discovery around what benefits these tools can provide to their users and then address the space in between.
Your prospect could see value in the amount of time they are using the product. They'll say their team uses HubSpot for five hours a day, which makes it an excellent investment for their company.
If your item isn't one that demands the user stay for a whole day in it You must explain to your customers why the product adds benefits even though they may not be using it 24/7.
If you decide to set your price too high the risk is that customers will be hesitant over the price. Find out what they value and then find a way to empathize with their business pains and how they may see the value (in the sense of warming the salesperson a little). The best answers in sales are yes or no. If there is too much daylight between perceptions of worth, it's in both yours and the prospects most beneficial interest to pull away from the sale before committing more resources.
2.) Leverage tools that provide you with insights on the way your audience interacts with your content.
Effective discovery is very difficult because most potential customers are trying to see a demo or to reach the price point. There are tools and strategies that you can employ to get a better understanding of what appeals to your prospects.
- Uberflip: create personalized content experiences for your prospects. Their analytics tool gives you an insight into what information your visitors are interested in.
These two strategies will assist to educate your potential customers to be more valuable rather than simply assuming what they want and selling an unsuitable solution.
Single Option Aversion
Another tip to make effective pricing calls is to use the psychological principle of the single-option-aversion.
Behavioural researcher Daniel Mochon posits that buyers are much more likely to purchase when they are given more than one option. Mochon conducted an experiment in which customers were shown two models of players for DVD. 32 percent indicated they would buy the first one, and 34% selected the second. But when the participants were presented with a single DVD player, only 10% (or 10% (depending the type of brand they were shown) indicated they'd buy the DVD player. It's a 66 percent rise in sales just adding another option for the buyer.
Although it's not a good idea to sell B2B SaaS in the past, the brain approaches almost all purchase decisions like this.
I would argue this impact only grows when you are in B2B SaaS environments.
We researched the leading SaaS companies and found that over 65% had a consumer-facing multi-tiered pricing page with a contact-us/enterprise tier without a price.
For most businesses, whenever a user fills out the "contact us' form that prospect's information is passed to an SDR for discovery and then to an AE for a deeper exploration, demonstration, and pricing. Prospects have come to love self-serve options as they get to choose an option that suits their needs as well as quickly buy and install the solution.
When they first see your pricing page on your site, to your pricing proposal, prospects are empowered with choice and alternatives. At the conclusion of the procedure, they're presented with only one choice and a cost to purchase the service.
I'd suggest replicating the self-service buying experience for your prospects while keeping the price in the dark. This way you can frame your conversation as "These are a few different packages that suit our various customers, is there a particular tier or set of features/functionalities that resonates with your needs?"
You can then leverage the power of 's price guides in order to zero in to the specific solution that your customer is seeking.
Once you have identified where the interests lie through the initial conversation, you can create and set the price for 2-3 custom tiers for their needs. This is a benefit of greater knowledge and the fundamentals of single-option aversion.
Interactive Quotes can be used to create a completely custom guide for every new customer to ensure they're provided with the best possible options regarding prices and other features.
It is also possible to add Drift directly into your pricing guides. Your prospects can ask inquiries while reading the price guide rather than being required to send an email and lengthening the time. This lets you change the pricing guide in a flash and brings you that much further away from closing your sale.
Wrapping Up
Price calls can be a challenge and uncomfortable. In order to build trust with your prospects accelerate the sales process, and make more efficient pricing calls
- Make your discovery process more akin to value coaching rather than presuming what your potential clients perceive as worth
- Make use of single-option aversions as well as self-serve pricing strategies to benefit your business
