Selling Strategies That Work

It's

2006.

Time

to

Win.

How to Avoid RFPs, Price Quoting and Other Fatal Traps

By Dave Stein, Author of How Winners Sell

As you are reading this article, you can be reasonably sure that someone in one of your customers' organizations is reading an article about how to get the most out of YOU.  Buyers (budget holders, economical buyers, purchasing agents, etc.) have more power and leverage than ever before.  And they are getting better at buying by the day.

You know the reasons: oversupply, commoditization, corporate buying processes.  The problem for us is that there are now more fatal traps for us to fall into than ever before.  And those traps are not only damaging to our quota performance, they are damaging to our careers.

There is no easy, perfect answer in sales.  In fact some of what I will recommend in this article works only some of the time.  But what choice do you have?

In this article I'm going to provide you with some strategies and tactics to avoid three of the most deadly traps:  telephone price quotes, blind RFPs (Requests for Proposals), and losing price-driven deals.

(1) Premature Telephone Price Quotes

"Ring, ring.."

"The Stein Advantage, Dave speaking.  How may I help you?"

"Hi Dave. Can you quote me your best price on a customized training program for 450 sales reps, 62 telesales people, and a separate one for our European sales managers?"

Now I realize, I've stretched reality a bit, specifying what would be a snap price quote for a very customized solution.  But you get the idea.

What are your choices? Give the quote? Refuse to provide it? Get their number so you can think about it and call them back?

Once you quote a price, you're locked in. You can only go lower from there.  Gotcha!  Trapped. 

How do you avoid this situation?....read more in the full length article

 (2) Dealing with a Blind RFP

"Oh, a FedEx for me? Let's see... Wow. An RFP. I wonder how long do I have to respond..."

What are your choices?

• Answer it.
• Don't answer it.
• Think about it. 

Let's dig more deeply.  Here are some possibilities:….read more in the full length article

 (3) The Price-Driven Deal

You wind up in a price-driven deal and you aren't the lowest price competitor. Here is a chart showing some of the characteristics of a commodity- versus value-oriented buyer:

Read more in the full length article….

(c) 2005 -- The Stein Advantage, Inc.

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