3 Truths About Rate Reduction Requests
In this new Sales Brew video, Mark Trinkle shares 3 truths about how to handle a prospect’s pricing requests.
Transcript:
Rate Reduction Requests
There are three immutable truths about rate reduction requests. Number one, it doesn’t cost your client anything to ask for a better deal. The worst thing that can happen for the prospect is is that somebody will tell them no. It doesn’t cost anything to ask. In fact, you’ve probably been trained as a consumer to ask.
Number two; your attitude and your response to the request that your prospects and clients are making will have everything to do with setting the tone for future negotiations.
And number three, and probably arguably the most important of the three immutable truths; If you don’t move the conversation away from rate towards value, you will always be negotiating on rate for the rest of your relationship with that client.
Here’s the thing I would even argue how you win the business is critically important because of this reality- what you win them with is what you win them to. I’ll repeat myself. What you win them with is what you win them to. And if you used a very aggressive pricing model to win the business, then you have won them to that. And you have created the expectation that is what the relationship is going to look like. And you have created the reality for yourself that you’ll have them for a customer up until the point that somebody comes behind you and just is a little bit more aggressive or a little bit crazier. And they cut the rate. I mean, stop and think about that. The reality is what you win them with, how you win the business, is exactly what you’re winning them to in, in terms of the expectations they should have of view.
So you’ve got a decision to make on the front end, and you’ve got a decision to make on the back end when they come and ask about these different requests. If you want to be good at responding you need to be assertive. Now we did not use the word in bullet point, number one, aggressive, and maybe you’re wondering why not. I mean, this is a fight. It’s a fight to grow the bank. It’s a fight to grow business. Don’t we need to be aggressive. No, I want you to be assertive. And the difference between the two and they are often used as synonyms for each other. The difference between a assertive and aggressive is emotion. Assertive people are under emotional control. Aggressive people are not, their emotions are in control of them. If you would like an example of that, just turn tune into any of the evening national news shows.
Pick any news show that you want and you will inevitably see people screaming at one another. The loudest, fastest talker is who they believe wins. Those people are aggressive. We don’t want that. We want you to be assertive, standing up for what you believe is right. Asking all of the right questions, but with your emotions under control. Number two is no surprise. You need to be skilled at asking questions and listening. We believe at Anthony Cole Training Group, that the two most important attributes for a salesperson are contained in bullet point number two, great sales people are great at asking questions and they are great listeners. Let’s talk about listening for just a moment. Here’s the problem today. Most people, and I will get back on my soapbox for just 10 seconds, most people (and particularly sales people) do not listen with the intent to understand. They listen with the intention or desire to interrupt.
Great sales people though, are great listeners. Number three, you’ve gotta be able to sell value. Let’s start with your belief. You’ve gotta believe that your offering has value, that you have value, that your institution has value. You’ve gotta believe it. You have to be willing to walk away if the prospect doesn’t believe it. And then number four, you need to be a skilled negotiator.
From Chief Growth Officer, Mark Trinkle
