Budget can be an extremely awkward conversation to bring up, that most times salespeople try to avoid. However, it is important to gather an understanding of what your customer’s price point is before just springing a random price on them. If you are able to get a good understanding of what the customer’s budget looks like then you are able to ease into the discussions of price. In order to talk about budget you will need to earn the right to talk about it, through having demonstrated your competence and engagement through strategic questioning. If you have earned the trust of the customer and the right to talk about budget then you need to be very careful how quickly you dive in. The best course of action is to start with opening questions that don’t bind a customer to their response or a certain budget you have in mind. Below are some example questions to start the conversation about budget:
- Quick question: internally, have you talked about the kind of money you think it might take to solve this problem?
- Have you been given some cost limits for this project?
- Sometimes cost is a big issue. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being a high degree of sensitivity, where would you rate your company in terms of how important cost is in this whole effort? (follow up asking why they chose that number instead of a number lower)
While these are great examples to start the conversation, it doesn’t mean you completely abandon all the other sales techniques that are important to sales. Continue to probe and find out more about why their budget is the way that it is, or why it is set so low or high. Finally, don’t back the customer into a corner over the budget, let them explain their budget and where they are, if there is wiggle room then try to take advantage of it, but never never never try to take advantage of the customer!
BoweryJE22
Although budget conversations can be uncomfortable, it is an essential element to establish in a sales process. Since this can be a touchy subject, it is important to know the correct timing of when to ask about it. It is best to ask the prospect their thoughts first about their budget rather than getting them to make you say what you usual price is which can lead to unfair pricing for the customer. Once you have established a budget with the prospect, then you are able to find out more about why it is what it is and negotiate from there if needed.