Today in class, we discussed the idea of asking a prospect about their budget. For some, asking a prospect about their budget for a project may come easy. But for others, talking about money or asking questions about money can bring on real anxiety. One thing that can help bring peace when talking about money is coming to terms with that everyone has money issues, not just you. When talking to a prospect, you have to be sure you don’t project your issues and hang ups onto the prospect because this will great awkwardness all around. If you are a person that doesn’t have any issues when talking about money, you need to be sure not to ignore price sensitivity signals on the part of the client.
Having the budget discussion is VITAL, but some people may not know how they want to bring it up. Professor Sweet gave us some openings to help ease into the conversation. Here are the top ones that I believe will help get into the discussion of budget and money without having some awkwardness:
- “Have you thought about what something like this might cost?”
- “Quick question- internally, have you talked about the kind of money you think it might take to solve this problem?”
- “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 this is in the whole effort”
- “What is your internal process for getting contracts approved”
BoweryJE22
I think the question of budget can be tricky to bring up as a salesperson. I appreciate that Professor Sweet included those examples, as they are great suggestions and help to inspire some more ways of asking the budget question. I think that in a retail atmosphere, the question may have less weight to it, but it is still a tricky question nonetheless.
I like the first question. It really helps you to gage what they are willing to pay and even if they say a higher number then you may have an opportunity to upsell and get them to buy more products.
An important aspect in a sales discussion is budget. The questions Professor Sweet shared as examples can help make the budget conversation easier to ask. These questions can be very beneficial to ask to people who are sensitive about money and budgets.
I like your examples of how to bring up money in the conversation. I especially appreciated the comment about bringing up the systems for internal contracting. It is a way of asking about money, but also asking about who else you need to ask about a sale before you can close a deal.