2 Quick Responses To, “That Costs Too Much!”

Short and sweet; here are two quick but very powerful responses to the age-old reply of, “That costs too much!” The responses are a brief summary of each concept as you can add you own flavour and style. However, I think you will get the main gist of the ideas immediately.

#1 – Compared To What?
This is a great question that will momentarily silence and even confuse the prospect. But it does what it should do and that is to help the prospect get back to reality. Usually, the prospect can only compare your product or service to your competitors’. In which case, you should have dozens of reasons and value building statements (which you should have already presented long before you began discussing price) prepared and waiting.

In the case where you have a relatively unique product, then the question takes on an even more powerful role. Just what is the prospect comparing your costs to? A house? A car? A pint of beer? What?

Prospect
“That costs too much!”

Sales Person
“As compared to exactly what, Steve?”

Prospect
“Ah, um, I’m just saying it costs a lot, that’s all.”

Sales Person
“I understand. I’m just trying to figure out what you are using as a reference to compare my prices to?”

Another response is: “Exactly what do you mean by that?” or “What do you mean by too expensive/costs too much?”

It does exactly the same thing.

#2 – Are You Referring To The Cost Or The Price?
This is a classic, and also makes the prospect stop and rethink their knee jerk comment. Is the prospect referring to the actual ticket price, the sticker? Or are they talking about the cost effect; the value of the product or the result of not having the product. It usually looks something like this…

Prospect
“That costs way too much!”

Sales Person
“Are you talking about the cost or the price, Sarah?”

Prospect
“Uh? What’s the difference?”

Sales Person
“Well, if you are talking about the price tag, it is in line with the market. Of course we are slightly higher than our competitors, but the value and warranties, as I explained, make it more than worth it.

Now, if you are referring to the costs, as in the money you are losing every day in your plant due to a lack of sufficient monitoring; or the costs as in the time and money you spend every month on inventory losses; or the costs as in the thousands of pounds you throw away every year in having to reorder lost product; then YES! I agree with you…that is too much!”

If you did a reasonably good job during your sales interaction, you should almost get insulted when the prospect says it’s too much. If however, you did not do your job well, then perhaps it IS too much.

Happy Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director

MTD Sales Training | Image courtesy of James Barker at FreeDigitalPhotos.net