Imagine you come home in the evening, exhausted from work, and your partner says: “We have to talk.”
You sit on the couch, tense and stressed. What happened? What have you done? What does your partner want? You’re agitated, sure you’re about to split up. You’re already on the defensive, preparing your “counter-argument” (even though you don’t know what for yet) – and then your partner says:
“I’ve asked you before to take the garbage down every morning when you go out, and you haven’t done it now several times. It leaves a bad smell in the kitchen and creates an unpleasant situation. Please make sure to take care of it next time.”
What happened here? Unnecessary drama! They made you stressed and worried for nothing. They made something small and unimportant look like a big, serious problem.
People do this a lot in relationships (unfortunately). But there’s another field where most people are far too dramatic – when the talk turns to prices.
I hear it all the time
In business consultancy, in meetings, from listening to recorded sales calls, from working with customers and call centers.
Because most people don’t really know how to sell (nobody taught them properly), they don’t like selling (they’d rather talk about their product than about price), and they feel uncomfortable talking about money. So they create unnecessary drama at the sales stage – the moment they have to talk about price.
And you always arrive at this stage. Every sales conversation gets there. Otherwise no one would ever buy anything from you.
So they say things like, “Now we need to talk about money” (the awful parallel to “we need to talk”). They change their tone of voice. They slow down their speech. They lower their gaze, turn down their intensity, and do all sorts of other things.
What happens then?
First, if you signal that you’re uncomfortable talking about money, the customer will definitely feel it. You’re making this part of the conversation even more problematic and cumbersome for yourself.
Second, you increase the chances that your customer argues about the price – “It’s too expensive” – asks for a discount, installments, and so on. All because you’re signaling weakness, insecurity, and discomfort.
Third, the customer immediately becomes tense, agitated, and defensive. And the whole conversation takes a turn for the worse.
So what should you do?
Make the conversation about money as “incidental” as possible – a natural part of the conversation. Don’t make a drama out of it. Don’t turn down your energy when it comes to cost.
On the contrary – turn up your intensity. Speak with the same flow and confidence you had earlier, when you described your product, your service, your solution, your idea.
State your figure out loud, not with a “deafening silence.” Keep the conversation flowing with confidence, and repeat the benefit the customer will gain after payment.
If you feel comfortable with the price you’re asking, your customer will feel comfortable too. If you treat payment as something natural, obvious, and self-evident – even when prices are high – your customer will treat it the same way.
And that’s exactly what prevents unnecessary arguments and expected resistance.
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