Don't you just hate hearing this question? I know I used
to but now I almost enjoy hearing it because I'm prepared
to deal with it. And after reading and digesting this
lesson so will you.

Rule number one - unless you have asked all of your sales questions
and given your presentation I would encourage you to deflect
this question until later.

Rule number two - remember it's QPP - which refers to questions,
presentation, pricing. If you don't stick to this sequence you
are headed for heavy discounting and severe erosion of your
profitability.

The next time somebody asks you, --How much does it cost-- respond
with these two words.

"It depends!"

And then be totally silent.

Within a very short period of time your prospect/customer will ask,
It depends on what?

Let's use my business as an example. I receive a call from a Vice
President of Sales. He’s planning a National Sales meeting in February.
He has forty salespeople and he wants to give them professional sales
training. I ask and get answers to 12 open-ended questions. I go on
to describe my capabilities based solely on his responses to these 12
questions.

He comments, "Jim this sounds good - How much will it cost us?"

I respond with, "It depends."

He responds, "It depends on what?"

"It depends on whether you want to include pre-meeting reading
assignments featuring one of my books, it also depends on the length
of the training program, and it depends on how you're planning to
reinforce the sales training after your National Sales Meeting."

"It also depends on your interest level in establishing a Learning Library
for your sales team and it also depends on how you feel about specialized
training (field coaching) for your sales managers."

Closing the sale becomes a lot easier when you follow this approach.

OK - do you see what I just did here? This is negotiating 101. Never
give anything without getting something in return. In essence, what I've
done here is to say the price of the sales training depends on a bundle
of other choices. Literally it says the price depends on the size
of the bundle you buy. The bigger your bundle - the better your price.

Doesn't that make a world of sense? Don't offer one price for one
product. The more choices you offer, the higher your probability of
achieving success.

And besides, most people love choices - it makes
the entire decision-making process easier.