Episode 67 - Scratching the "Itch"

Do you work in an environment where you need to be motivated...but your boss just doesn't motivate you?  This is increasingly the norm, unfortunately.  A recent article by Harvard Business Review gives some helpful pointers if you find yourself in this type of environment.  Check out the article here. Are you your competitor's best sales person?  Let's rephrase.  Have you ever worked really hard building your products value with a prospect, only to have them go with a cheaper option or a competitor?  That's what we call "scratching the itch."  When you motivate your prospect to change, they often try to scratch the easiest itch they can find.  In other words, once you've identified the problem and created the pain, the prospect seeks to solve that pain in the easiest/cheapest way possible.  Kurt and Steve discuss some of the main methods for getting around the itch.  The first is obvious.  What are the cheaper options that your prospect will be tempted to go with?  Instead of covertly trying to sabotage these options, what is working best right now is to just drag the options all out into the light.  It's okay to tell your prospect: "look, a lot of individuals I talk to end up trying to find a cheaper version.  I'll tell you right now, it exists.  If price is all you're concerned about, you should go that direction.  Do you have other considerations besides price?"  This gets a critical yes from your prospect and they proceed to tell you all the things besides price that matter to them.  Now you can build value and take the sales cycle away from price.  Battling your prospect on price is seldom a winning proposition. Tune into the episode for more tools to manage "the itch."  And if you're ready to take things to the next level, visit us at www.universityofpersuasion.com.  There you'll see some of Kurt and Steve's top training programs...some of which are totally free!