Give the Buyer a Fair Price

With customers asking for discounts left and right, it can be difficult to feel comfortable and confident with your pricing. If you're too high you might feel uncomfortable selling, and if they're too low, you don't make enough on each sale. Today sales trainer Tom Reilly shares how to make sure your price is right.

The easiest way to avoid price resistance is to give the buyer a fair price. The tough part is determining a fair price. Perceptions of fairness are based largely on emotion, which means buyers' reactions may not always be rational.

Buyers want to maximize the return on their investment. They want a good deal. Sellers, on the other hand, want to optimize their pricing. They want to apply prices effectively to gain a desirable return on sales. At first glance, this sounds like a zero-sum game-one winner and one loser. In practice, it can be win-win.

The search for the Grail of fair pricing reaches back through history, from contemporary economists to Adam Smith to Aristotle's study of ethics. Aristotle wrote, "equals should be treated equally and unequals unequally." Some may reach further to the beginning of time and ask, "Did Adam really understand the price he would pay for that apple?"

The central construct of win-win outcomes is equity: Is the product or service a fair exchange for what I give up to acquire it? Or, am I getting as good as I am giving? Both buyer and seller should be able to answer this question favorably. Satisfaction with the outcome of the transaction is tied to one's expectations of gain. This means sellers must understand the buyer's expectations of the return on investment that the buyer wants. Also, if the seller's expectations are not met, seller remorse sets in.

The way to begin your discussion of price is to determine in advance an equitable outcome for buyer and seller. If it is a good deal for the customer and a good deal for you, that sounds like a fair price to me.

Tom Reilly is the president of Tom Reilly Training. He is an authority on value-added selling, and speaks to thousands of salespeople and managers annually on increasing their value to their company and customers.

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How to Fail Forward

I've never heard of failing forward, but I like the idea of anything that makes me feel better when I fail at something. Today sales trainer Tom Reilly shares how you can find power in failure and use it to your advantage. There is a right way to fail and a wrong way to fail. The one thing you do not want to fail at is failure. Consider the following:

--In a study of more then 1,000 successful people, the researchers found that successful people failed more than twice as often as less successful people.

--In our Best Sales Practices Study, we found that top-achieving salespeople do not quit on a piece of business until they receive on average 5.3 rejections from the customer. The rest of the sales population quites after 3.7 rejections.

--Michael Jordan said this about failure: "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed."

Here are some tips for failing forward - extracting value from failure:

--Always view failure in the short term and success in the long term. You are on a path of long-term success, littered with short-term failures.

--The sale is never over until you or the customer call it quits. Sometimes, the customer may quit before you do, but don't let that slow you down.

--Treat failure as feedback. It teaches you what not to do. If you quit too early, you lose the benefit of learning what did not work.

--Failure holds no power over humility. A humble person says, "Look what I learned."

--Feel the sting of defeat and use it positively to prepare for your next opportunity.

Failure need not be final. It need not describe you as a person. It is commentary on your outcome in a specific area.

Tom Reilly is the president of Tom Reilly Training. He is an authority on value-added selling, and speaks to thousands of salespeople and managers annually on increasing their value to their company and customers.

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There is Value in Struggle

"In order to succeed, people need a sense of self-efficacy, to struggle together with resilience to meet the inevitable obstacles and inequities of life." -- Albert Bandura, Stanford University

Do you remember the feeling you had after you finally accomplished a long sought-after goal? The feeling is so much better than if you had achieved the goal with little effort. That's why sales trainer Tom Reilly says there is value in struggle. Note that he didn't say there was pleasure or enjoyment in struggle, just value.

"By now, most companies have shed the inefficiencies and practices that no longer add value," says Reilly. "Most people have shed the excesses that have defined lifestyles for many. Neither of these corrections is inherently bad. Both are good for companies and individuals. Many have learned there is value in struggle and have developed a sense of self-efficacy in their efforts to prevail."

Here are some more ideas from Reilly to help you find value in tough situations:

There is value in getting lean. Streamlining and returning to one's roots is invigorating. It's the organizational equivalent to the vinedresser's pruning and prepping the vines for future growth. He removes the unproductive branches so as not to distract valuable resources from those that will produce.

There is value in being strong in weakness. It's not so much the promise of the philosopher, Nietzsche: "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." It is more about finding strength you didn't know you had prior to the struggle. Each of us possesses a wellspring of strength we dip into when times get tough. The really good news is that the strength is also there for good times.

There is value in the synergy one must find to prevail in tough times. If energy is the resource for individuals, synergy is the indefatigable resource for survivors. John Donne wrote, "No man is an island..." Survivors understand the power of we over me. The wonderful part of a support network is that when one is weak, another can be strong. That reciprocity ensures someone is always willing to carry the load.

There is value in releasing the creativity and inventiveness that struggle calls for. Is necessity the mother of invention? Maybe. Resilience researchers at ASU found that survivors are inventive. They rely on their resourcefulness to find a way out of their difficulties. They make do with what they have.

There is value in the humility that accompanies adversity. Adversity strips away facades and introduces to our naked and vulnerable selves, generally the most likable part of any of us. It is in those dark moments that we cry out for the help that only the humble can appreciate, "I can't do this on my own." Then, miraculously, help arrives.

Tom Reilly is the president of Tom Reilly Training. He is an authority on value-added selling, and speaks to thousands of salespeople and managers annually on increasing their value to their company and customers.

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Are You Recovery-Ready?

When will this recession be over? I certainly don't know, but the stock markets have been looking up lately. It's always best to be prepared. Sales trainer Tom Reilly has a few points to get you ready to take advantage of the future economic recovery and sell like crazy!

"The indicators I watch all point to our beginning the climb out of the economic trough we have been in," says Reilly. "Will it be a fire-hose thrust as the spigot opens or a long, slow slog? I don't know. But I do know that you must be ready and first in line to drink from that spigot. Are you ready for the recovery?"

Being recovery-ready means three things:

1. Are you lean? Have you shed yourself of the fat you accumulated during our recent expansion? Companies get lean when they re-examine their infrastructure, simplify and sculpt for efficiency and growth. Salespeople get lean when they abandon bad or lazy sales habits.

2. Are you focused? Organizations focus when they direct all of their resources at their core business and shed the excess of success. This includes markets and line extensions that never made sense. Salespeople focus when they concentrate on their high-value target accounts and shed their profit piranhas.

3. Are you prepared mentally? How is your attitude? How much studying have you done? This slack period has been a gift of time for those who used it to train and increase their knowledge. If you haven't used this time prudently to reinvent yourself to relevance, how will you do this as the spigot opens? You will be too busy scrambling for business. Those who used this time to increase their skills and knowledge will capture most of the value during recovery.

During the last recession, 15% new industry leaders emerged. Do you think they had a plan and made themselves recovery-ready? You know they did.

Tom Reilly, president of Tom Reilly Training, is an authority on value-added selling, and speaks to thousands of salespeople and managers annually on increasing their value to their company and customers. Learn more at www.TomReillyTraining.com

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What You Can Control in Tough Times

As someone who tends to worry constantly about things I have no control over, I found this article from sales trainer Tom Reilly very helpful. No matter how tough your situation is - be it financial, health, or family-related, it's important to realize we can only do so much. Let go of things you can't control and focus on those you can.

"The reason people fret and stress over tough times is that most of us feel like things are happening outside our sphere of control," says Reilly. "There are things you control and things you cannot control. You cannot control Wall Street. You cannot control the price of fuel. You cannot control the news from the media. But, there are significant things you can control."

"The rule of thumb for sanity in tough times is: Give time and energy in proportion to the amount of control you have. Things over which you have little or no control get little time and attention. Things over which you have more or total control get a lot of time and energy."

You can control how much you prepare for a sales call.
You do not want to be out-prepared by the customer for a meeting in which you will discuss price. You do not want to be out-prepared by the competition for a product demonstration. Preparation builds your confidence and tilts the playing field in your direction.

You can control how hard you work.
You do not want to be out-worked by the competition. Imagine losing an opportunity because your competitor worked harder than you did. Your work ethic is an expression of your commitment. Working diligently at a task makes you feel better about the quality of your work.

You can control your attitude of serving.
You do not want to be out-served by the competition because their attitude about taking care of customers is better than your attitude. If they out-care you, you deserve to lose the opportunity. Serving others takes your mind off how bad you feel.

If you prepare thoroughly, work hard, and care genuinely about serving your customers, you have nothing to fear from tough times. Your customers will make sure you emerge victorious.

Tom Reilly is a sales trainer and the author of How to Sell and Manage in Tough Times and Tough Markets. Learn more at www.TomReillyTraining.com

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