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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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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