A recent cartoon in our local paper titled “Strange Brew” by John Beering made this point: “A cynic is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” In my book, the definition of cynic is “one who believes that all people are motivated by selfishness.”

Do you know a customer that fits that description? Someone who thinks the only objective you have when calling on them is to sell them something for your own benefit? If so, what can you do to change that attitude?

Let’s review some thoughts on price versus value, price versus cost and ways we can show our cynical customers that, in fact, we always have their best interests in mind.

There are a few sayings I have come across about price and value during my years in this business that I think pertain to this discussion. A few I have mentioned in past articles. Let’s review:

“Price is only an issue in the absence of value.” You must point out the value you supply. Can you make a list of value-added services specific to your product or system that causes price to fall to the bottom of their list of concerns?

If not, you better get to work and make your list and identify your values. Your competitors also tout values such as quality and service, so you better define what those words mean to your customers.

In this business, the largest part of the cleaning budget is labor. What can your product do to help make your customer’s job easier and quicker? Do some paper-and-pencil selling by pointing out their return on investment (ROI).

Here is another thought and this one should be stated to your customers in your own style and under the right conditions. “Price is only part of the cost.”

Price is what your customer pays for your product; cost is what it costs your customer to use your product. Compare the “in-use” cost to what it costs them today, instead of comparing what you are proposing and what your competitor is proposing.

Similarly, tell customers, “It only costs you more the day you buy it, from then on you save and save and save.” Here again, point out that the investment cost (price) is small compared to the savings generated over the lifetime of use.

For example: “You will save X dollars per week times 52 weeks, so your savings per day, month or year is X. So, by investing X dollars today, your savings over the next X will be X. Therefore, your investment will return to you in X and from then on, it all goes to the bottom line.

These statements may sound cliché, but they aren’t. They are tried and true statements, but you must be prepared to prove your point. Most manufacturers in our business are in a position to “cost justify” their product when making a presentation to your customers.

As noted above, it is generally agreed that only 5 to 10 percent of cleaning costs go to products, including chemicals, equipment and custodial hardware. The rest of the cost — 95 percent — goes to the labor to use these products. With proper planning, it should be fairly easy to sell value using these percentages as evidence.

Even if we are selling a commodity, or a product that is sold by many of your competitors, price is still only part of the cost. Other concerns such as training, delivery and inventory turns are issues that in most cases are more important than the price of the product.

Think about the biggest commodity of all — gasoline. Today, we are constantly aware of that price, but do you always stop at the cheapest service station to buy your gas? You probably don’t drive very far out of your way to save a penny or two per gallon. You are looking for a station that is easy to access, may sell other items that you need at the time, etc. So in the case of commodity selling, you must identify your advantages (besides the product) and sell those advantages (values).

If you use these ideas for selling value, you have an excellent chance of converting cynics into excellent customers.

To share your selling ideas, fax: (414) 228-1134, contact Mr. Dixon at (877) 379-3566 or e-mail.




POSTED ON: 8/1/2005