Your sales presentation is cruising along, better than your wildest expectations. The audience is engaged, laughing at your jokes, nodding their heads, and genuinely interested. Then, someone interrupts and asks about the price. What do you do?
I’ve worked with hundreds of sales people on their presentation and demonstration skills, and this is a challenge that throws most all of them off their tracks – what if the customer asks about pricing … should you stop your presentation and close on that buying signal? What if you haven’t gotten to the meat of your value proposition? What if the person that asked about pricing has no influence on the decision? What if they were serious and you have a great opportunity to move closer to securing the sale?
Every situation is different, and the only way to know is to practice, practice, and practice some more. However, a general rule of thumb that I follow has to do with the size of the audience. If there are three or less people in the audience, push the computer aside and start a discussion. If there are more than six, then let them know that you’ll be able to discuss pricing later (or whenever you had planned to). If it’s in between, check out the dynamic and err on the side of having a conversation.
