Optimistic_AM

Account Manager

Countering the "we can't afford that" objection.

So I'm in EdTech, and with how hard the pandemic has hit school districts, I'm running into most districts saying: "we don't have money for that right now" or "we're in the middle of laying off "x" amount of teachers so this is the last thing I need to be looking at". I feel for them and it's a terrible situation to be in since people are losing their jobs and livelihoods, but at the end of the day, this is my job and I depend on them to take demos.

How would ya'll approach this situation and counter their objections?

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HarryCaray

Notable Contributor

HMFIC

maybe ask: What's the cost of doing nothing?

or some variant to make them consider that there's a cost associated with every decision

Soiboi

Politicker

Account Executive, EIAS/Compliance

To Harry's point yeah exactly, what's the cost of the status quo or how much money can you save them by switching... or how much easier their lives can be with a newer tool.

Captain_Q

Arsonist

Sr. Account Executive

I sell VoIP to a lot of GovEd and Non-profits and get that a lot, especially lately. Couple of things to keep in mind.

1. If you are building enough value, the price really shouldn't come into play.

2. Make sure you are really walking them through the hard cost ROI and also the intrinsic value that your software will bring to their organization.

3. There is ALWAYS, especially now with all the stimulus packages, some sort of grant money available. Read up on what might be out there for them, maybe you can help guide them.

4. My company will sometimes help our customers use some of that extra grant money towards our hardware(which we inflate the price on) and then credit them back each month towards their monthly services. Have to be careful with this but it's a creative solution.

5. If you truly believe that it's a budget issue AND you have really built great value. Don't push the issue, keep the relationship strong and stay in touch with them. It'll be a nice little unexpected pop one month when it finally comes in.

Stay Hungry, Keep Grinding!

-Capt Q

Tres_Comas

Politicker

Account Executive

Have to work on finding out what happens if they do nothing and stick with that status quo. If you can put hard numbers around (missed deadlines, man hours, etc) it makes having that conversation much easier.

If you've already captured that information, relayed it back to them, and you're still out of their price range you either need to get higher in the account or cut your losses and move on.

wHaTyAgOtCoOkInG

Catalyst

Solution Consultant

depends on the point during the cycle this comes up- early on its BS. later on its negotiation. "Too expensive? I don't hear that very often, we're usually middle of the pack in this space. You've known the price for x # weeks, whats changed over that time with regards to budget?" Check out andy bounds on price objections

TheLoneGun

Opinionated

Extremely Rad Product Offloading Specialist

As mentioned already, alluding to the costs of not making this improvement/decision is important.

Additionally, I like to ask what they can afford. Sometimes we are close, sometimes they have unreasonable expectations. Uncover & Address them.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

How much money is it costing them to not have your solution? How many teachers could they keep on payroll by switching? You see where I'm going here?

The_Sales_Badger

Notorious Answer

Account Executive

Eliminate that objection all together by putting together a total cost of ownership.
-What expenses can your solution replace?
-References that will back up your claims?
-How much time does your solution save?
-with that additional time, is it more important to drive other revenue-driving activities, or will it allow more time outside of work with family (that's priceless)
-Know everything about your ROI for this company

Before you discuss pricing, create a personalized presentation and get verbal buy-in on every point.
i.e., You said that you were looking to do a, b, c. With our solution, we can accommodate that. Utilizing our solution will accommodate (list pain points), which will eliminate costs with a,b,c.

With all of that in mind, your total cost is ________, with a ROI of ________. Does that make sense?"

Make sure you have a slide with just the price with the ROI included. This eliminates sticker shock, shows that you worked hard to make sense, and should eliminate any budgetary concerns. Make sure you are getting their buy-in with a simple yes, no answer throughout.

The only way to eliminate budgetary concerns is to get ahead of it before it becomes a concern.

cw95

Politicker

Sales Development Lead

Does what you are selling aid them economically with other aspects of their business? For example, my company has a side branch which reduces advertisement costs naturally. When we come across this same objection, we talk about how much it costs them to promote their company, sell their products etc and then come to the conclusion that if they reduce budget for the branched expense, they can then invest more into us to leave them in profit!

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Optimistic_AM

Countering the "we can't afford that" objection.

9 comments

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