Matt312213

Account Executive

Pricing

Hey all, I sell an reporting and sms tool in the cannabis industry and this industry can be really difficult regionally. The prospects in California cry over SaaS contracts that eclipse a year in commitment or over 1k a month for any of their software infrastructure. Because operating costs are so new to these fools, I often get caught in some type of price trap. Maybe I’m doing a poor job, maybe the product is feature specific. Regardless, I’m dealing with someone specifically now who I sold some software to in the past. In any industry, it’s important for employee to adopt the software. In the previous instance, that was really hard for this company who only committed to 3 months but paid up front; needless to say they ended up churning.

Im trying to close this company again for this new service and they are breaking my balls on price because of what happened with the previous software I sold them. On top of that, they went back to their old software which lacks an API so it’s difficult to work with them, if at all.

So here I am getting steamrolled by a prospect because he has crap internal team using a crap software. Pretty much told the dude I won’t be dropping the price. How do I win here? Better question, what are some good follow ups to promote value and justify price?

👑 Sales Strategy

☁️ Software Tech

6

10 comments

Sort by:

BusterMcDialRipper

Politicker

5

Director of Dials

demonstrate value and highlight a pain point so he realizes it himself

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

5

☕️

Future performance is indicated by past behaviors. Do you want to win business from someone that has a history of churning from solutions you sell? They're already holding bullshit over you, which wasn't your fault in the first place--what says that don't try to again?

braintank

Politicker

1

Enterprise Account Executive

Agee 💯. Why do you want to win this deal? Sounds like bad business.

Matt312213

Good Citizen

0

Account Executive

Agree, I think we will just let this guy dwell in email h*ll - and not respond until he comes to his sense. and then maybe.

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

4

SaaS Eater

Get away from the pricing conversation entirely, take it back to why he needs this to begin with. If hes busting balls over pricing he doesnt think your software is worth what you want to charge for it (im stating the obvious here).

Have you identified a use case/business problem that HE cares about solving? Not just one that you think makes sense? If not thats where I would take the conversation.

Beasthouse

Opinionated

2

Corporate trainer

this is sooooo keeeyyy thanks for the reminder

softwarebro

Politicker

3

Sales Director

sell value, performance clause in the contract, creative accounting ( 70% upfront, 30% once proven).

Matt312213

Good Citizen

1

Account Executive

That’s an interesting tactic. I’m going to google this a bit more. Almost like a trial but not quite huh?

softwarebro

Politicker

3

Sales Director

Definitely not a trial but contractual language agreed-upon by both parties of what defines performance or a complete product. In my world we do this from time to time if our product has gaps that we promise to fix. If you don’t want to change your contract or don’t have the ability to change your contract then you can do the creative accounting piece where they just pay a portion of the license upfront and the rest when you hit agreed upon targets.

Calico

Celebrated Contributor

1

Corporate Trainer

What kind of pain do they have that's worth the cost of your solution?

The idea is that if your solution costs $12k/year, but you solve an issue that's currently costing them $50/year, that's the idea you need to focus on.

Bravado is a community of trusted sales professionals endorsed by their customers.

Products

The War Room Jobs Salary Guide Tech Sales U

Company

About Us How It Works Blog Bug Bounty

Contact

© 2024 Bravado Inc. All rights reserved.

Privacy Policy Legal and Privacy Center Sales Jobs

If you are hired as a contract sales rep by a Bravado customer, we may ask you to prove access to the employee email account provided to you by that customer. This data will be shared with customers to track your sales productivity; customers can use this data to confirm you meet the minimum activity requirements to pay out your ramp stipend and commission.