In my previous blog, I went over how anticipating and tackling a price objection is always better than having to overcome it.

But what do you do if you don’t get the chance to anticipate the objection before the prospect brings it up? Well, you can still stay in the driver’s seat of the discussion if you know how to handle this objection. 

Pay attention because this is really important, and most rookie sales reps screw this up!

When you hear a price objection, don’t be like the rookie sales rep who gets nervous and immediately responds by offering a discount. If you offer a discount right away, the customer sees that it was really easy to get you move off your price and, to them, it feels like you were trying to rip them off.

If you drop your price right away, you really lose all credibility. Also, the prospect will often feel like you can drop it even more. Remember to treat negotiations like wringing out a wet towel. You’re the wet towel and the water is money being wrung out of the towel.

Just imagine: When does someone stop wringing out a wet towel? When it stops giving water. So, what do you do instead of offering a discount? You work to uncover the origin of the price objection. You need to figure out what they mean when they say, “The price is probably too high for us to move forward right now.”

Here’s my playbook for getting to the real objection:

The first thing you need to do is take a deep breath, make eye contact with your prospect, and you look at them a little curiously (almost like you’re a little surprised that they could be asking you this right now). It’s weird that they don’t see how valuable this would be.

You want to be subtle about this though, you never want to be condescending. Maybe nod your head a little like you understand. If you want, you can silently count to two in your head when you hear a price objection.

It’s amazing how many customers will just answer their own objections, or at least give you information when you just say nothing. So, don’t be afraid of silence when someone has an objection!

Remember – like I said in the last video – when you’re handling objections, you’re kind of like Yoda handling the rocks that Count Dooku threw at him. So be a Sales Jedi, handle those objections and don’t get hit by any flying rocks!