How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?

Are you worried you are losing otherwise great clients because you don’t have an easy reply?

Don’t worry. You’re not alone.

Let’s explore this scenario with an HVAC company.

Assuming you’re not a one man band, Chuck in a truck, or Mom and Pop shop, your business has significant overhead. We will also assume you’re not desperate and afraid of where your next deal is coming from, allowing you to speak with confidence and competence. This means you will not be the cheapest Charlie in town.

So how do you compete?

Always start by answering the question as asked.

Anything less will be perceived as untrustworthy. People judge you and your business based on two things, warmth and competence.

The thing is, they aren’t asking you the price because they don’t know the price. They’re asking you because they want to determine if they can trust you or not.

Your answer tells a story.

You competitors are going to do one of two things:

1. Blurt out the lowest price to get a ‘foot in the door’, or
2. Evade the question as asked.

Since you want to stand out from your competition and you know you’re going to be more expensive, you have to do something your competitors are not willing to do.

Well intentioned or not, the customer is judging you, and they’re skeptical. You have to fit into their belief system by showing them you care first.

In an effort to past this first test of the prospect, consider this exchange:

Prospect: How much for an air conditioner?

Superstar: Six thousand to ninety thousand dollars, if you can imagine that, lol :)

Our average air conditioning system with the bells and whistles that most of our customers buy is thirteen thousand dollars, or about ninety bucks a month.

When can we get over to your house to do a proper assessment of your home and review your options?

Prospect: No thanks, you guys are way too high.

Superstar: Compared to? Have you received a quote already? Because we will beat any apples-to-apples comparison by 10%. You can’t lose!

Prospect: Yeah, I got a quote for $5,500 installed.

Superstar: That’s exceptional! Why haven’t you gone ahead?

Prospect: Shopping around.

Superstar: I haven’t measured your home, taken heat load calculations, inspected the current system and ductwork, or even determined if we could just fix your current unit for less, but it sounds like a really great deal.

If you are looking to confirm you got a cheap price, you did. You should go ahead and buy it! That is, if you’re confident it’s the right sized system for your home.

Prospect: Well, what’s the cheapest you’ll do?

Superstar: Let’s find out! Can we get a systems engineer out there to spec out your home today at 3:15 or is tomorrow morning at 9:15 better?

Prospect: I just want your cheapest price.

Superstar: Excellent! You’ve called the right place. We can give you an exact price as soon as we have your house specs calculated by our systems engineer.

Prospect: Can’t you just give it to me over the phone?

Superstar: Yes, we can, but then you would hate us for lying to you. It’s a big purchase and we don’t want your first impression of us to be negative.

Here’s what I’m going to do for you. I’m going to treat you like I would treat my own mother. I won’t send a salesperson over. Instead, I’ll send a systems engineer to spec out your home to ensure we have the right specs.

Then – your choice – the systems engineer can review your options with you or I can call you back personally to review your options. You don’t have to decide now, but let’s get your home specs done as a first step. Sound good?

What’s your address?

Worst case scenario, you re-approach Mr. Cheapy Pants with your 10% better pricing on the “price” he received. When he agrees to the no-brainer lowball deal, just send out your systems engineer out to do their job.

Do a proper home inspection, identify any concerns, and present new options that best serve your prospect.

Here’s the good news. Once you have mapped out the 6 objections with a wide variety of pre-written rebuttals, you can hand this task off to a junior salesperson or lead coordinator. You can even program a chatbot to handle all of the common questions and replies.

Want to stand out when you arrive onsite? Do an Options Review™. Email me and I’ll send you an intro video to get you started.

Good selling.

PS – What’s a systems engineer, you might be wondering? That would be your Technical Advisors, Comfort Advisors, Salespeople, or Selling Techs. Just another way to play your part in the theatre of your customer’s mind.