Handling the Unreasonable Offer: 3 Strategies

This is for salespeople who have authority to discount their price to their customer:

Do you ever get an unreasonable offer from your prospect? Here are three ways to deal with this situation:

1. Congratulate the prospect on his aggressive posture. Then  say, "As much as I admire your negotiating ability by asking for such a large discount, your offer is simply not possible. Are you willing to be more reasonable?"

What you want is for the customer to respond affirmatively so that price negotiations can continue. If he says "yes," then you can make a reasonable offer and ask for his business. If your prospect says "no," then you must determine if he's committed to his offer and if so, either accept it (and win the sale) or reject it (and probably lose the sale).

2. Say, "I can get you that price, but we'll have to take some of the product away" (or lower the quantity on the order). Which is more important to you? Paying exactly the price you offered and losing some of the product, or getting what you really want and paying a fair price for it?"

3. Say, "Your offer is a great down payment. How about if we finance the remainder?"

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Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting company. Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips Newsletter.

 

Comments

[nesh thompson]

I remember in some seminar or other that I attended in which the topic of overcoming unreasonable discounting came up in which the principle of sticking up for your product was a main factor. There are always customers who think they have the right to demand the lowest possible price but the sales person has a right to make a living.

Also, the repercussions of giving into that kind of demand sets the atmosphere of the business relationship. You may think that getting business is important in the long term, but if a customer has gotten away with that demand before then in all likelihood will do so again. At what cost to the business?

[Colin Wilson]

Skip

I've been reading your blog for a couple on months now and I have to say you are a master at this stuff... great responses... I'm going to have to trawl through your posts and pick these gems out ... unless of course there is an easy option such as a book... The Wisdom of Skip... sounds like a title to me!

[Brad Trnavsky]

I don't know how you come up with so many outstanding posts day in and day out.

I love #1 and #2 option #3 would have to depend on the customer. I can imagine a lot of scenarios where clients could become very irritated if the response was interpreted as curt or sarcastic.

-Brad