When you attend an online or in-person sales meeting you should have three documents prepared and ready to go. Before presenting any of them you should have asked about your prospect’s decision-making process. What will it ultimately be based on? Price? Value? Warranty? Quality of service?
If they base their decisions on price, you should take out the first document. Tell them, “We’re a contractor, and as you can imagine we do a fair amount of subcontracting. We’ve learned over the years that basing our decisions on price alone puts us in a world of hurt, so we created a list of criteria our subcontractors need to meet.” Sharing that doc leaves a strong impression, because you are not only offering them advice, but also protecting them as one of your own.
The second document should outline two things. First, you should include the questions you ask of your subcontractors. Next, share the answers you’d provide if you were asked the same questions. This simple two-sided sheet could wind up being a valuable yardstick with which your internal champion could compare you vs. your competition.
The third doc should be a list of highly regarded, well-known customers with whom you’ve done business. Tell your prospect, "These are customers who have selected to work with us, not because we were the lowest bidder; rather, because we were not the lowest bidder. Without a doubt, each of them had had bad experiences selecting vendors based on price alone. They know that our levels of service and quality are what they deserve, and they were willing to pay a fair price in return.”
Those three documents will help your prospects become more educated consumers. They also help those prospects lobby their colleagues to pursue a more rational and value-driven approach to procurement than just seeking the lowest price.
