How to Win a Bid at Your Price

Good morning!

A couple weeks ago during a peer-to-peer discussion group held every Wednesday, one participant got talking about the bidding process and how he might improve his odds. It got me thinking, this would be a great topic not just for a Sales Tip, but for a full week of discussion.

So …

All this week, beginning today and continuing with tomorrow’s blog and then all the way through to Fridays free Chill with Bill, I want to talk to you about how to sharpen this important skill.

The first thing I'd like to point out to you is that this is a skill just as much as overcoming objection is a skill. Unless you’ve got the lowest price, you are going to need to do some ‘splainin each time you throw a number at a client, Lucy.

Whether you are bidding on an existing job, or you have done it right and come up with a better solution entirely, at some point you’re going to need to justify your price.

Your ability to do this successfully comes down to your ability to answer one question:

Do you understand the benefit to them?

That is, why would the customer agree to buy at your price? Why you?

The only way to come up with the answer to these questions is to have done your homework.

A simple example: If you know that their current vendor has been late with recent shipments and it has proven detrimental to the client, they might be willing to buy from you.

Going the solutions route, if you have learned the story behind the printed piece and can come up with a better way to do it — one than either lowers the usage cost of the document or increases its value — they might be willing to buy from you.

Your price IS going to be challenged. At that point, you have two choices, lower or justify. If you have not done your job, you’d better hope your boss is in a good mood and is willing to slash off some profit.

If you have done your job, you can win the order without dropping your price even a nickel.

Like I said, this is a skill.

Let’s talk more about this. In my blog tomorrow, I’ll talk about how to avoid the bidding process when you are the incumbent vendor.

Sales Vault Insiders get exclusive content all week: You will learn how to prevent the customer from ghosting you after you give them a price. In addition, you will learn a response to the “Your price is too high” objection that will stop the customer dead in their tracks.

Then we’ll all get together again on Friday at noon for my Chill with Bill. See you then!

Live Workshops. Weekly peer discussions. On demand sales courses. Archived content organized by sales challenge. That’s The Sales Vault and the monthly cost is only $35/participant. Go to SalesVaultInsider.com for more or call Bill Farquharson at 781-934-7036.