Читать книгу Selling the Price Increase - Blount Jeb, Jeb Blount - Страница 10

B2B organizations have counted on their sales teams to sell price increases to customers since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution more than 125 years ago. However, in the twenty-first century, as disruptive economic cycles have become more frequent and shareholder pressure for growth and profitability has become more acute, executives are exerting greater pressure than ever on their sales organizations to extract price increases from customers.

Inflation, demand surges, supply shortages, increased costs, shareholder demands, growth initiatives, mergers, and capital-intensive investments can all lead to the need to approach customers with price increases – as can the regular costs of doing business. Likewise, in our hyper-competitive marketplace it is common to acquire new customers at low (sometimes unprofitable) price points with the intent to raise those prices down the road once the relationship, trust, and value exchange are anchored.

In all cases, it is critical to the financial health of B2B organizations that sales professionals hone the skills to successfully approach price increase conversations with customers.

Over the past 10 years, my team at Sales Gravy has helped hundreds of organizations teach their sales professionals how to successfully sell price increases without losing customers. We've developed a repeatable system that reduces anxiety, builds confidence, and is easy to learn, coach, and deploy in the field.

Still, since more than 80 percent of training dollars are invested in developing sales skills for the purpose of acquiring new customers, I recognize that most sellers and leaders are not going to receive professional training for selling price increases. For this reason, I wrote Selling the Price Increase as a tactical field guide for frontline sales professionals, account managers, and sales leaders who wish to improve their price increase sales skills and acumen.

In these pages, I give you a complete system for selling price increases. You'll learn strategies, tactics, and techniques for approaching customers confidently and gaining price increase acceptance without damaging long-term relationships.

 Part One is a discussion about how to manage the fears, worries, and disruptive emotions you feel when approaching price increase conversations with customers.

 Part Two dives into the keys to protecting relationships and retaining customers. You'll learn how to get price increases without causing customers to resent you for it.

 Part Three teaches you a repeatable framework for targeting, planning, and setting the stage for crucial price increase conversations.

 Part Four focuses on how to build messaging that reduces resistance and facilitates acceptance.

 Part Five gives frameworks and tactics for handling price increase objections and negotiating better price increase outcomes.

 Part Six teaches front-line sales leaders how to lead price increase initiatives and coach price increase sales skills. (Note that I also include “Coaching Tips” for leaders throughout the book.)

Along the way, I've included exercises designed to help you master the Selling the Price Increase system. Parts One through Five are for front-line sales professionals, account managers, and customer service professionals. In Part Six, the focus shifts to managers, who need additional skills to lead their teams through price increases.