One of the main reasons salespeople struggle to overcome objections related to budget and price is simple: the business case was never fully built during the qualification phase.
In many cases, the salesperson identifies a problem and discusses its impact. The prospect acknowledges the pain. But the conversation stops there.
That’s a mistake.
Once pain is uncovered, it’s critical to take a side-step and quantify it.
This means determining how the impact should be measured:
- Dollars
- Percentages
- Units or volume
- Time
- Other measurable metrics
Then identify the gap between where the prospect is today and where they want to be.
This is where the conversation becomes powerful.
Even when the impact involves soft costs—things like lost productivity, employee frustration, missed opportunities, or customer dissatisfaction—it’s still important to assign a value. The number doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, it’s often better if the prospect assigns the value themselves.
Instead of “Paint by Numbers,” think of it as “Pain by Numbers.”
And you hand them the paintbrush.
When prospects quantify the problem using their own assumptions and their own data, something important happens.
They begin to build the business case themselves.
One additional step is often overlooked but incredibly important: after arriving at the total impact, ask a simple question:
“Is that a lot or a little?”
We can’t make assumptions about what matters to them. It’s better to hear it directly—and even more powerful for them to hear themselves say it.
This aligns with a fundamental Sandler principle:
People don’t argue with their own data.
When the cost of the problem becomes clear, the conversation about price often changes. The solution is no longer being compared to the budget alone—it’s being compared to the cost of doing nothing.
And that’s where real sales conversations begin.
