You have asked all the right pain discovery questions. You deeply understand the customer’s problem, and you know your solution can help them. But then comes the next step in qualifying: determining how much they are willing to invest.
Suddenly, your throat tightens.
When it comes to discussing money during a sales meeting, many of us clam up. A sense of dread creeps in, and your head trash starts shouting over your intuition:
- Will I scare away the prospect?
- Will I quote too much or too little?
- Will this kick off an uncontrollable negotiation I’m not ready for?
While there are many psychological reasons this happens, the real question is: how do we overcome it? The secret lies in a solid mindset and a structured pre-investment bridge known in Sandler Sales Training as the SVIC framework.
Clear Your Mindset Before the Meeting
First, you cannot go into a financial conversation without a plan. You must be prepared to provide clear pricing for your product or service before you ever engage in the meeting.
Second, remind your head trash that the budget stage is just another step in qualifying the client. If you did an adequate job in the Pain Discovery phase, talking about money is simply verifying how committed they are to resolving their issue. If your solution fixes their pain, a reasonable price will not be an issue.
Finally, if the prospect isn't ready to pay a reasonable price, they are simply disqualifying themselves. It's time to move on.
The Pre-Investment Step: SVIC
Before you ever quote a price, you must prepare the prospect using SVIC to ensure you have qualified for priority and commitment:
- Summarize & Validate: Remind the customer of the pain you discussed by summarizing their issues. Ask them to validate that they agree with your summary statement.
- Importance: Confirm that solving this issue is a true priority and that they want to move forward with a solution right now. Resolution might be important to them, but is it important enough to prioritize over other projects currently on their plate?
- Commitment: Ask if they are genuinely willing to commit the time, energy, and resources necessary to resolve the issue.
Not until you have confirmed their commitment and priority should you be ready to discuss money. But once you use SVIC to secure that foundation, the only thing left to discuss is the investment.
