Last week we talked about the fact that we must be prepared to handle the questions we receive on a cold call in order to be efficient. Here’s an example of how to handle the toughest of them all – price.

First of all, let’s frame the issue. We don’t really want to answer this question do we? We’re taught not to bring up price until we’ve created enough value to support it. If we do, we know we’ll more than likely be in a battle of ‘price only’ when asking for the order. So our first impulse is not to answer it.

When someone asks me how much our sales training workshops cost, I really can’t give them a definitive price because I don’t know enough about their situation. Saying that doesn’t work though, so I try to put it in a ballpark that is fairly large. Doing this accomplishes four things.

1. It answers the question as best as I can with the information I have (basically none)
2. It does weed out those that can’t afford our service immediately
3. According to Dr. Cialdini’s Principle of Reciprocity, I’ve now earned the right to ask this person a question – they almost have to answer it
4. If I frame the follow-on conversation correctly, (using our Bridging technique) it gets me into a short conversation that will provide me with a reason why we should get together

So here’s how I do it using a technique we call the Bridge question:

“Well, it’s difficult to answer without knowing what type of sales training you might be interested in, how many people you’d want trained, and a few other variables, but let me see if I can at least give you a ballpark idea since you asked.

We price on a, per student, per day basis for our on-site training. To give you an idea of what some of our clients have paid in the past for our training though, it has run between $850 per day per student on the high end to $350 on the low end.

I’m just curious, what are some of the challenges your sales teams are having today?” (Bridge question.)

What did I just do? I answered their question fairly based on the information I had (none) and immediately asked them a question that gets us in a conversation about what their challenges are (and off the topic of price, I might add).

If you’re interested in our techniques on setting appointments, check out the complete methodology, The Appointment Making Formula™.