Buy one get one free that 's a substantial savings. I was selling in the medical field. We had a good portion of the business but we still had competition to contend with. Every so often the competition would take a run at us with a low price position or by giving product away by offering a buy one get one free special. Now our product cost more to begin with and buy one get one free offered a significant savings. What to do.
The company had a plan which they presented at a special meeting. Go see all the customers, mention the fact that the competition hadn't been around as long as us and that price should never be the most important thing where health is concerned. Get to them right away and bang away on all our strong points.
One problem I perceived, how do you tell people buy one get one free is a bad deal. I didn't think the company answered this with their plan. I had a different plan which I put into affect without rocking the boat or setting up a versus with the company.
I handled my calls in the usual manner and took care of everything that needed doing. What I didn't do was go on the defensive. When my customers mentioned the special I agreed that saving money in any capacity was advantageous. I didn't say the deal was good I simply stated that savings in any capacity was good. How can you argue against that.
I did mentioned to my customers about the quality of our product and the relationship we had built on the reliability of that product. I then asked the customer “what are you going to do if those who are to use the product don't like it? Can it be returned? I planted this seed in all the relevant areas of the hospital that would be affected. I then went to my sales manger and asked if we could take the competitive free case out if they didn't like it and replace it with one of ours. He okayed this. But it never came to this. I held this in reserve in case I needed it.
The people using the competitive product didn't like it. They had bought a goodly amount and they decided to keep the free product and return the product they paid for. This created an insurmountable problem for the competition. The negotiations back and forth were brutal. The customers didn't want to pay for something they didn't like – the competition didn't want to give product away for free and then accept product back that wasn't paid for. The competition finally relented because they didn't want to loose the entire account, there were other areas' of the competitions' company involved in other areas of the hospital. They could loose a substantial amount of business. They tried their big push and it failed.
Some times you have to lay back and let things play out. Do not panic, don't over react. Formulate your own plan you know your accounts and how best to handle them. If you have a superior product along with great delivery and customer service and a long great relationship built over the years with dependability and reliability rely on this, lean heavily on it. Give things time to work themselves out. Price is about the fourth most important thing to a customer, most are interested in having what is best. Most times in the long run all these positives will carry you through if you stay steadfast and do not panic.
Thank You
Joe D'Ambra
www.basicsofsales.com
Sales Blogs offering sales tips
I hope that reading my blogs has benefited you. Click the free preview on the site above and let me show you how I can benefit you further.
XML Feeds
Recent comments