Sales

How often do clients ask you for an “apples-to-apples” quote?

They send you an RFP to strictly follow so they can see a direct cost comparison between you and your competitors. But in the AV world, true apples-to-apples comparisons don’t exist.

Most of the people in the AV community work in competitive situations — we bid on projects, against other companies (and probably even against each other). Competitive bidding is the world we think we live in. But it’s not as comparable as it may seem.

Selling isn’t what it used to be… it’s better.

While some people tend to get nostalgic about the “good ol’ days,” I think we can agree that in the tech world, things improve with time.

Just think, 20 years ago, we didn’t have the iPhone, Facebook, or YouTube, not to mention tablets, smart watches, and memes.

Want to be happier, make more money, and grow your company? Of course you do — that’s success in business.

We all want it… and we want it fast.

As a consultant, I’ve seen a ton of AV companies try out all sorts of shortcuts to grow their businesses overnight. One of those shortcuts is hiring a salesperson with their own accounts.

The truth is, it’s never that simple.

Some negotiations are easy to overcome.

When a client objects that your price is too high, doesn’t understand the price breakdown, or claims you made a mistake, you can deal with the objection simply. You simply diffuse it and move on. It’s barely a blip on your radar.

But there’s a more difficult type of objection that poses the threat of bringing the entire negotiation to a stop. When these come up, there’s a real likelihood that all the work, proposals, and your many attempts to really understand the client may have been for nothing.

These are second-level objections.

Reaching a deal with a new client is challenging enough.

But getting a new client to actually sign the contract they’ve already agreed to can be even more difficult.

We’ve all been there: We complete the proposal and send it over for approval. They respond, “It looks great!” We ask them to sign it and send it back, and then…

We don’t hear back from them. For some reason, they drag their feet.

How do we move from verbal agreement to written confirmation? Once we understand why they’re not signing, we can implement a process that makes it simple.

Customers don’t like change.

No salesperson will dispute this claim. It comes up nearly every time we talk about raising prices, increasing profit margins, changing crew routes, or even offering different technology.

When these topics surface, inevitably someone says, “We can’t do that. Our customers won’t let us! They don’t like change!”

While this idea tends to creep into nearly every sales meeting, customers’ resistance to change doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make the changes necessary for our business to succeed — even when that means raising prices.

Why didn’t you close the deal?

You worked hard to go beyond meet the customer’s requests. You added all the bells and whistles. You delivered far more than they could have hoped for… at a competitive price, nonetheless.

Or maybe you offered exactly what they wanted (so you thought). You delivered their requests and came in well below the other competitors.

With such great service or such a great deal, why didn’t you win the bid?

Are you a widget salesperson? Are products an important part of what you sell?

For anyone in the AV industry, widgets are a part of your life. Whether you specialize in permanent installation or live events, you use widgets all the time. Your customers may even call you specifically asking for a widget.

But widgets aren’t what sells.

Service sells.

Have you ever thought about why you give your clients valuable products and services for free?

Maybe you’re trying to strengthen the relationship with the client. Or, maybe you’re just trying to ensure you’ll win the project or make the sale.

To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with providing some extra value to a client, but we often give away the wrong add-ons in our proposals .