A heart surgeon who had his car in for a service was exchanging some friendly banter with the owner of the local garage, a skilled but not especially wealthy mechanic.
“So,” starts the mechanic, “I’ve been considering what we both do for a living, and how much more you get paid than me.”
“Yes?” said the surgeon.
“Well look at this,” continued the mechanic, working on a large complex engine, “I check how it’s running. I open it up, repair the valves, and then fix it all back together so it works good as new… Don’t we basically do the same job? And yet you’re paid 10 times what I am. How do you explain that?”
The surgeon pondered momentarily and smiling he replied, “Try it with the engine running.”
So, when it comes to sales, do you think the surgeon would receive the same cost objections as the mechanic? No.
Because the problem he’s solving has more at stake for the patient.
Price is part of a customer’s decision but often it’s not the main decider.
If you receive cost objections it indicates you’ve not done a thorough enough job in two places in the sales cycle:
1 Distinguishing the problem
If your customer doesn’t recognise what the problem is or that there’s something that needs to change, they won’t see the need to pay your money to fix what isn’t broken.
2 Identifying the cost of the problem
Customers will only take action when it’s clear how the cost of not fixing the problem is greater than the cost of buying from you.
Want my cheat sheet of top responses you can use when prospects object to your price?
