Why should the customer buy from you?

The easiest way to get a customer to buy from you is to entice them with the lowest possible price. This is also the worse possible method, because:

1. You won’t generate the right margin for your company.
2. The company you represent will have less chance to develop, introduce new solutions, or improve their service. This method will trap you in the vicious circle of selling for the lowest possible price.
3. Rather than increasing, your value as a salesperson on the labour market decreases.
4. In an extreme situation, the company may not be able to provide you with the tools you need for work, or the pay rise you expect.
5. You build the image of a cheap company - especially if you also try to provide a high standard of service. Being seen as a ‘cheap and good’ company is probably the greatest image-related failure of both the organization and the salespeople themselves. In extreme cases, it can even lead the company to bankruptcy.

The salesperson’s real success

So, what is the salesperson’s real success? What image should you go for? In my opinion, this is a situation where customers talk about you, the company you represent, or the product or service you offer like this:

“Yes, it’s expensive, but it’s definitely worth buying this product, from this salesperson, at this company.”

If you get recommendations like that, it means that you’re doing your job well. Of course, building that kind of image takes time, patience, and sensitivity, but it’s worth it - many companies and countless salespeople have protected themselves from attacks based on the opposition’s price games.

Everyone who earns such recommendations, apart from a high margin, receives a very valuable bonus. When it loses customers (and usually doesn’t understand why), the competition tries to regain the market by further reducing prices, which most often doesn’t bring the expected effect in the form of increased sales. The only thing it achieves is decreased profitability.