Winner of the Answer of the Week!
This week the question was, “Why when you present your price, do buyers push back?” I have to pick a winner, which this week was hard. That’s because, even after reading all of your answers, I couldn’t come up with a pith yet complete answer.
Many of your answers are summarized below in 4 categories. The humorous. (My favorites, but I’d feel guilty giving the book to one of them.) The other 3 categories are all partially right. Read the category headings below.
Humorous:
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Sebastiaan Visser: … It depends! First one to steal away this easy free book!
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Darlene Shade: Because they can. Looking for a bargain.
We didn’t present value:
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Erwan Daubenfeld: The answer is in the question. They push back because you present a price and not an offer (product or service) with added value for their business.
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Rafael Rocha: Because they don’t know the VALUE yet. Once you’re able to exchange the “size” of these things, when your VALUE impacts more than your PRICE, they won’t push back anymore.
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Marhya Fasching: Because you’ve failed to establish the value.
They expect a discount:
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Dr. Vandana Rahadwa: Buyers already assume that the price is quoted slightly higher with a buffer and there is a scope for bargaining and lowering the price.
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Matthew Jackson: Because you have conditioned your buyer to expect there to always be a negotiation regardless of whether they truly see the value in your product. Also, you may have exhibited poor price discipline in the past and buyers know that if they press, you will discount as opposed to selling the value.
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LENA PENDLETON: Buyers push back because they feel there’s always room to negotiate, that you haven’t provided your best up front. They are willing to go through rounds of negotiations to get the best price possible.
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Lisa González: Because the price you present is the starting point for the negotiation. Their tactic is to always push back on the first price offered.
Everyone wants to save money:
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Ken Katz: It’s human nature to want to get the best price possible.
My answer (which is cheating since I’m stealing ideas from you): Buyers push back because we didn’t present value, they expect a discount and everyone wants to save money. 🙂
I choose Marhya Fasching because this was the answer I would have given without the benefit of reading the other answers – and it was very pithy. Congratulations Marhya.
Look for a new question on Monday. I’m looking forward to seeing your answers. 🙂
**Note: Mark Stiving has an active LinkedIn community, where he participates in conversations and answers questions. Each week, he creates a blog post for the top question. If you have a question, head over to LinkedIn to communicate directly with Mark.
