Sales Essentials: Ramp-Up Course

Why Talking About Money Is Hard

Investment - formerly known as the budget step - is one of our three qualifying phases of the Sandler methodology. When we discussed pain, we talked about the fact that if there is not actionable pain, if there's not a personal, compelling, and emotional reason to take action now, the deal is not qualified. But that's just one of the three qualifiers. Is there or is there not enough pain? If there is, is there or is there not enough resources - both a willingness and an ability - to invest what it takes in order to get the job done? Our final qualifying phase will be decision, which Jim will cover next week. So we are here on our second of three qualifiers.

There are a few different components to cover: the willingness to invest, the head trash we carry into these conversations, and a talk track that'll give you a starting place. So let's talk about why discussing money is hard. One reason is technical - if you're new to your organization and you're not entirely sure how much somebody would have to pay to get their problems fixed, you might just avoid the conversation. That's a block we have to work through internally. But the bigger issue most of the time is conceptual.

We are conditioned to be uncomfortable talking about money. We were told as children: we don't talk about money. Money doesn't grow on trees. We can't afford that. These are messages we internalized over a lifetime, and if we're talking about socializing with friends, they're good rules to live by. But those beliefs and fears carry into our business conversations, and that's when they become a real problem.

Your Money Concept Affects How You Sell

Somebody noted that what feels like a lot of money to me isn't necessarily a lot to someone else. Let's put that to the test. If you play golf, where do you tap out on a set of golf clubs? What about a ladies' handbag? A pair of shoes? The answers are all over the board - and that illustrates that we all have what we call a money concept, and we're all unique in it. What I'm willing to spend a lot of money on is not necessarily what someone else is willing to spend. It really doesn't have much to do with how much money we make - it has far more to do with what we personally value.

My first Sandler coach used to tell a story that illustrates this perfectly. He came from a family that was conservative with money - cheaper is better, don't talk about money. Those were his money messages growing up. Then he became a salesperson in pharmaceutical sales, and pre-Sandler, when he first started selling medication, he used to say to doctors in the same breath: "The drug costs X, but I can get you a discount." He was doing that because the amount his company was charging felt like a crazy amount of money through his own worldview. He didn't believe his product was worth that. How do you think he did on his margins compared to his colleagues? Not great.

We have to be careful about our own concept of money. We get to be however we want as consumers, but we cannot impose our sense of what's expensive onto our prospects. They are not us. They may buy $10,000 purses and $100 golf clubs because they value things differently than we do.

Why Skipping the Money Conversation Is Dangerous

Salespeople sometimes want to skip over budget or put it off as long as possible because it's uncomfortable - but that's dangerous. You could be wasting each other's time, making assumptions, and mismanaging expectations that erode trust later. You know where I see this happen most? Referrals. We assume that if Keith told Andrew to call me, Andrew already has a pretty good sense of what we cost. So we skip it. Then you get to the end, you tell them how much it costs, and everyone's embarrassed.

Investment is a key part of discovery and qualification. It's okay if someone isn't willing and able to invest what it takes - but if that's the case, I want to know as early as possible so we're not wasting each other's time. If I believe my stature as a salesperson is equal to theirs, I don't want my time wasted either.

We also have to understand that lots of pain doesn't automatically mean willingness to invest. If you've been in sales long enough, you've had conversations where someone had loads of pain and you thought, "How could you not fix this?" And then when money comes up: "Well, we don't really have that." That's why after qualifying for pain, the next question is: is it worth investing what it takes to get this fixed?

Investment Is More Than Dollars

When we think about investment, I want us to think beyond the dollar amount - because for most of you, it's not just about whether they have the money. Do they have someone internally dedicated to the project? Are they prepared to utilize political capital to champion this within their organization? That's risk. That's investment too.

In our world, one thing we have to qualify around is that management participation is not optional. Not because we want them to pay for an extra seat, but because the engagement will fail without it. You also have to be willing to take your people out of the field and put them in 90-minute training sessions at least once a week. Those are non-monetary investments we must qualify around. In your world, it might be lead times, minimum order quantities, changing an existing vendor relationship, or having a dedicated person on-site to help problem-solve alongside you.

The cost of change is real. Moving away from whatever problem you have right now can feel uncomfortable, because sometimes the devil you know is more comfortable than the devil you don't. It's a tough proposition to say, "I'm going to ask you to change, and I'm also going to ask you to pay me significant money to change." You'll sometimes hear us refer to this as the FUD factor - is the fear, uncertainty, and doubt of staying where you are greater than the fear, uncertainty, and doubt of taking a leap of faith with us?

One of our core philosophies is that we want to qualify hard so we can close easily. Our instinct as salespeople is to pretend that the things we know could blow up a deal don't exist, and then cross our fingers at the end. What we're proposing instead is that you proactively turn over every rock where there might be a problem. Because if it's going to be a problem, I'd rather deal with it now - not hear at the close, "We really like you guys, it's not about the money, we just can't get everyone through the training." If we've already had all those conversations, we get to the close and it's either a yes or a no. No fists up, no objection handling.

What Not to Ask About Budget

Before we get into the technique, let's take the bad questions off the table. The most common one: "What's your budget?" or "How much would you like to spend?" Why is that a bad question? Because the prospect thinks, if I tell you what my budget is, you - doing your job as a salesperson - are going to take every penny. If I tell you I have $50,000 set aside and your solution is $40,000, you're going to tell me it's $50,000. So why would I tell you? They get defensive, they lowball you, or they simply don't know - especially if they've never purchased this category of product or service before.

And "How much would you like to spend?" implies that your price is not your price. It suggests it's negotiable depending on what they tell you. We don't want to ask that. We want to ask a question that signals it's okay if you don't know - and that keeps them comfortable, not called out.

The Four-Step Investment Conversation

Here's your formula. This conversation should follow a pain conversation - you know what's going on, what the problem is. The first step is to summarize and validate. "I want to make sure I heard you correctly. I understand that X is happening, which is causing Y, and you're hoping to get this fixed because of Z. Did I get that right?" The purpose is to show you were listening, link the pain to the solution, and make sure you're on the same page before moving forward.

Next, use an upfront contract to get buy-in before talking about money. It might sound like: "Would it make sense for us to spend a few minutes talking about the various investments you'd have to make to address these issues?" If your personality is more direct, you can say, "Let's spend a few minutes talking about..." - both get the job done. You're getting their agreement to transition into this conversation.

Then share what it takes to do business with you, starting with the non-monetary investments. Use third party: "We find that a few things need to happen for a project like this to be successful. First, there must be a dedicated staff person at your organization to lead the charge." This is where you raise any investment that could become an objection later. If someone says, "I don't know if we can get management to do that," you need to know now - not at the close. Qualify around it and move on.

When you get to money specifically, use a bracket: "When we've helped other companies with similar problems, they've invested between $5,000 and $10,000 depending on a few variables. Is that within the range you were expecting? Is that doable?" So the four steps are: summarize and validate the pain, get buy-in to discuss investment, qualify around non-monetary investments, and present a money bracket - not a quote.

The Power of the Bracket

The reason we use a range instead of a specific number is multifold. One, they can't use it as a check quote to shop around because it's not specific enough. Two, if they agree the range is reasonable and your proposal comes in within that range, the objection "this is so much more than we expected" is off the table - you've already had that conversation.

If their wish list is grand but their budget isn't, you might say: "Based on what you've shared, this solution would be between $7,000 and $10,000. Is that doable?" If they say no, you can respond: "Okay. There's a lot we can do for $3,000 to $5,000, but we'd have to solve the problem a different way - it won't be as thorough. Would you want to have that conversation?" What we don't want is to write up a full proposal for the sun, moon, and stars, send it over, and have them say, "This is so much more than we thought." That's a shame, because a cheaper alternative existed - we just didn't surface it. Qualifying the investment is how we stay on the right track and match the solution to what they're actually willing to spend.

Handling "Just Give Me a Price" in Prospecting

For those of you who are heavy into prospecting, you're likely running into prospects who push for price way too early: "Just give me a ballpark. How much is this?" They want to skip the whole discovery process. If you refuse to give them anything, you're not going to get far. If you guess at a number, you risk being wrong and getting disqualified.

The answer is the wide bracket. Give them such a large range that they can't do anything with it: "I don't know anything about your situation yet, but a solution could range anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 a year depending on what you want to accomplish, what you already have in place, and a number of other factors. If you're willing to have a conversation about what you've got going on, I can give you a much closer range that you can actually work with. But without knowing more, that's the best I can do." This keeps you from being quoted against competitors, keeps you from guessing wrong, and surfaces a disqualifier immediately - if someone is only willing to spend $1,000 and your starting point is $10,000, better to find that out now. We have to meet them where they are, but being completely evasive or throwing out a random quote doesn't benefit either party.