Your challenge
Temptation!
In this situation, there is a great temptation to “discount” your current value proposition, to downplay the strengths of your offering, and to accept terms and conditions
that include significant concessions on price.
It may be because the offering is well known now, and as a result, the purchase department can claim that it has become a commodity. Or it can be that buyers understand now how to buy what you are offering, and therefore, are savvy enough to orchestrate price wars among a variety of suppliers belonging to the same competitive space.
Whatever the situation be, in many instances vendors behave as if they had forgotten the true value of their offering in the marketplace… By adopting aggressive discount schedules, sales may look good in quantity, but to the detriment of ever shrinking price points. And this attitude will encourage buyers to ask for bigger discounts. The commoditization vortex is here to stay, which translates into a fast growing deterioration of the terms of trade.
Link4LEAD's response
In this situation, we advise providers to take a deep breath, resist attempts made by buyers to discount the value of their offering and put the emphasis on product usage as opposed to product features or price.
This translates into providing organizations with the ability to benchmark themselves against a set of documented best practices available in the market. By comparing their performance with their peers, prospective buyers are in a position to build their own buying vision according to results “best-in-class” organizations have been able to achieve via the use of your product or service.
In practical terms, you (as a provider) define and release a usage-oriented evaluation. By filling it out, your prospects assess their situation against best practices in the market. Eventually, depending on their appreciation regarding the result of their own assessment, they may contact you. And guess what. As soon as the conversation starts, you talk business straight away!
This approach is mimetic in essence. The underpinning psychological drivers are well reflected by the well-known desire to “keep up with the Joneses”.
Your benefits
Using Link4LEAD approach in this context will help you:
- reduce the average discount rate for each deal
- increase market saturation rate
