Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Price increases play an integral role in the profitability of businesses. They protect the enterprise during inflationary periods, produce capital for investment in growth, protect jobs, help improve quality and service delivery, and boost stock prices. Price increases are the fastest and most effective way for companies to drive both top line and bottom-line improvements. That is, of course, if you retain your customers along the way.
Customer retention is exactly why B2B companies lean so heavily on their sales teams to execute price increase campaigns. Sales professionals have the most intimate knowledge of the customer base, are skilled communicators, and professional closers. It should be the perfect combination to make price increases stick without losing customers. Except that sales professionals express deep anxiety over price increase initiatives. They fear that they will lose customers and permanently damage important relationships. In overwhelming numbers, they say that they lack the skills and confidence to approach price increase conversations effectively. Compounding this deficiency in confidence is the fact that most companies provide little to no formal training for selling price increases or for frontline leaders who must coach this critical skill set.
Since more than 80% of training dollars are invested in training business development and top of funnel sales skills, most sales professionals and leaders are not going to receive professional training for selling price increases. At the same time, in our current economic climate and inflationary period, executives are exerting massive pressure on their sales organizations to engage customers and get price increases. Selling the Price Increase is as an easily executable tactical field guide for both frontline sales professionals and sales leaders who want to gain the confidence to be successful with price increase conversations.
Synopsis
A practical guide for successfully navigating the single greatest growth and profit improvement opportunity for B2B enterprises: price increases
The payoff for implementing price increases without losing customers is massive Effective price increase campaigns are far more effective at boosting topline revenue and generating profits than acquiring new customers.
The problem is that price increase initiatives--whether broad-based or targeted to specific accounts--strike fear and anxiety into the hearts of sales professionals and account managers who are tasked with selling them to their customers. Approaching customers with price increases sits at the tip top of the pantheon of things salespeople hate to do because they fear that raising prices will reduce sales volume or open the door to competitors.
Yet when sold effectively, customers accept price increases, remain loyal, and often buy even more.
In Selling the Price Increase: The Ultimate B2B Field Guide for Raising Prices Without Losing Customers, celebrated sales trainer Jeb Blount reveals the strategies, tactics, techniques, and frameworks that allow you to successfully master price increase initiatives. From crafting effective price increase messages to protecting hard-won relationships, handling common objections, and making the case for the value you deliver, this comprehensive guide walks you through each step of the price increase sales process.
In each chapter, you'll find practical exercises designed to help you master the Selling the Price Increase system. As you dive into these powerful insights, and with each new chapter, you'll gain greater and greater confidence in your ability to successfully engage customers in price increase conversations.
You'll learn:
- How to navigate multiple price increase scenarios: broad-based, targeted, non-negotiable, negotiable, defending, presenting, and asking
- The eight price increase narratives and three drivers of customer price increase acceptance
- How to neutralize and get past the five big price increase fears and anxieties
- How to avoid the big mistakes that trigger resentment and drive customers into the arms of your competitors
- The 9-Box Risk-Profile Framework for targeting accounts for price increases
- A repeatable process for confidently approaching price increase conversations
- The Five-Step Price Increase Messaging Framework
- Proven frameworks for reducing resistance and handling price increase objections
- How to negotiate profitable outcomes with high-risk profile accounts
- Winning strategies for coaching and leading successful price increase initiatives
Following in the footsteps of his blockbuster bestsellers Fanatical Prospecting, Sales EQ, Objections, Inked, and Virtual Selling, Jeb Blount's Selling the Price Increase puts the same strategies employed by his clients--a who's who of the world's most prestigious organizations--right into your hands.
Selling the Price Increase is an essential handbook for sales professionals, account managers, customer success teams, and other revenue generation leaders looking for a page-turning and insightful roadmap to navigating the essential--and nerve-wracking--world of price increases.