So she didn't negotiate.
This comes up a lot.
And I had someone by the way, comment on a recent video, what did I think of
drop calls, meaning dropping the price of the home and dropping the price one
more time and having those price tiers.
And, you know, it's crazy as those tiers that I hear about.
And I hope by the way, let me take a step back.
I might offend some people and I just want to say.
It's not my way or the highway and I'm not always right.
And what works for me doesn't necessarily need to work for you.
So, as I share my own opinion on this, if it's working for you, don't change it.
If it aligns with your values and it's fine, that's all good.
I'm just sharing my view of things.
And the way that I teach sales is how I personally like to be treated in a
sales experience and how I like to buy.
So back to this whole drop call thing, what the comment
was is that you come in at X.
And that you immediately have a price to drop by XML, which was a
significant percentage, 10 to 15%.
If I remember right.
And then ending at about a 25% discount, which was rock bottom.
And to me, the first thing that comes to mind when I'm in that experience.
This is a gimmick.
You're just trying to take me for what I can.
And it reminds me of the horrendous taste that I had in my mouth.
When I went to go get a gym membership years ago, well, over a decade and
I sit down and there's no priceless.
The guys sitting across the table from me and he puts out his little
legal pad and he writes down a number and slides it over the desk.
And I look at it and I'm like $89 a month.
That's where it started.
$89.
We go back and forth, drops to 60 drops to 40 through further negotiation,
into deciding to prepay for the year.
Got it down to $21 a month, $21 from $89 a month.
Now, do you think that I walked out of there feeling.
For a minute.
I said, Hey, I got a deal.
And then, you know what?
I thought, every time I went to that gym, I said, these folks
are a bunch of sleazeballs.
Cause this is a gimmick, no displayed pricing, trying to
literally take me for what they can and looking for the easiest sale.
And I'll be the first to tell you this stuff works, but there's
a difference between what.
In what feels right.
And there's a balance, it's a, it's a delicate balancing act.
And I want to give you just one more example, and this is a true story.
This last weekend, I was calling different companies to purchase one of the.
Pager type systems for elderly, for my grandmother, that
she could wear on her neck.
And if anything happens, she can push the button.
And I had no idea how aggressive these companies are from a
sales organization standpoint.
And one of them, this is homework.
It's a delicate time.
It's not a fun thing to work to shop for.
And if you've ever been through something like this, you know, like you only begin
shopping for this, not in a great spot.
And this guy on the phone is hard selling me and pushing them.
Like, you know, I got to talk with the family.
I got to see if someone's out there that can help get this thing set up.
And he's like, yeah, well, if you do this today and today's price, and then
if you do it now, and if you upgrade for the year, Hey, can I call you back?
What's a good number.
No, you know what?
I'm on commission.
And you won't get me.
So let's just close the deal right now and we'll do this.
And I'm like, listen, I got to think about it.
Well, if I can give you a free shipping, would you know how about if
I dropped the price even more and it just keeps going down, down, down and
down and it like, it was relentless.
And then not only did I choose a different company, which by the way I chose.
Because the salesperson had empathy, they didn't negotiate.
There was a fixed price and she was focused on answering my questions.
And I literally picked up the phone for the first company that had robot.
Like, I shouldn't say robot.
It felt like that because the guy was actually leaving me messages.
I am not joking.
I got four calls within 10 minutes, two voicemails within
three minutes apart, a piece.
And I picked up the phone and I said, Matt, take me off your list.
I don't like the way you guys are doing this.
Because it's not.
So you can tell, I get a little passionate about this.
So I want to answer this question right now, because even though I've been
very passionate about this negotiation thing, there is a time and a place
that I do think it's appropriate.
And I want to talk about those pros and cons.
So let's get to it.
Should you negotiate first, welcome or welcome back.
My name is Adam Benjamin.
The.
Everything that I do here is designed to give you and your team, the
tools and resources that I wish I had when I was getting going in
order to fast track my success.
So thanks for being here.
And my mission is to help you and your team smash your income goal
and give every customer an amazing.
And that amazing experience by the way, is a memorable one.
I call it the sales aftertaste.
And that's the experience at that sales per excuse me, that the customer
has with you, the salesperson and how they remember that experience.
And it's either great or not great whether they buy from you or not.
And again, it's a balance to blend what works in an, in a sales way while
also treating people like humans.
So let's get to it.
Should you negotiate?
There are going to be arguments for saying yes, there are going
to be arguments for saying no.
And they're going to be arguments for saying maybe.
And I would like to begin that right now, by the way, spoiler alert.
I fall into the maybes meaning sometimes or conditionally, and I'm going to
quantify what that means in a minute.
So the arguments for, yes.
Should you negotiate?
Some companies know that customer.
Don't always ask to negotiate.
You'll get people to say yes at a higher amount.
That means higher ticket prices, more profit, more commission.
Again, I'm about treating people equally in my company.
I don't negotiate.
I have purposely structured our investments at the lowest possible.
They can competitively where we can stand behind it and offer the
best value and offer a transparent experience for all of our new customers.
You also see, so I'd fallen into the no category.
Meanwhile, you go in, you buy a Mercedes, you buy a BMW, you buy a truck, a Ford, a
Chevy, a Dodge, can you negotiate there?
The answer is, yes.
You walk into a Toyota Scion dealership.
Can you negotiate now?
I don't know if they've updated their policy.
So if they have, you can drop a comment and share that with
me, but their whole entire brand positioning the beginning was no.
And again, it, because it provides a transparent pricing.
I work with companies by the way that do both.
So if you're one of my companies that's doing.
That's cool.
You'll see the conditionally, maybe you'll you'll swap your
approach room in the no camp.
I work with one of the region's top retail companies and they don't negotiate.
They have one price that they come in in the Homeland.
That's it.
And again, it provides transparency because what we don't want is for
that customer to always think, well, what more would that.
And this might date me, which I get isn't that difficult?
I'm 35.
The book, uh, when I was growing up was give a mouse, a cookie, and the
whole story was he given us a cookie.
He asks for a glass of milk.
You give him a glass of milk.
He asks for chair, you give him a chair.
He wants a table.
You give him a table.
He wants.
And again, it's that whole thing take, take, take.
When we start negotiating people see no end, you get taken advantage
of, or they think that you're trying to take them for too much.
It's just how it goes.
And again, I sell the way that I experienced it in the way that
I want to buy my position is generally no, no negotiation.
If you must, I want to get into the maybe or the conditional side right now.
Right?
Quick disclaimer, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
If you disagree with me, I invite a healthy conversation in the comments
and I invite you to drop it again.
I learn as we go, I learned from others and my mission isn't to say, hello.
I am the say all end all.
That's not it at all.
I'd be a total arrogant moron to tell you I have all the answers.
But my reason in sharing these conflicting viewpoints is to foster a
rich discussion in that comment section.
So we can learn from each other because what works for this person
might not work for this person, or it might be required because
everyone in your market negotiates.
So you just got to roll with it.
So if you have, uh, something to add, drop it in the comments.
Now let's talk on the conditional side.
I'm going to change that word.
Maybe to conditionally.
I just didn't have room for it before.
What do I mean by conditionally, meaning on certain conditions.
So when you give something, the customer also has to give something the way I don't
like negotiation is you're a customer.
I want a thousand dollars off.
Okay.
Done.
No, if you are negotiate.
You are going to give something in return for something that in return
can be a commitment, a commitment by a certain date, uh, giving a deposit,
uh, a number of referrals, anything that they're giving in exchange.
Okay.
Now disclaimer, hail claims, wind claims.
Hurricane claims St.
Luke's.
Pay deductibles.
They need to pay their deductible.
You're not paying their deductible period.
You're not negotiating on deductibles.
I just need to get that out of the way we clear.
All right, no deductible negotiation.
If you need help on that click right here, I've done lots
of videos on the deductible.
And I'm going to click to this one because this is about beating
deductible eaters and showcasing the scary truth behind what that means.
All right.
Disclaimer, aside, let's get back to it.
So you give, they give.
Okay.
Now next, what I want to do is start negotiating on items that
have a high perceived value.
And a low cost.
Now, what do I mean by this?
Give you an example.
High perceived value and low costs could mean certain upgrades, whether
that's Ridge vent, whether that's ice and water shield, whether that's
upgraded shingles, upgraded colors, and specifically things like warranties that
we might be able to provide it at home.
Like a warranty, for example, the sticker price in that warranties,
whatever you put it as your cost as a company is usually fixed either a fixed
amount or a small amount per square.
So you can say, Hey, if we can condition.
Negotiate where this item I'm going to include, which has a
high perceived value and say, Hey, well, I'll include this $4,000
warranty, $3,000 warranty at no cost.
If you decided to move forward today.
And again, that warranty may cost you X dollar amount, depending
on, and I'm not quoting prices.
You guys know the prices on warranties, depending on the
manufacturers that you're selling.
All right.
The final area that we're going to do this on is price.
So I am always going to go through in this order.
First, if I give they give next, I'm going to go on high perceived value items.
Or items that are low cost is an add-on versus giving hard money away.
Final piece is price, and this is my least favorite.
And for the reasons I showcased before.
So there you have it.
Those are my thoughts on, should you negotiate?
And I'd love to hear yours.
So drop a comment in the comment section below, and I'm really looking
forward to hearing from, you know, if you want to continue your time
with me, just because our time here.
Is that doesn't mean you're in my time has to be, uh, click right here to
watch that video on deductible eating and why and how to overcome that.
So you get your customers to willingly pay their deductible and believe me when
you get those down it's game changing.
And if you haven't done it, I want to get you a free copy.
And my pitch, like a pro roofing sales training video
library, 100% free right here.
And I'll see you on the next one.