How to Sell at Margins Higher Than Your Competitors

The toughest challenge that salespeople and business leaders face today is the battle against lower-priced competitors. How you deal with that will probably determine whether your business thrives or dies. For decades, businesspeople have tried to solve the problem by cutting prices and making up the loss through higher volume. It's one of those old business myths that just won't die-but it's really just a recipe for disaster! Even if the strategy works, another competitor will probably come along and do the same thing to you! It's a vicious cycle that never ends, unless you find a way to break out of it. In How to Sell at Margins Higher Than Your Competitors, sales gurus Lawrence Steinmetz, PhD, and William Brooks show you how to stop racing your competitors to bankruptcy court and start selling at prices that actually earn you a profit. They explain that business is a game of margins, not volume, and that competing on price might be a surefire way to increase your sales-but it will run your business into the ground. Steinmetz and Brooks explain that the problem isn't your competition; it's the mistaken belief among businesspeople that customers only choose products or services based on price, rate, or fee. The truth is that people buy what they buy for lots of reasons, only one of which is price. If you're competing with someone willing to lose money to gain market share, the cure is to give customers a reason to buy what you sell other than price. This one-of-a-kind sales guide shows you how to find the competitive advantage that lets you sell at higher prices. Plus, it presents proven strategies for selling based on value rather than price, how to price products or services correctly in the first place, how to withstand pressure to cut prices, and how to put it all together into a sales strategy that keeps you profitable.

LAWRENCE L. STEINMETZ, PHD, is President of High Yield Management, Inc., and the author of twelve books. An expert on high-priced selling, he has consulted with many Fortune 500 companies and trained more than 200,000 salespeople in public and private seminars and keynote addresses. WILLIAM T. BROOKS is a leading authority on sales and sales management. A Certified Management Consultant, he has delivered thousands of presentations, training sessions, and keynote addresses. He is also the author of The New Science of Selling and Persuasion, also from Wiley.

Chapter 1
Employers Can Fail or Go Broke-And Yours Can, Too 1 Chapter 2
But Competition Keeps Cutting My Price 12 Chapter 3
Determining Your Competitive Advantage 21 Chapter 4
Service as Your Competitive Advantage 30 Chapter 5
Why You Really Shouldn't Mess with Price-Buyers 35 Chapter 6
What Buyers and Customers Really Need-Hint: It Isn't Low Price 46 Chapter 7
Things Buyers Would Like Besides a Low Price 56 Chapter 8
Your Competitors' Delivery Problems Will Get You Profitable Sales 63 Chapter 9
Yeah, But I'll Make More Money If I Cut My Price- And I Don't Care If My Employer Does Go Broke 73 Chapter 10
How to Face a Competitor's Price Cuts 83 Chapter 11
The Two Cardinal Sins of Selling 91 Chapter 12
Buyers Make Good Liars . . . If You Let Them 105 Chapter 13
How to "Hang in There" under Intense Pressure to Cut Your Price 121 Chapter 14
Indicators That You Are Underpricing 136 Chapter 15
Indicators That You Are Overpricing 157 Chapter 16
How Prospects Will Attempt to Get You to Cut Your Price 167 Chapter 17
How to Finalize a Transaction When You're Faced with Price Resistance 197 Chapter 18
General Guidelines on How to Price 211 Chapter 19
Final Thoughts on Selling at Prices Higher Than Your Competitors 225 Appendix The Premium Price Seller's Ready Reference Guide 233 Notes 241 About the Authors 243 Index 245