Selling the Price Increase. Jeb Blount

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5 Stop Worrying, Start Preparing

      Mark Twain once said, “I've experienced many terrible things in my life, a few of which actually happened.”

      From a purely evolutionary point of view, worry can be a good thing, because people who avoided danger in the first place were more likely to perpetuate their genes. But there is a big difference between avoiding something that might kill you and allowing worry about approaching customers for price increases to derail you.

Worrying about customer responses to price increases that have not yet happened is the genesis of unnecessary anxiety. When, in your mind, you see your customer yelling at you, canceling their orders and contracts, and rejecting you, it creates insecurity where it didn't previously exist, causing you to overthink, procrastinate, become paralyzed, or avoid approaching your customer with the price increase altogether.

Preparation and Practice

      Preparing in advance of price increase conversations is a key to easing worry and maintaining emotional discipline. When it comes to these crucial conversations, winging it and leaving outcomes to chance is exceedingly stupid.

      Savvy sales professionals build their plan and practice price increase conversations in advance. Planning allows you to:

      Practicing and running through different scenarios is one of the keys to keeping your emotions in check and developing obstacle immunity for a specific price increase situation. Role-play scenarios with your manager or team members. Play out all the worst-case scenarios so you are prepared for any eventuality.

      Leadership and Coaching Pro Tip

       Leverage Murder Boarding Sessions for Large Account Price Increases

      There is much at stake when you engage your largest and most important accounts in price increase conversations. Price increases on these accounts can have a massive and lasting impact on your organization, bonuses, and commissions.

      Since these accounts are large, and usually know it, they have more leverage at the negotiation table than the average account. These customers also employ professional buyers whose core job is to block or reduce your price increase.

      There is also the risk of losing the account or future orders to a competitor if you make the wrong move.

      In The Lord of the Rings, Gollum is famous for muttering “my precious” as he clings desperately to the ring he holds so dear. His emotional attachment to the ring is so strong that he follows it to his death. Many account managers have a similar emotional attachment to their largest accounts. This attachment feeds their fears about all the bad things that could go wrong if they approach these customers with price increases.

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