I like the idea above of giving price ranges for good, better, best.

Let me give you a glimpse of what the person is thinking because I don’t give out what I’m willing or looking to spend.

If I give you a price in the better range, I’m afraid you’ll sell me a good product at the better price or you’ll limit me at the better price when I would be happy with a product in the good range. I would prefer you give me an overview of what features/benefits I can get for each price range.

When we did presentations to senior management to get a decision, we had to give them three choices to choose from. We didn’t just give them all the parameters and then ask them what they want us to do; we outlined 3 scenarios and go from there.

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I like the idea above of giving price ranges for good, better, best.

Let me give you a glimpse of what the person is thinking because I don’t give out what I’m willing or looking to spend.

That's the problem. The price range is what you're looking to spend. If you can tell me that, I can then tell you what your options are. What if even the least expensive "good" option is 10 times what you're looking to spend?

Let me give you two very related examples:

Call an architect and tell them that you need them to design something for you. In this case it will be a vault that requires some engineering, but it could just as easily be a full addition to your home, or brand new construction.

Know what one of the very first questions they're going to ask you is?

Next, call somebody that restores vintage cars. You can pick any car, but don't get terribly specific. Let's us a 1960's Pontiac GTO. Tell them you want to acquire the car and restore it.

Guess which question comes next.

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If I give you a price in the better range, I’m afraid you’ll sell me a good product at the better price or you’ll limit me at the better price when I would be happy with a product in the good range. I would prefer you give me an overview of what features/benefits I can get for each price range.

That's EXACTLY what you get once you tell me a ballpark that I need to be working within. Same as with the two examples above. The architect could design you a $10,000 addition or a $5,000,000 addition. He just needs to know where to start. The car restorer can get you into a $10,000 project, or a $1,100,000 GTO Judge. Should he spend a bunch of time running you through the $1M options if you're the $10K guy?

I'm not asking for a specific number. I just need a ballpark to point you in the right direction. Saying you "have no budget", when I assure you that you do, isn't helping either of us. It's not helping you get any useful information, and it's not helping me to immediately provide you with knowledge and options that will actually apply to your situation.

I have been a licensed driver for 57 years and have owned about 20 automobiles during that time. I have also noticed that when I shop for cars at dealerships no one ever wants to discuss prices, the only questions are about what kind of payments I'm looking for and what my employment and income are. Usually they want to initiate a credit check before even discussing a specific deal.

Obviously there are relatively few buyers who care about anything other than what the monthly payment will be. I am not one of those. I refuse to play the games, and I have been known to walk out when the tag team event starts (salesman, sales manager, finance manager all following a script).

Life has been pretty good for us. We have always worked (frequently two or more jobs at a time), we have always lived modestly, we have always saved and invested. While everyone around us has been purchasing the McMansions, taking the fancy vacations, competing with each other in automobiles and toys, and refinancing the house every couple of years to pay off the credit cards (then running the credit cards up to the limit again), we have plugged along and paid off our debts rapidly while always setting aside more savings.

The results included a new retirement home purchased in cash and 8 regular income streams from retirement funds, social security, veteran benefits, interest and dividends on our investment accounts.

Now in year #9 of our retirement. Our investments continue to grow, income now exceeds anything we ever produced in wages or salaries, and much of that continues to be reinvested. We can afford everything we need and just about anything we want. We still live on a budget.

My 6-year old truck now has 66,000 miles on it. Wife's 8-year old car has 52,000 miles. Both are in excellent condition and expected to take care of us for several more years. No plans to replace either vehicle, but easy to do if it becomes a real need.

Two grown sons, 9 grandchildren, 7 great-grandchildren. Plenty of opportunities to help the family with their problems and emergencies. Also plenty of opportunities to explain to those who make foolish decisions why the consequences are their problems to deal with.

The budget is a plan, and when we follow the plan we experience good results in life.

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Originally posted by a1abdj:
Yes you do. Everybody has a budget. It would waste so much less of everybody's time if you would just give whomever you're shopping with a ball park of what you're looking to spend.

At least 25% of the inquiries I get state that they don't have a budget, they're looking at items that cost tens of thousands of dollars, and when you finally nail them down to something specific and give them the price they say "Oh, I wasn't planning on spending anywhere near that much!"

You don't say? So you DID have a budget, and I could have pointed you in the proper direction an hour ago had you simply told me what it was.

Some people truly don't have a budget. My customers are all worth $100 million or more, usually a lot more. I own a Yacht Management business, managing their yacht(s) and Captain them at times as well.

When they want something, they don't care what it cost. I paid $2500 for 2 crappy 16" pizza's from their favorite Pizza place. This involved buying a same day round trip plane ticket (Fort Laud to Nassau), paying someone to fly with the pizza's, and the pizza's. They were happy and tipped me on top of it.

I had another customer about 10 years ago pay me $500, plus 3 nights hotel, rental car,all expenses and plane tickets to go to Antigua the next day, just to carry a starter down for a MTU 16v2000 because they needed to leave the following day due to schedule.

Another one that told me to pay the steel drum band at Frankies goes Banana's in Fisherman's village at Atlantis whatever it takes to pack up and go home. We were in the slip across from them and they wanted to eat dinner outside on the yacht and didn't like the music. I asked what the restaurant paid them for the night ($150) and I gave them $500 in cash to go home.

This is just a small sample of the stuff I've seen.

The ones that have real money don't flaunt it. They dress normal, and usually drive nice cars but not exotic cars. IF they want something in their personal life, they don't care what it costs. Or they want the job done properly and don't care what it costs. Their business is a different story, on that side of the fence they watch costs and so forth.

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Some people truly don't have a budget.

Yes, but those types don't say they don't have a budget in the first 5 seconds like the others do. It's pretty easy to tell those who have the means from those who don't, and the first red flag is the "I don't have a budget" claim.

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Originally posted by a1abdj:

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Some people truly don't have a budget.

Yes, but those types don't say they don't have a budget in the first 5 seconds like the others do. It's pretty easy to tell those who have the means from those who don't, and the first red flag is the "I don't have a budget" claim.

This statement reminds me of an old joke, "How do you know someone is from New York? Give them 10 seconds and they'll tell you."

I don't like to give a figure, I will give you and idea of what I want then you can tell what you got and how much. You can give different price tiers of different tiers of quality.

I want a (fill in the item or service) for a "reasonable" price.
WTF's that mean?

I hate that question and always reply with
“As little as possible… as much as necessary”

So show me what you got and we will figure it out from there.
Don’t lead with trying to see how much you can get out of me, sorry but that’s the way it feels sometimes.

If you don’t have the time or if my shopping method annoys you I can almost always go elsewhere.

I think it's more of a problem of people not doing their homework when pricing out a job to be done or what something retails for and or the going market rate.

I'm a zealot on pricing I'll research it to death to get a ball park idea on how much it usually costs and go from there. No matter if it's a little bit more or less from the market price as long as their isn't some big discrepancy I know I'm not getting ripped off.

How hard is to call around and get a few quotes or spend 15 minutes searching online?

For me the biggest thing concern is depending on is it something I want or something I need? If I need it then I have to find out how much at the minimum I need to spend to satisfy that need. But for something I just want well depending on what the final price is, market rate be damned if it's over a price that I don't feel is worth the cost, well I just don't buy it.

There is no need to let it get to you personally all that does is cause unneeded headaches and stress.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: dfens,

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So show me what you got and we will figure it out from there.

That's way too open ended. It's not possible.

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Don’t lead with trying to see how much you can get out of me

It has nothing to do with what I'm getting out of you, and everything to do with what you can afford so that we're all on the same page and I can provide you with useful information.

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Originally posted by a1abdj:

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So show me what you got and we will figure it out from there.

That's way too open ended. It's not possible.

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Don’t lead with trying to see how much you can get out of me

It has nothing to do with what I'm getting out of you, and everything to do with what you can afford so that we're all on the same page and I can provide you with useful information.

Thanks for your sellers point of view…
I’ll be down the street at your competitors place.

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Thanks for your sellers point of view…
I’ll be down the street at your competitors place.

Ok. Well why he's wasting his time giving you a free tour of his place, with you wanting to see $150,000 vault doors that you'll never buy and he doesn't have, I'll be out on a job site earning a few hundred an hour installing the $7,000 door I sold the guy who told me what his budget was.

Imagine walking into a jewelry store, telling them you're there for an engagement ring, and them strolling you straight into the vault to show you the $500,000 10 carat flawless option. That's not happening until they qualify you as a buyer, and that's not happening until you give them a ball park on what you're wanting to spend.

I really wonder what world some of you guys are living in, because I get asked this question at least once a day, and it doesn't make me "run down the street" to a nonexistent competitor. I just answer the question, make my purchase, and am out the door.

I think some of the people here don't understand that you could do jobs from a few thousand dollars to possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars. So that requires the customer to state what they're willing to spend. On the other hand, you could simply say you can spec a job for hundreds of thousands of dollars but you want to make sure you're not wasting your time so you need to know the budget your working towards. Then, if they still don't have a number for a budget, let them go up the street.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by BigSwede:
Being in sales I do not make a move without knowing the budget, cash, cash down, payments and exactly what their needs and wants are. This usually applies to my first time clients[/QUOTE

What do you sell?

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Originally posted by Paten:
I think some of the people here don't understand that you could do jobs from a few thousand dollars to possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars. So that requires the customer to state what they're willing to spend. On the other hand, you could simply say you can spec a job for hundreds of thousands of dollars but you want to make sure you're not wasting your time so you need to know the budget your working towards. Then, if they still don't have a number for a budget, let them go up the street.

Respectfully I disagree that the problem is the customer.

It it takes virtually no time for any salesman to qualify a customer.
If you do not know what "qualify" means then you are just an inexperienced salesman.

Not every customer is in the same stage of buying as each other.
Any salesman worth their salt can determine where they are and what how they handle.

If you as a retailer expect every customer that comes in and primed with cash in their pocket, ready to lay down with knowing exactly what they want ~ then you are delusional.

Now depending on the circumstances, you may need to cultivate that customer for business at a future date.
High ticket items are not impulse purchases, so it may take some time to get them to speed.

You have to understand the customer is your lifeblood.

Despising your customers is not a good place to be, IMO.

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It it takes virtually no time for any salesman to qualify a customer.

I usually start by asking them what budget they're looking to spend within.

This was very true in my custom home construction business where most homes were in the low 7 figure range.

The very first meeting, while the potential customer was interviewing me I was doing the same. I would typically tell them that our prices for the custom homes that were featured on our website were in the X to Y price per foot. You can then watch the clients doing mental gymnastics to see if their non disclosed budget was actually in our ballpark…

Then came the inevitable questions as to what constitutes a square foot…”Are garages included?” “What about decks and patios” (We referred to $PSF as conditioned space).

Then the questions came up as to why is it so much more expensive than building in a suburb. Of course if you have a home with a beautiful view of the lake you’ll want lots of windows and a large deck right? Well of course. So there’s your answer…It was not unusual to have our window and door package be over $100K and our decks to be 800+SF.

So 20 minutes into that first meeting I had a pretty good idea of if they would have been a good fit for us. Some people were actually upset when I told the that I didn’t think we would be a good fit for each other but such is life…

I think smlsig sums up the process while understanding my point of view as a customer. Sometimes I don't know what my budget SHOULD be as a customer, and I need the education. On more than one occasion, I've gone into a project/ purchase with one idea of what it was I wanted to spend, then learning why that wasn't reasonable. A good salesperson will not only qualify, but educate. I can then choose to adjust either my budget or my expectations.

^^^^ YES. IntrepidTraveler ^^^^