I've written quite a bit over the years about handling this objection, and here's another strategy.

People choose a lower-priced offer when they feel it's the best value, they're willing to forgo the advantages of a higher priced product/service, or risk the disadvantages of the lower-priced alternative. One factor they often overlook is the cost over the long term of choosing the apparent bargain. If you can get them thinking about these not-so-obvious costs, your higher price might actually seem cheaper.

Analyze each of these areas to determine if you can help them understand costs they should be aware of.

Cost of Buying

It confounds me how some people brag about how they found an out-of-the-way place to buy gasoline four cents a gallon cheaper than the neighborhood pump. Oh, and they had to drive across town to get it. Go figure. So, what costs might your customer and prospects pay when buying the lower-priced alternative?

• Do they have to spend more time shopping to get the lower price?

• How about ease of actually placing the order?

• Is there always someone available to help them with the order, or is it like talking to a clueless part-time clerk in a retail store who responds, “What, man? I don't know,” as he reads the packaging in a futile attempt to answer your question.

• Do they hassle with ten different vendors, buying one or two items from each, to save a few cents on the per-piece price?

Analyze what makes buying from you easy, and the costs someone incurs-short and long-term-when buying from a lower-priced alternative.

Longer Term Cost of Owning/Using the Lower-Priced Product/Service

The pain of buying poor quality lasts longer than the temporary sting of paying a front-end higher price. Assuming your productservice quality is superior, what advantages are there to buying from you? Conversely, what are the costs of not buying from you?

Will they pay more for maintenance?

What about all of the related costs of downtime?

This might seem obvious, but what can't the lower-priced alternative do that yours can? Perhaps yours can fold and staple automatically and the bargain-priced alternative can't. Ask them how they will handle the folding and stapling. Keep questioning until you're able to attach a cost to it, projecting the cost out over the life of the unit.

And by the way, here's a great question, “How long do you plan on owning/using the product/service?” This sets up your parameters to really balloon the number and help them realize the true costs over time. Especially if the lower-priced alternative doesn't last as long as yours and must be replaced.

And don't forget about service. Low price and great service usually aren't complementary. If your product/service requires lots of contact with the customer, what are the costs and related headaches of getting serviced by the bargain-priced competitor? Are they even able to get service?

Develop Your Questions

After identifying all of the costs of buying the cheaper alternative, your next step is to develop questions to help them reach the conclusion that buying from you is the best choice. The reasoning is that if you try to tell them these things, they might resist. For example, if you said, “Oh yeah, well you'll end up paying more in the long run,” forget it. They'd resist even more. No one likes to be told they're wrong. Instead, for each of the reasons you've already come up with, create questions such as,

“What do you do when .. .?”

“How often do you notice that you .. .?”

They quantify it: “And what does that cost?”

Extrapolate it over time: “So, long-term, what you're saying is that it will ultimately cost you .. .”

When you spend time at this exercise, plan well, and execute smoothly, you get them thinking and saying, “I never really thought about it that way before .. .” Which is exactly where you want them to be when you make your strong presentation.