Who hasn’t heard someone looking to buy something from them complain about money in some way?
“This costs too much.”
“I don’t have the money.”
“I can’t afford it.”
“I hope it’s affordable for me.”
“Can you lower the price?”
“Hmmm, I’m not sure that’s actually valuable to me based on the price.”
The list just goes on and on. But the same excuses get used over and over again.
And I’m sure that you have even used some of the excuses yourself.
But when you get these excuses in your business, how do you handle them and still make sales?
First of all, your potential client is going to give all the excuses that he/she wants to give.
The excuses have nothing to do with you and everything to do with them.
Maybe they really do have to ask their spouse if they can spend the money, no matter what the investment is.
Maybe they really don’t have the money to invest right now.
Maybe you aren’t the right person to be working with them.
It doesn’t matter what the excuse is. You just need to get it through your ego mind, that it’s not about you.
Someone who is used to making excuses is going to make an excuse.
There are 7 billion people in this world and you need a very small percentage of them to work with you. Don’t let the excuses of one potential keep you from doing your job.
Stop qualifying your clients based on what you think.
You have no idea what your client can and can’t pay you. If they really want to pay you, they will find a way. It’s not up to you to decide if they have the money or not.
When you try to qualify your potential clients ahead of time, you are missing the people who really can and want to pay you handsomely for your services.
Not everyone is meant to work with you and buy from you. Those that do want to, will find a way.
Answer the common questions you get.
Use the FAQ section to answer the common money questions you do get.
Send an email with the common money questions answered.
The more you do the work for your potential client, the less objections they will have.
Also remember, that there is always going to be at least one person who is just going to have more excuses and ask questions you’ve already answered. It’s just human nature, we have the attention span of a gnat.
The most common money questions I see include (feel free to let me know any others you usually come across):
- Is there a payment plan?
- Is there a refund policy?
- Is this a one time payment or how often do I pay?
- What do I get for this cost?
- How often am I paying you for this?
- Why is it priced this way?
- Can we make a deal on this price?
- Can you lower this price?
- Why is this priced so low?
- Why is this priced so high?
- Can I get x with this?
- Is x included with this?
No matter how many times you answer the questions, humans like to ask it again. And again. And again.
Notice where you make excuses.
Your potential clients mirror back to you what you usually do as well.
If you are someone who constantly makes excuses when investing in things, or just plain not investing, then you may notice that your potential clients do that to you too.
When you stop the excuses for yourself, you start thinking, “How can I afford that?” instead, your potential clients will as well.
Say no when you want to say no.
Instead of making excuses like “I can’t afford it,” or “I have to ask my spouse,” when your eally want to say no this isn’t for me, just say that it isn’t for you.
When you are upfront and honest about what you really want to say, instead of making excuses with those you may or may not want to invest with, it just makes the process so much easier. And allows for your potential clients to do the same as well.
Yes it’s hard to say no sometimes. But just be honest. Say no when you want to say no. You aren’t meant to work with everyone.
Have clear cut boundaries on what you will and won’t do.
When you have no boundaries and you work 18 hours a day to please your clients, you’ll always be unhappy with your business.
Set your work hours.
Have a contract with your client.
Let your client know ahead of time what you will and won’t do with your work with them.
Put a limit on when you will and won’t reply to messages from your clients.
Money is an easy excuse.
Money is and always has been an easy excuse for people. No matter what you do in your business, you will always get excuses related to money, but most of the time, it has nothing to do with the money.
The easiest way to deal with the excuses is to answer the questions as many times as possible.
You also need to accept that you will get excuses even after you answered all the questions. But if you pay more attention to what excuses you personally make, you’ll notice the same excuses you make happen to you in your business.