Commitment Before Giving Up Rate

Today's topic is a very sales focused, strategic message. If you are not serious about increasing sales, then read no further. It involves asking one question, at a very specific moment in the sales process, which I can guarantee you if asked consistently, over time it will get you more business.

The problem

Sound too easy? It's not. The situation I want to address is one in which many people in financial services find themselves in. A client is negotiating and insisting on getting a better rate than has been offered. The sales person needs to get approval before they can extend the negotiated rate to the client so they say, "let me check with my boss and I'll get back to you". They check with their boss, get the rate exception approval and either meet with, or call the client. They say, "good news, we can offer you the rate you wanted". The client responds with, "fantastic, let me think about it and I'll get back to you."

Ahhhhh! If you are like most people, that has to drive you crazy! A client grinds you for a good rate, you give it to them, and then they walk on you without buying! What could be worse? And where do you think they go with your special negotiated rate? That's right, to your competition! They are using your good rate against you!

What do you do?

So, how do you increase the likelihood that that same client will stay and do business with you? Get commitment from them before getting them a preferred rate.

Now there are a number of things you should be doing during your sale to build value and to try and not get into the situation where you have to negotiate rates. Given the competitive landscape of today's marketplace however, negotiating is going to be a necessary part of doing business from time to time. So when you find yourself in that situation make sure to get commitment from your client that they will do business with you today before you tell them whether you can get them the rate they are after.

How does it sound?  You simply do this by asking, "so if I can get you the rate of ____% can we go ahead and do this investment today?" There are no exceptions to this one. It's a tough question, but it's meant to be so don't soften it up at all. What are the potential answers:

"Yes"
In this case you would go and get the approval you need, come back and say, "Good news, we are able to offer you that rate, let me get the paper work started and we'll have you out of here in no time". Notice, you do not have to ask for the sale again. You already did that when you asked "the question". By coming back to the conversation in a strong, leading and assumptive fashion, combined with their previous commitment, you will dramatically reduce the number of people that walk without buying.

"No" or "maybe"
In this case you would not go to see about getting the better rate for the client. Instead you would investigate why they wouldn't want to go ahead. It doesn't make sense. They asked for a better rate presumably because they wanted to do business. If they are not willing to commit to you it probably can only mean one thing: that they are not serious about doing business with you and are only using you to get a good rate that they can use as leverage at another financial institution.

Don't play that game. You don't have to. And please don't worry about offending people. The only people you will potentially offend are people that are using you to get a better rate from your competitor. Hardly a loss.

As well, don't worry about the people that tell you they will do business today and then don't. It happens sometimes; people go back on their word. The point is obviously that most people won't do that and if you make it a habit to ask this question before you go and get a rate exception that you will get more people to stay and do business than you will if you don't ask.

If the only risk in asking for commitment before you get a special rate approval is that you might lose the business of someone that wasn't going to give you the business in the first place, and the upside is that you will get more people to do business with you immediately, then why wouldn't you make a habit of asking?

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