“Just Send Me the Pricing”: What to Do When Prospects Won’t Meet (Ask Jeb)

0:00Rubrik is the security and AI operations company built for what happens after an attack hits, not just the moments before. AI has turned the threat landscape into quicksand, moving too fast for any human to fully predict. That's why an agentic cyber resilience platform matters. Automated recovery, clean data, a business that keeps moving no matter what hits. One platform, not a patchwork of stitched together tools and gaps. Don't wait for the next attack. Secure and accelerate your business at Rubrik.com. Again, rubric.com. This is the Sales Gravy Podcast. Hi, I'm Jeb Blunt, best-selling author, fanatical prospecting, objections, sales EQ, and inked, and I'm here to help you open more doors, close bigger deals, and rock your commission check.

0:43I'm being challenged lately, and it's becoming very frustrating. And it's happened in the past, but I've had a really good year. So it hasn't happened to me for some time, but it's starting again. And the challenge is that I have a few competitors, probably about two that are the major competitors. The issue is that they're just not providing a proper service. Like you said before, they're paying for what they're not getting. And a lot of my prospects are people that I've come into contact with over the years. And then when they're just done, they call me, which is great. The discovery call goes amazing.

1:12I've already built a rapport with these people. I never bash my competitor, but they're very willing to share all the things they hate and things that are not going right. And how do you do things differently? And we have a wonderful conversation, you know, share with them how we do things differently. And after the initial call, I have to provide pricing. Typically, that's what happens. And sometimes I know my pricing is wonderful. And sometimes I know I'm a bit high, but I feel like I've been able to explain the difference in the service. Follow up, I'll follow up. I don't get any responses.

1:41Keep following up. Until I get the hard no, I'm not going to stop calling them. So I feel like I'm doing that right. And then when I finally get a hold of them, their response is typically, we're happy now. And sometimes this response could come just a week after I've had this conversation where all they did was bash my competitor. And they'll come back and say, well, we're happy now. We've decided we're just going to stay with them and give them another chance. They've convinced us to stay with them because they're going to change. Things like that. And I just, I get so frustrated. Denver want to bash again my competitor.

2:10I just don't understand why they would stay with somebody who time and time again just neglects them. Again, build the rapport. Pricing is right. Everything is right. But they won't make that change. Have you ever had a friend who was in a bad relationship and then you talk to him about the bad relationship and you're like, you've got to get out of this. And you had coffee and you kept having the conversation. And then a week later, you see him and go, well, how is this going? Well, you know, me and Bobby, we got back together. You know, I'm going to give it another shot. He convinced me to stay.

2:37Has ever happened? Why do people stay in dysfunctional relationships like that? That's the question of the day. It's that they didn't feel enough pain to move. In other words, we didn't get enough of a wedge in between them and your competitor so that they're so mad, right? They're so angry. They're so jaded that they're willing to walk away. People love to complain. Like they love to sit down with you and tell you all the things that are wrong because in that moment, they're mad. No different than a friend. This is a little bit different than a pain point, right? We have to create enough of a wedge that they're willing to move.

3:08Zig Ziglar used to tell a story about a guy that was walking by this old man's house and the man was sitting on the front porch and his dog was sitting next to him and the dog was laying on a nail. And he could see the nail poking up on the dog's chest. And he asked the old man, he said, why did that dog move? And the old man said, not hurting him enough. And that's the same thing that's happening here. They're using you to force that company to do better. They're using you as leverage. So I'm going to give you a couple of things here to think about. You have to get them to a point where they're mad.

3:36This isn't about telling them how you're different. The company that they're paying is taking them for granted. On the scale of one to 10, the feeling of someone taking you for granted is probably eight or nine. Nobody likes being taken for granted. It is our number one issue. Think about our most insatiable need as a human being is the need to feel like we matter. It's so insatiable, you cannot make someone feel like they matter enough. What you're trying to do is make them feel important through your presence while creating an environment where you're asking the right questions, getting them to say the right things, but through your questions, getting them to come to the conclusion or the awareness, your competitor is using them.

4:18Your competitor is putting them so far down on their priority list because once they get to that point, you can move them. But if they don't ever feel that way and the competitor comes back in and you think about it, your competitor is not going to walk away. It's like, Jen, your competitor is not going to go like, we're going to share it with Jen's company. No, you're not. So you're not going to let anybody have your accounts. So they're going to go back in there and do a song and dance. They're going to go, I'll give you two months for free. When I was an account manager, I saved a bunch of accounts and got mad at my company, not this company, but the company I worked for when I was in my twenties, give you two months free.

4:49And then, okay, I'll give you another shot because why it's two months for free. Number one thing, Angie, is just really think about what are the questions that you're asking you can't point it out like you have to ask the question in a way that gets them to go oh i'm just curious like why is it that you're doing it this way that way is completely illogical but they're doing it that way because the competitor is not doing their job why aren't you seeing this the statistics in our marketplace why aren't you getting this you've got to show it that way now the second thing angie in your case is you have to close them while they're pissed off.

5:23And I know this is hard. Don't get me wrong. Okay. But you get the information and you get the proposal together and then you give them the pricing and then you follow up. If that happens, you're done because why the incumbent's going to come back and save it when you're there and you say, okay, I'm going to go back and put a proposal. You schedule a meeting for the proposal. You do not get my pricing. You do not get my information unless we're there together because that's your leverage. What I mean by the leverage is that's your currency. They will pay the price of the meeting to be there with you.

5:54Find one thing that's a value that you can give them that will make them come to another meeting because then you can test their engagement. They're truly serious about this. And if you're chasing them down about pricing or doing something, the reason it's so hard to get people is that human beings have this really funny way of running from people who chase them. In that moment, you're having a conversation with them. you're like, okay, let's set a proposal together. You're going in on that proposal to close the deal with the recognition that if you don't close it on that call, you're probably not going to close it.

6:23I was just going to say, I have read your book. I do definitely do that. And I always get pushback when I try to get that next meeting to do the proposal kind of face-to-face or even over Zoom. They always find a reason why they can't meet with me again. Just send me the pricing and I'll look at it. But they will not agree to another meeting to go over. Then don't send the pricing. If they're not willing to match your effort, they're telling you we're not that into you. They're telling you, you have no chance of closing this deal. That was my suspicion based on what I know, but I just feel like it might be the wrong thing to do.

6:56Don't waste your time and effort. Here's what I do. Like if someone says that to me, like, hey, go, well, just send the pricing over. And I try to set the appointment and they just won't. I go, okay. And then I don't send anything. About half the time they'll call and they'll go, hey, are you going to send the pricing over. And when they do that, now I'm in control. Because when they do that, I go, yes, it comes attached to me. How about we get together Thursday at two? Now I'm in control. And the other 50 % of them, it didn't call back. They had no intention of ever changing anyway. It's the only way of doing it.

7:21I'm glad that you read the books. If you think you're being used for pricing, lowball the stew out of it and make your competitor buy the business back.

7:38We'll see you next time.