Should You Ask for Their Budget?

You're a rockstar. You are doing a sales walkthrough in a facility that you feel should be yours. You're a seasoned-pro by this point and nothing is holding you back. You've got this in the bag! 

Except....there is one thing gnawing at you. Your point of contact is giving you a vibe and that vibe is only detectable after years of experience. You have a sense of presence to know that budget may be in play for them. 

What do you do? Do you ask for their budget or do you let it slide? It could ultimately mean victory or defeat. 

Many years ago I took a Dale Carnegie Sales Advantage course/cohort with 20-25 others. We met weekly as a collective to learn about value props, USPs, handling objections, and more. Learned a lot. 

One statement one of the facilitators made rubbed me the wrong way:

"People don't ever make a buying decision based on price".

I disagreed with that statement for well over a year after it was said. Of course people decide based on price. But what did I know? I was the newbie sales guy selling commercial cleaning to businesses. I never did sales before. But the statement bothered me.

It wasn't until years later when it dawned on me that he was right. People don't decide on price. They decide on the value. If you're selling value and they want that value, then the price doesn't matter. If you're selling on a metric around price (ie lowest prices in town!), then it's a fast race to the bottom because your entire value is wrapped up in the price. 

People don't buy on price. They don't because we'd all drive Chevy Sparks (until recently it was the cheapest new car sold in America). Or we'd all eat Chicken-flavored Top Ramen every meal at 99 cents a pop. Or we'd all cancel home internet because our 5G on our cells can connect us to the world. So if price were the #1 factor, why do we spend 2-3X more on new vehicles vs. a $16K Spark? Why do we go out to eat instead of hydrating crappy noodles? And why do we insist we keep our TVs and home internet going? Because we appreciate value instead of price.

Back to that walkthrough, it's my practice to NEVER ever ask for their budget. I won't do it. I don't care what their budget is. I'm there to share our value and to present our best price. They can tell me "Yes", or "No", or ask to negotiate, and I'm fine with any of these 3 options. We don't rely on a model of winning 100% of our bids. We only want to win 1 out of every 4 or 5 delivered. I just want to win 1 per month. That's it. We also target bigger locations so that plays into our goals.

Let's say you do ask (hey, no judgment from me). What's the harm in doing so? No harm whatsoever. However, if you're doing a walkthrough in a 25,000 sqft space that takes 8 hours per visit every Monday-Friday, you might be around $5000/month in your price. So let's say you do ask. And the prospect answers your budget question with $2,000/month. Oooooof. Now you're in a walkthrough knowing 100% you will not meet their budget and you'll let that distract you the rest of the time instead of listening and learning fro, that prospect so you can apply that to future bids elsewhere. 

Most people give up at their answer, or $2000/mo in this example. So the second fallout of asking for a budget is that many of you accept that budget as gospel and you don't ask for your $5000. You don't because you think they'll say "No" or "No way!!". Likely they'll say that and many have a Fear of Failure and that holds you back from the ask. 

I was coaching someone recently whose prospect answered that budget question. They gave a rate that was 50% less than the future proposed rate. And the prospect had the audacity to ask my coaching client what he thought of that low rate. My coaching client's response? He said that won't work and the price is $X. He held firm and the prospect turned into a client at that higher rate. But these are unicorns. Most prospects won't do this.

Many cleaners resign to the prospect's thought process instead of trying to win them over. This is Sales 101. Don't give a price unless that price is a selling point. If you offer $19 cleaning services, then mention your price. Just know it's a fast race to the bottom. Someone will always be cheaper. Therefore, price should never be a selling point.

What if your prospect offers up their budget unsolicited? It happens. It happened to me many times. They blurt it out. I don't not answer that question and I continue to increase my perceived value throughout the remainder of that walkthrough and sales process. If they press, I just mention, "I want to get the best price for you. I'll present my rate in the proposal and I'll get to work on it once I get back to the office.".

Is there a potential missed opportunity cost if you don't ask for the budget? Absolutely! How many times have you presented your price only to hear the prospect say, "Oh Wow! I would have paid double!" or something ridiculous like that. It's definitely happened to me. Not good at all. But these are rare and as long as you are 100% certain on YOUR numbers, then someone else's numbers doesn't matter....you'll still make a profit every single time. 

What if you have prospect expectations that are consistently low meetup after meetup after meetup? Well, it could mean your price is genuinely too high and you're not increasing your perceived value to match that price. But before you slash any pricing, consider who you are marketing to. If you're aiming for $1000/month clientele, make sure you're marketing to $1000/mo clientele. One way to do that is in your messaging. Make sure your website reflects a Q&A with a question around the average cost for cleaning services. You can eliminate a bulk of your audience who never see a perceived value to cleaning services. Or create a YouTube series on client pricing. 

But as for me, I welcome these types of prospects. I practice on them and gives me an opportunity to try new tactics and services.