1. Lay Of The Land: If you sell something that's fairly pricy and that people don't buy very often, they may not have a frame of reference for how much they should expect to pay. This is true for vacations, dental work, hearing aids, sales training, a new roof, higher-end electronics, jewelry, office furniture, and so forth. Here's a good bet: If John Smith doesn't know how much something should cost, he'll probably UNDER-ESTIMATE how much it is in his mind. Then when you show up to sell him, you've got to cover a lot of territory to close that gap. This leads to maddeningly long sales cycles, multiple-call closes (instead of 1- or 2-call closes), longer-than-necessary sales meetings, and phantom objections (cause they're chicken to admit holy cow, THAT'S expensive!). 
    
2. Pre-Positioning Package: The best strategy to avoid this frustration is to start building a case for the value of your product before you ever sit down with the prospect. How? Send him a pre-positioning package (PPP) that is delivered quickly and professionally produced. Printed reports and DVDs work best. In it, you can lay out all the key points you'd make at the sales appointment to win him over to your price. But here's the extra bonus: Because it is in writing versus spewing from a salesperson's mouth, it has more credibility, believability, AND authority. You argument gains authority if it is printed.  
    
3. Confirmation Calls: Sending the PPP isn't enough. When you call to confirm the sales appointment you want to make sure the prospect has read it. Let him know what information he will find in it. Direct him to specific page numbers that are the most relevant. Explain why it's important for him to read it before the salesperson gets to his house. Don't say, "You need to read this because you have the wrong idea about the price and I don't want to battle you on it." That's dumb. Present yourself as his advocate, and inform him that the "Information Kit" will educate him on the best questions to ask his salesperson. or any salesperson in the industry for that matter. 
    
4. During The Meeting: Don't forget about the PPP during the sales presentation. The written word will give you power in a face-to-face setting. Salespeople have been known to "fudge" the truth; you can't fudge what's in writing. If the prospect hasn't read it yet (face it: some people won't read), you can walk him through it. If he has, you can color his interpretation in your favor. When you get to pricing, he'll understand that a cheaper (whatever it is you sell) would be an inferior and undesirable product.  
    
5. Enable Price Shopping: If you can't close the deal at the appointment, by all means let John Smith shop the competition. with your marketing tool, the pre-positioning package, as his guide. He already knows that you may cost more than the competitors, but now he's loaded with the information he needs to see and realize that your competitor's low prices also mean low quality, low service, low reliability, and so forth. If you have innovated your company and have something to be proud of, you should never be afraid for an educated prospect to shop around. Ultimately, they'll come back.

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