I remember vividly when my high school best friend’s father purchased a new car may years ago. The car was beautiful, but he was very self-conscious about the purchase and seldom allowed it outside of the garage. Years later I discovered that the reason his dad kept such an expensive car locked in the garage was that he did not want anyone to see it because he was concerned that people would view him differently or feel that he was making too much money. Stories like this aren’t exactly unique. In many families the subject of money carries with it a certain “taboo”. In some cases, you should not speak about how much something cost or how much income was entering the household or if money was tight, you were not allowed to ask for things at all because they were “too expensive” or “we can’t afford it”. Whatever your money story was growing up, chances are some of that may have carried over into adulthood. If unaware of its effects, these narratives can be prohibitive, especially if you’re in the sales profession.

If you find yourself having difficulty speaking to your clients and prospects about the subject of money, Think Grow Lead, the sales development experts, recognises this as one of the hidden weaknesses for salespeople described as: Discomfort with Issues Involving Money.

Many salespeople are uncomfortable escalating a question about budget, or whether a prospect can afford the product or service being offered. Their discomfort prevents them from helping a prospect figure out how to pay or even where the money could possibly come from. When prospects do not have the budget, cannot envision increasing the budget or do not know how they can find the money, the salesperson empathises rather than digging deeper, asking questions, and making suggestions to solve the monetary shortage. This prevents some from getting prices and fees out on the table at all, or make value and budget decisions for the client before the client can.

When a salesperson has a discomfort with money, he/she may…

1. Think it’s inappropriate to address the issue of money with all potential clients so they avoid the subject.

2. Delay or not respond to prospective clients asking how much it will cost them, which could result in the prospect losing interest or finding their information elsewhere

3. Inappropriately propose; either high or low because of a lack of awareness over how much money the prospect will actually spend

4. Offers free solutions, thinking that the clients are unwilling to pay for expertise.

5. Present inadequate solutions that fails to meet all the true needs of the client

How does one fix a serious money tolerance weakness? There are several ways including:

1. Simply speaking out loud about it more often, being more open about money and carrying more money on you.

2. Raise our money ceiling to help you and the people you are working with to feel comfortable about money.

3. Focus on the heart of what the person needs, what their problems are and how valuable your solution will be to them

4. Getting trained on how to eliminate this sales DNA weakness (along with the other six weaknesses) that often will sabotage your success when you are selling in the field.

When you are afraid to discuss money, you put yourself in danger of your prospects perceiving your product/service to be of less value; opening yourself to undue price negotiations; or potentially losing the sale completely. However, the good news is, when you become comfortable talking about money you can expect to increase your effectiveness and your business about 30 per cent.

Duane Lue-Fung is an award-winning entrepreneur and is the Founder & Chairman of the Caribbean’s #1 Sales Development Company, Think Grow Lead. For more insights on sales & customer experience training, sales recruiting and sales outsourcing please visit TGL’s website. www.tgltrainers.com/ www.tglsalesschool.com or email me your comments at topsalesguruja@gmail.com