How to deal with price shoppers

Price shoppers, yuck! We all hate them.

The problem is not the customer. It’s that most service providers can’t tell the difference between price shoppers and value shoppers. This is because often, both ask the same question.

How much is this going to cost? Can you do it for this price?

Every customer wants the job done right. They also want the best value. At the very beginning of your conversation, their only definition of value is price. They ask for the best price because they don’t understand the value you offer yet. They don’t know how you offer more value over the competition.

Always remember this: Price is only a concern in the absence of value. A customer only shops based on price because he/she doesn’t understand the value yet.

Most people want great value, not the best price.

If this wasn’t true, we would all be buying $1 coffees from McDonald’s or gas stations. Instead, many people opt to pay over $5 from Starbucks because of the added value. Starbucks and other “high-end” providers exist simply because people want more value.

Communicate your main value offer right away.

Your first point of contact is usually a marketing piece. The second is usually a phone call. Make sure your main value offer is the first thing people see. Your phone answering script should be something like this.

“Thanks for calling Joe’s carpet cleaning, Where we don’t cut corners, we clean them properly with our 3-step process backed with a 6-month guarantee. My name is Mike, I can help you today.”

Now the customer on the phone is thinking, “3 steps, no one else said a 3 step process. 6 months guarantee, that wasn’t offered from other places, I wonder what’s included in that?”.

Even if your competition offers the same feature at the same price, they’re not saying it on the phone as you are. You’re immediately establishing that this is a value difference that you offer. Now the customer is asking you about the extra value you provide. They’re interested and want to know more.

When on a call, ask for their contact information right away.

“May I get your name and number in case we get disconnected?”

This way you’re not asking for it after they decide to “call around”.

You can always follow up a bit later and ask if they made a decision. This one call back set’s you apart from the competition and may land you the job. Even if you don’t you can simply ask who they chose and why. This is an important step in your market research.

You can even follow up a few weeks later. Why would you follow up so much later? Ask if they got it taken care of, by who, and were they happy?

This simple follow up shows you care. I bet they didn’t even get a follow-up call from the shop that did the work. You’re building a case for them to choose you the next time. Business is a long term game and we need to keep thinking that way. This is providing great value, regardless if they have paid you for anything or not yet.

Next, you ask what their biggest concern or issue is.

Ask for the main reason the customer is calling. Why are they calling now?

• They may have an urgent auto repair need.
• They may have company coming and need those carpets cleaned.
• They may have a plumbing leak, or just want a new toilet installed.

When you get down to the specific reason why they’re calling, you’re able to understand the value they’re looking for.

How to respond to an actual price shopper

If you think they’re a price shopper, you can tell the customer the following.

“We pride ourselves on doing quality work. As you heard on the phone we have a great guarantee. To offer that, we can’t do work at the cheapest price. You might want to go to the shop that can do it cheaper if the price is your biggest concern.”

A price shopper will thank you and move on. A value shopper will say something like this.

“I’m happy to pay for good work, I just didn’t realize there was such a varied price range.”

We all hate price shoppers. The key is identifying who they are as soon as possible. We can’t simply do this by hearing “how much” or “can you do it this cheap?”. Identifying fo they’re true price shoppers or not takes a little digging. I’ve suggested some books below that will dig much deeper into this subject.