🤔 At what stage of the sales cycle should you deliver pricing, and who should you give it to?

Many software deals are lost as a result of giving pricing at the wrong time to the wrong person in the sales cycle.

If you give pricing too early, the prospect may disqualify you before the sales cycle even starts.

If you give pricing too late, they may get frustrated and feel like you’re wasting their time or ignoring their request for pricing.

Here are my 6 rules as it pertains to giving out pricing:

1. Never give pricing to somebody who can’t say yes.

When you are working with an evaluator or champion, and as part of the discovery process make sure to find out who actually needs to give final approval to move forward, then be sure to invite them to the presentation.

2. If they won’t let you present to decision makers without seeing pricing first, then share it with them and ask to co-present once they are comfortable with the solution and pricing.

3. If the champion won’t let you present or co-present to the decision makers, ask why and validate they can get it done without you presenting.

The only scenario in which I will give them pricing is when they have successful bought software in the past and can share exactly how deals get done internally. In this case, I deploy a philosophy of “innocent until proven guilty” and coach them to sell up.

4. If they have never been able to get deals done and are blocking you from meeting with the decision makers, walk away. You are wasting your time.

5. Never give pricing until proper discovery has been completed. As a general rule, if you can’t answer why they need it, why they need it now, and why they need it from you, then they probably don’t need it.

6. Never ever email pricing. Always review live so you can go through it, answer questions, and get feedback.