Selling the Price Increase

30The Battle Begins

Renee could see the anxiety on the faces of her sales team as she announced her company's price increase initiative. Some of those faces were twisted in what looked to be physical pain. Anticipating the pushback, she'd barely slept the night before.

• “Our customers won't accept this.”
• “This is just going to cause them to go to the competition!”
• “This is stupid! Our competitors are dropping prices. Why are we increasing them?”
• “Why are we doing this now? Couldn't this have waited until next quarter?”
• “The timing for this increase is all wrong.”
• “This doesn't make sense! We just increased their prices last month!”
• “Our customers are hurting already. It's not right!”
• “How will we possibly have time to do this with everything else we are required to do? You're asking too much!”
• “There is no way I can prospect for new business if I have to spend my time jacking around with these price increases.”
• “Why can't the service team do this? It's their job anyway!”
• “I was hired to sell, not beat customers up over price increases!”
• “How can we justify asking for a price increase after all of the service delivery issues this year?”
• “Why should we do this if we aren't getting a commission for it? That's not fair.”
• “What moron at corporate thought this was a good idea with everything that is going on in the market right now?”
• “This bites!”

As her sales team became more hostile, Renee's shoulders slumped. It was going to be a long meeting.

Leaders Hesitate

Salespeople hate ...