Selling the Price Increase

31Leading Price Increase Initiatives

Imagine for a moment that your task as a leader is to get a group of people to hike to the top of a mountain while carrying heavy rocks, in the heat of a mid-July summer day. The trip up will be an arduous grind.

You stand there before the group, a pile of rocks on one side and a group of unhappy climbers giving you the stink eye on the other. They are consumed with worry and fear that they might get hurt or encounter a snake, bear, or mountain lion. None of them are looking forward to the pain they'll have to endure.

Several ask, “Why now? Why can't we wait until the fall when it will be cooler?”

Others challenge you, “There's got to be another way to get these rocks to the top of that mountain.”

They whine, “Isn't there someone else who can do this? It doesn't seem fair that we are stuck with this job.”

No one seems motivated to get to work.

You must find a way to inspire the group to pick up the rocks and start hiking. Your task is to get them emotionally connected to the WHY, a future state in which the rocks are at the top of the mountain.

This is what leading is all about. The WHY is the end game and ultimate objective. If you want them to line up and willingly take rocks up that hill, you've got to explain the reason.

If this scenario sounds a lot like trying to motivate salespeople to go out and get price increases, you'd be right, except that the sales reps would readily choose carrying rocks over selling the price increase.