Show the Cost of Doing Nothing
Before showing your fee, use the buyer's own numbers to show what the problem costs if nothing changes.
Making the cost of the status quo concrete is sound practice, but a meta-analysis found loss-framed messages are not reliably more persuasive than gain-framed ones, so it is not the magic the sales books suggest.
Why it works
Your fee looks large next to nothing and small next to a real loss. When the buyer supplies the numbers, the comparison is theirs, not yours.
How to do it
- Ask for the numbers during discovery: sales per person, days vacant, overtime.
- Do the sum out loud with them, in rupees per month.
- Put the total next to your fee, without comment.
- Use rough numbers they agree with, not precise ones you invent.
- Let them draw the conclusion.
What to say
You said an area manager brings in about 20 lakh a month in season. Two months empty is about 40 lakh. Our fee is around 90,000. Does that sound right?
What does it cost you each month this stays as it is?
Avoid
Inventing the buyer's losses or exaggerating them. If they don't agree with the number, the whole argument falls apart.
Example
Gaurav asked a Hubli seed company how much one territory manager sold in kharif. The sales head said about 30 lakh. Gaurav simply wrote 30 lakh times two months next to his fee, and the fee question did not come up again.
Practise it
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