Do you ask for prospects' budget as a qualifier? (for hard-hitters)

I helped someone out recently, they had a 2 page sales process. Page 1 being a pre-sale, and page 2 was the actual sales part. Price was introduced on the 2nd page.

We knew the process worked, there was about a 6% conversion, but they wanted more, and had tried everything and could not get beyond the number.

Once we got the analytics data in, we saw there was a better than fair amount of loss on the first page - in the order of 80%. So we now knew that the 6% was based on only 20% of total traffic getting there.

When looking at why people were dropping off of the page 1 copy... we looked at time spent on page. we did some in house testing to determine where on the page specifically people were dropping off. ( we recorded people reading the pre-sales copy to give us a time stamp identifier ) We had a total of 20 people help us with this process.

we then went back to the page and tried 2 tests. #1 we inserted a CTA to page 2 at the drop point. This DID increase the hop to page 2, but the overall conversion remained constant at 6%. But given that we increased the number of hops to page 2, the page to page conversion dropped dramatically.

#2 we introduced price at the drop point on page 1 in the CTA. The hop rate decreased from test #1 BUT there was an increase in conversions. we got the conversion rate up of 18% overall with 50% of the traffic hopping from page 1 to page 2.

So some basic "traffic" data:

• the base number of hops from page 1 to page 2 was 20%
• CTA at drop point increased hops to 72% - with no increase in conversion
• CTA with price brought hops to 50% with a 200% increase in conversions

Given this one example only... PRICE does matter. More specifically it matters where it is introduced.

I found it more effective to ask them what their goals are. "How much do you need to make?" "How much more monthly revenue are you hoping to generate?" "So that's XXX,XXX per year, right?" "What options are you considering?" "What are you planning to do to get that number?"

This gets them thinking much bigger numbers, and give you some figures to use that will make whatever your price is, seem much more affordable.

Make them think they are getting free money. They give you $20,000 - and get $150,000 in return. Only do this if you KNOW you can deliver.

I qualify them a million different ways from Sunday ... but I never
ask them what there budget is.

In my, not so humble opinion - I believe asking about a budget
puts a predefined number in the prospects head and more importantly
creates a preconceived boundary on price.

Something to be avoided when selling above there comfort zone.

Scotty

Have you forgotten about Monetizing the Problem?

Understand the minimum price you will go to work for.

Then when the prospect sets the value of the problem ("If they say it, it's true; if you say it, you have to defend it"), you're good to go as long as it's over say 5 - 10% of that figure, depending on how your self-esteem feels about charging them. $100K problem...you'll go to work for $5K to $10K (or more, but somewhere in there is your minimum).

If your targeting the right prospects you'll already know they have a budget therefor there's no need to ask them about it. The matter then becomes having them agree that your services fit into the budget they already have or to increase their budget to get you.

When I'm asked What's your budget?, I hear...How much can I try and take you for?

I think directly asking "what's your budget?" gets you the low, hoped for, less than what they expect to pay number. And it's probably less than what you want to charge, so...

Now you've just invited this task of upping their budget from where they are to where you want them to be. And that becomes the conversation.

Instead, if you do as Jason suggests and make the conversation about what they stand to gain, AKA building value... and THEN matter of factly volunteer your price, which by the way shows confidence...

Then the prospect, hearing a higher price than the hoped for low number they were gonna throw at you, and now after this conversation you've had desiring your services ever so more, upon hearing your fee, may think:

"That low number I wanted ain't gonna fly. Not for what I want done, anyway."

And now instead of you wrangling them up in budget, they do some of the pulling up themselves.