Dealing with 'The Flinch'

How to react when your client reacts

That moment when you say your price, then hold your breath to see how your client reacts.

They might make that teeth-suck noise.

They might jerk their head back an inch.

It might be as subtle as a raised eyebrow.

Whatever it is, you see it. Of course you do, you’re trained to pick up every buying signal in the room. 

But did you know that your client has been trained to react to your price?

I receive procurement newsletters almost daily (one of the things I do so you don’t have to) and last week an ad for a training session on ‘The Flinch’ caught my eye.

That’s right, procurement people are coaching your clients on how to react to your price. And their goal is to make you lose confidence in your value and reduce your fee.

The most shocking thing? Your clients are told to do this even when they are perfectly happy with the price.

They are trained to do this because procurement experts know that it’s human instinct to respond to this kind of body language. And in a negotiation on price, that means you are more likely to agree to a lower fee.

Is it unfair? I don’t think so. In fact, I’d recommend learning some of these procurement tricks to help you when you are negotiating with your suppliers.

And when it comes to negotiating with well-trained clients, I recommend you have a pricing system that gives you the confidence to survive The Flinch.

If you want to build a system that gives you confidence in your prices, simply reply to this email and I will talk you through my initial consultation - your first step on the path to better pricing.

Jon

P.S. You might have noticed that I recommended you improve your negotiation skills - even though we might negotiate on my fee one day.

Why would I do that? Aren’t I giving you an advantage when you decide to work with me? 

The reason is, I’m confident in negotiating with you because I have a pricing system to be confident in.

If you want to build a system that gives you confidence in your prices, simply reply to this email and I will talk you through my initial consultation - your first step on the path to better pricing.