Take control of the narrative. Avoiding it doesn’t make it go away. It’s just denial. You’re just burying your head in the sand.
And even if the customer doesn’t notice your competitor will.
If you don’t tell your customer why you’re worth it, your competitor will.
The dangerous comfort of silence
“We avoid discussing figures of what they’ve paid and in fact, if we can avoid sharing them – let alone discussing them- we will. Exposing that they have spent $600,000 over 3 years and no evacuation has taken place exposes us to them questioning whether they should renew the contract, or asking for a discount or such other ugly things that frustrate the sale.
“Why would we want to shoot ourselves in the foot?”
Well, because if you don’t, your competition will. And you will not like what they say because they will use it against you.
In fact, if I was your competition, it would be my opening gambit.
Read: Are you busy—or just avoiding the hard sales conversations?
Your competitor will control the narrative if you don’t
“We can offer you emergency evacuation services at much less than you are currently paying.”
If the decision-maker is in the room, you’ve already piqued their curiosity. From that point onwards, the conversation shifts. The customer is no longer focused on the value of your service. They’re focused on the potential savings.
Suddenly, my comparatively inferior product isn’t being judged for what it lacks. Instead, what’s glaringly apparent is that you might have been overcharging the customer all along.
That’s the danger of surrendering control of the narrative. You allow your competitor to frame the conversation, define what matters, and determine how the customer evaluates your offering.
And the consequences soon become apparent.
The customer starts becoming elusive, especially as the renewal date approaches. Or worse, they become hostile when renewal discussions begin.
“You guys have been overcharging us!”
Scrambling to articulate your value at this point is almost a lost cause. The problem is no longer just price. It’s trust.
And once the customer begins to doubt your integrity, even a compelling explanation may not be enough to win them back.
Read: Between renewals: how to keep customers after the sale
Control of the narrative starts with transparency
Now if only you had taken control of the narrative. Then you would have been walking in the light, building trust in the process – instead of leaving room for suspicion to take root.
The more in this 21st Century when you know in advance how much the Uber ride will cost you, the driver and car details, and how far he is from you. Ditto, MPESA.
Transparency is sales currency in the digital age.
It’s little wonder that opaque pricing has long been a source of friction between banks and their customers. When people don’t understand what they’re paying for, they begin to question what they’re being charged—and why.
If customers cannot connect what they pay to the value they receive, they’ll find their own explanation. And your competitor will be more than happy to supply one.
Read: Communicate your worth: price isn’t your problem— storytelling is
How to take control of the narrative before renewal
So, back to you.
Building up to the renewal you initiate the conversation rather than waiting for the customer to question your pricing.
“We have been looking at your payments over the last two years and we continue to be grateful for your support. We have not had any evacuation yet, and we are grateful for this too, because this means there has been no life in danger.
“Still, we would like to deepen our relationship this coming year at no cost to you. You have opened up a new mine, so we saw in the news, and we are happy to extend free training on safety quarterly.” (Or, “You are sponsoring a marathon and, with your permission, we would like to have a fully staffed ambulance on site on that day.”)
You have added calculated value at zero cost to the customer and demonstrated you don’t just hit and run- you keep a pulse on their activities.
And in case you’re wondering, by calculated I mean that you’ve discussed the initiative internally and secured the necessary approval.
More importantly, you’ve reinforced the value of the relationship before anyone has had the chance to undermine it.
That’s control of the narrative in action.
(Fun fact: sometimes controlling the narrative means taking charge even when you are mistaken to be at fault – as Airbnb discovered in this crisis-selling guide..)
Give your customer ammunition to defend your value
So, when I show up to pitch to the competition, even if I get an ear, this time the shoe is on the other foot. The customer is looking at me through your lens.
“I see you are cheaper, but I am curious. Do you own your planes or do you sub-contract them? In the event of an emergency, do you send an air ambulance staffed with dedicated medical personnel who can stabilize the patient even as you are rushing them to hospital, or do you use a standard helicopter? What about training on safety – tell me about the qualifications of your personnel…”
The customer is not suddenly remembering this value – you reminded him of it.
Even as you discussed the value adds, you were reinforcing the reasons they chose you in the first place. You may not have intended it but you were giving him ammunition to counter any onslaught. Ammunition he is now firing at me with a machine gun.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
I am scrambling, dodging for cover. But with price as my only defense, I might as well be holding up a newspaper against a hail of live bullets.
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