Avoid Unwelcome Cost Surprises

I was flicking through some newspaper clippings that I collect for research on core sales and success topics, and one article in Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper back on November 2nd 2008 reported that champion tennis player Lleyton Hewitt’s family received an unwelcome surprise of a $77,000 legal bill from a Melbourne Law Firm for the work being done to trademark Hewitt’s famous “C’mon” salute.

There’s an old saying in ‘traditional sales approaches’ that price is not important. Rubbish! Try telling that to the Hewitt’s.

Price is important in any sale (including legal advice). However, what this law firm failed to do was to ensure that whatever the price or fee was, that when the invoice arrived, it should never be a surprise to the client.

In fact, professional successful salespeople know that the client needs to be aware of the price or price range at least, before any final recommendations of strategies, product, service or advice is provided. In that way, when the final price or investment required by the client is quoted, the value that has been well articulated and the price becomes just a feature of the buying process to enable the client to receive the value they seek.

Salespeople and business owners across all industries need to ensure that they never deliver unwelcome surprises.
to create reciprocal value.