The Questions That Move a Price Conversation Off Unit Rate

Sellers treat price as a moment near the end of a deal. It behaves more like a conclusion. By the time a number is named, the buyer has already decided what size of problem they are solving, and the number is judged against that size. A buyer who believes they are buying a volume of transactions will compare every proposal on the cost per transaction, and they will be right to, because that is the problem they understand themselves to have.

Which means the work happens earlier. The questions asked during discovery are what set the scope the buyer believes the problem has. Eight of them do most of the work.

The Eight Questions

Each question has a job. The job is named after it, because a question asked without knowing what it is for becomes a survey item and the buyer answers it like one.

1. "Walk me through what happens today when this process fails. Who finds out, and what do they have to do?" This surfaces the human labor that sits downstream of the failure. The buyer has usually never counted it, because it is absorbed by people who do not report to them.
2. "How many other teams touch this after you do?" This establishes the blast radius. A problem contained inside one team is a tool purchase. A problem that crosses four teams is an operating problem, and operating problems have sponsors who can sign larger numbers.
3. "What does the organization do when this volume doubles?" This finds the ceiling. If the answer is that they hire, the purchase has just been compared to headcount, which is a far larger budget than software.
4. "Who else has tried to solve this, and what stopped them?" This surfaces the political cost of the problem and the history of failed attempts. It also tells you which objection will arrive late, because the thing that stopped the last attempt is usually still there.
5. "What has this cost you in the last twelve months that showed up on someone's budget?" This is the question that produces a figure the buyer owns. A number the seller supplies is a claim. A number the buyer supplies is evidence, and the buyer will defend it internally without being asked.
6. "If nothing changes by the end of the fiscal year, what is the consequence, and for whom?" This gives you the buyer's own deadline and the name of the person who carries it. Both belong in the follow up, because a deal moves on the buyer's calendar.
7. "Which of your own commitments to the business depends on this working?" This finds the personal stake. A buyer with a commitment riding on the outcome will spend political capital to get the purchase approved, and political capital is what carries a number past its approval threshold.
8. "Who signs when the number is larger than this one?" This maps the real approval path early, while the question is still hypothetical and therefore easy to answer. Asked at proposal time it sounds like a challenge. Asked in discovery it sounds like diligence.

Three or four of these asked properly will produce more than all eight asked quickly. Each one is useful only when the seller follows the answer to the next person it touches, and that takes time the seller has to leave in the agenda deliberately.

What the Answers Are For

Collecting answers is half the exercise. The second half is conversion, and it has three steps.

1. Pain Amplification, which means establishing what the buyer's current situation is costing them, measured in labor, delay, risk, and money that already appears on someone's budget. The figures come from the buyer's own answers, which is what makes them hold up when the buyer repeats them to a finance committee.
2. The Power Message, which means a statement linking a capability you have to a problem the buyer carries that costs them money. A Power Message has to be provable and it has to be something a competitor could not say word for word. A capability every vendor in the evaluation also has is parity, and parity belongs nowhere in a price conversation.
3. The Plan Letter, which means the written follow up that carries the agreed steps between the meeting and the buyer's own deadline. The buyer's figures, the buyer's deadline, and three Power Messages go into it, in the buyer's own words where possible.

Pricing Conversations: Common Questions

What settles a price conversation before price is discussed?

The scope the buyer believes the problem has. A buyer who believes the problem is a unit count will evaluate every proposal against a unit count. The questions asked during discovery are what set that scope, so the price conversation is largely settled before anyone names a number.

What is the first question to ask when a buyer opens with a unit rate?

Ask what happens today when the process fails, who finds out, and what those people have to do about it. The answer moves the conversation from the volume being purchased to the work the organization performs when the volume is handled badly.

How many of these questions belong in a single call?

Three or four asked properly will produce more than all eight asked quickly. Each question is useful only when the seller follows the answer to the next person it touches, which takes time the seller has to leave in the agenda.

What is Pain Amplification?

Pain Amplification means discovery that uncovers what the buyer's current situation is costing them, measured in labor, delay, risk, and money that already appears on someone's budget. It establishes the size of the problem using the buyer's own figures.

What do you do with the answers once you have them?

Convert each one into a Power Message, which means a statement linking a capability you have to a problem the buyer carries that costs them money. Those messages then go into a Plan Letter, which means the written follow up that carries the agreed steps between the meeting and the buyer's own deadline.

Do these questions work when procurement is running the process?

They work, and they have to be asked earlier. Once an evaluation document is published, the questions it contains define the comparison. Asking these questions before the document is written is what gives the buyer a reason to write it differently.

Jeff Aragon, Founder, Jozu Revenue Systems