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Monumental Sales Tips - Value, not price, is the most important thing in a sale

By Mike Baklarz

Oscar Wilde once said that, "Nowadays we know the price of everything and the value of nothing."

A lot of things have changed since Wilde's days. For one, price no longer is the most important factor in a sale. According to various surveys, price ranks as low as the sixth most important consideration in the purchase of a product. What factors outweigh the importance of price? Service, quality, and most important of all, value.

We are no longer in the commodity business but in the value business. In an industry that impacts customers' emotions like no other, you know that the key influencing factor in a memorial sale has to be value. A memorial is a timeless tribute to a loved one that evokes the deepest of emotions and life-defining memories for people remembering the departed. To focus mainly on the price of a memorial can diminish the vital emotional value of a memorial. Focusing on price tends to be more a problem in the salesperson's mind than the customer's today.

Value is a combination of many things but primarily price, quality and service. The following are effective strategies to reduce the influence of price and emphasize value on a sales decision:

Do not focus on price

If you sell on price alone, you are increasing chances of losing the sale from the start. There is no need to bring up price, or to go into price-related details, unless the customer asks you.

Bring up price as a preemptive measure

Managing price expectations of the customer is important. If the price of the memorial appears to be high or above the budget of the family, bring it up yourself so it doesn't surprise the customer, but justify it with benefits. Bring up price as a preemptive measure to soften any negative impact or avoid misunderstandings.

Benefits, benefits, benefits

Don't emphasize product features. Don't think about your memorial as a product. Think in terms of benefits. How does the memorial benefit family members? This is a critical consideration. Rarely does one feature justify the price of a product or memorial. One benefit, however, can. It behooves us, therefore, to find out what those benefits are. The value of a memorial vastly increases with personalization and designs that say something about the memorialized person. Seek out customer benefits by finding out how you can better personalize memorials. Remember, every price is too high unless customers can see the benefits.

Maintain composure, be informative

If the customer appears to pressure you or becomes defensive about purchasing the memorial, maintain your composure while informing him about the value of the memorial. A memorial is something that is supposed to last forever, honoring the life and memory of the departed with personalized benefits (not features). Have a list of valuable benefits that you can add to the memorial in your mind. Do not be emotional. Detach yourself to a certain extent, but be informative and engaging. Anticipate your customer's needs. Ask plenty of questions.

Be creative and provide solutions

If the family is seeking to portray the life story of the person being memorialized but can't afford customized diamond-cut carvings, provide cost-effective, but just as highly personalized, laser-etched drawings or portraits. If the family is seeking a granite that will not fit its budget, provide another granite that is nearly the same color but more cost-effective. If you can provide solutions and create a memorial desired by the family, you will fulfill the wishes of the family and create value in the memorial.

Mindset

You are not just a monument retailer. You are creating something that will help console someone and stir innermost feelings and pleasant memories from people memorializing their loved ones. Think of yourself and your purpose in the most glowing terms. The "meaning of the letter" inscription on the Smithsonian Institution's National Postal Museum, formerly the Washington, D.C., city post office, comes to mind. It describes the meaning of a letter in the following terms:

Messenger of Sympathy and Love
Servant of Parted Friends
Consoler of the Lonely
Bond of the Scattered Family
Enlarger of the Common Life

I think the inscription perfectly describes a memorial and the mission of the monument builder. If you can think of your business and what you do every day in these terms, you will not emphasize price before your customer. You will talk value.

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Mike Baklarz is senior vice president of sales and marketing for the Cold Spring Granite Co., a leading manufacturer, designer and distributor of granite and bronze products. The Cold Spring Granite Memorial Group offers the broadest line of memorial products, including upright monuments, flat markers, cast bronze and granite bases, urns, columbariums, community and family mausoleums, benches, and specialty features.