I've had to do this a few times.... I find that the best, better, good approach works when you present it correctly.
Start out with the best system, which is exactly what they asked for. Then when you go to the better and good options, explain what they are giving up or losing.
It ends up not being what they REALY wanted and shows how being cheap is counter productive. I don't mean to lowball with cheap stuff, but point out the not so obvious stuff. Cheaper tv needs power sensors..... No direct input mode on the receiver means long delays in macros.... Stuff that either is inconvenient or nessecitaes a bunch of black box solutions and messy.
Just my $0.02

I dont think you need to drop to a TV so cheap that it needs a power sensor. Here you can see a TV and an AVR in the good better best category. The client isnt trading gold for wheat here. These are comprable systems in different prices ranges. Each option gives the client a good system. Spending the extra money is made very clear here and your not short changing the client on features/ability to control it etc.

Good
Panasonic 65" Model: TC-P65S2 $2000
Denon AVR Model: AVR-2311CI $900

$2900

Better
Panasonic 65" Model: TC-P65VT25 $4300
Denon AVR Model: AVR3311CI $1200

$5500

Best
Panasonic 65" Model: Th-65pf20u $5580
Denon AVR Model: AVR4810CI $3000

$8580

When i first started posting i was very confused about some of the comments. I started in this business at a high end 2 channel shop and i have been working for a dealer that only does high end residential. I havent ever experienced a client calling up and saying he found a TV online for less.

Point is that no one here is working in the same market with the same clients with the same skill set with the same team behind them. Some companies have a sales team and installers are an after thought. Some companies are technician driven where the owner is the sale guy. Other firms are front end design teams who outsource the installation. Saying that there is only one right way to deal with a client and close a sale is insane.

If you have spent your whole career dealing with clients the same way have you thought about the fact that you have been working in the same market off the same referral stream the whole time? This might explain why your way continues to work. It doesnt mean that any other way isnt just as good.

Why would you start with the system the they asked for...the system they WANT and then you sell yourself short and sell them the lesser of the three.....not everyone is a born sales person, most of the time it is a learned trait. I do one proprosal and a revision if I need to. I throw numbers out to them to feel them out, even if they don't straight out give you a number and make you work for it, if you pay attention a little you can read your client and get an idea. More sales people need to grow some balls and be confident in your services. Giving three to me says you don't believe it it is worth it and you ae weak. These days a lot don't care about quality, they want a deal. The first person to speak looses! Yes, some you may have to save and play a little, but most will stick with what you believe in. Most clients are not going to give this to you on a silver platter...you have to work

Mostly agree!

While I still feel like I suck at this, I really have a high closing rate. Ultimately, the good/better/best thing ONLY works IF one at least one of those is in the budget range that they had in their mind.

Regardless of what they want, most of the >$20k jobs, know how much they CAN or are WILILNG to spend. If one of your proposals is close to that, that's most likely what they'll choose.

If they were thinking 20k, and you come back with 7/10/15k...their probably thinking something is missing your you do crappy work....If they were thinking 7k and you come back with 10/15/20...then they think YOU are too expensive or are trying to oversell them.

Whether you take the g/b/b approach or not, you HAVE to establish a budget idea. IMO.

For wealthy clients where you are doing upgrades its a little different. I have a client that wants new remotes..he currently has MX950's & Base stations. I know we can easily afford Prodigy or RTI TP's with XP8, but not sure if he wants to spend that sort of money. I decided to just give him a rouch quote for a prodigy one room system and details on Prodigy.....if that's number felt good to him I would provide an accurate proposal for doing the upgrades he wants at that level of gear.

IF you do the g/b/b approach, I think you ALWAYS prest the BEST first. get them excited about all the good things and then from there they see what they want and have to make the compromises themselves by choosing the better or good choice or maybe having you come in the middle somewhere.

Really all the G/B/B is doing for you is helping you establish a budget. MOst of these that I've done, we end up downgrading some things to the good level and pull some out of the best, creating a system that is around the better price range and customizing the systm for what they want.

So agian, establish a budget and orgranize the features they want most-least.

can and willing are 2 very different things! its all about value and how they peceive it!


if they were thinking 20 and you give them 7/10/15k then you did a very bad job of listening and qualifying them!


if they were thinking 7k and you came back 10/15/20 you better start cosing up shop because you dont listen and dont know how to get the informtion you need out of the potential customer!!!!


you cant do anything without a budget! or at least a ballpark budget!

i cant stand the G/B/B approach. but if your gonna do it....do it well!

have you ever spent a lot of money doing rehab work on your house? i have... at no point did the contractors ever give me G/B/B pricing they listen, they ask for budget and then they put together a proposal that meets your needs /wants with budget!
*when i had windows put in my house the window guy educated me, showed me my options and made recommendations he told me how much and i just about choked i had no idea how much windows were going to be... they wanted 15k for windows.... i was expecting 5k we settled on 12k process took less than 10 minutes.
*when i had a cedar privacy fence put in fence guy comes out asks what i want he gave me a rough guestimate of 8k 7500 later i had my fence
* when we had our basement guted and refinished we had the design done up and contractor said its gonna cost this amount to do what you want. he said pick out your own hardwood floors and have material delivered(he will install) and pick up your own carpet and have carpet company install. cost 30 grand and another 10k in flooring

why am i sharing this information.... to make a point..... each contractor listened, educated, made recommendations and then listened some more.... and then made 1 quote based on that information.

if these guys can do it(and lets just say they are not the brightest bulbs) then you guys should be able to do something similar.



agree...

overall this was a very good post sofa....

If you ask someone for their "budget" and you come in under it, you may well get the job but you left money on the table.
In general, most people, consciously or subconsciously, when asked, will say an amount at least 20% under what they are really thinking about/can swing. They expect to be shown something just a bit over the "budget" amount.

This is true with the other trades they are dealing with and it is true in most buying/selling situations. Cars, wine, houses, boats, guitars, vacations etc...

This is not to say you simply pad a $10k job up to $12k. What you need to do is show them how cool the system can be at $12k (or $15k or whatever). If you present it well, and the perceived value is there, you get the contract at the higher amount, they get a better system and they get you still in business a couple of years from now to provide upgrades and service :)

Exactly....I think its important to listen and discuss basic features and technology advancements before mentioning the budget. As ceied said, it's all about educating them.

They may have been thinking $5k, but that's because they dont' have a CLUE what it costs or what is even an option. Most people still think Touch panels and facny home automation is only for the rich. We here all know you can do a lot with $10k these days. If you don't educate them, they won't even think to alter their budget.

Maybe if you show them, yes you can have this, this and this for $10k, they'll be so excited they'll write the entire check right then and there.

Gents,

Sears has been using this Good, Better, Best strategy for many moons. It does work. If done correctly it helps to sell more customers on a bit more than they expected to spend.

The idea is that the middle option, "Better", is targeted at what the customer expresses they want/need. The "Good" option is basically there to show the customer that by dropping 15%-20% off the price, the features they give up, will be things they consider important, and are on their "want" list. The "Best" option is there to sell the customer on more features. This is where you wow the customer with some things they may not have even thought about or heard of, and show this can be had for a reasonable upcharge.

The trick is to understand what the customer views as his/her "wants", and to make sure the "Better" option adresses these, while the "Good" option shows at which price point you start giving up items from the "want" list. If you understand the customers viewpoint, you can probably upsell them to "Best" (assuming they have the funds), by making it clear what additional benefits are gained.

When doing this I like to make sure the differences are very tangible things. Talking about the benefits not just of better sound or picture quality, but of things like multiple zones on an amp vs whole house distribution.

In a nutshell, giving G/B/B pricing AFTER meeting a client, IMHO, screams, I did not listen well enough so I'm hitting you with the shotgun approach and hoping something in the sticks.

G/B/B may be fine in initial literature that says "5.1 surround w/LCD. G = $8K, B=$12, B=$15. The problem is that still isnt close because to each client that will be off.

Those numbers to some clients may say Best, Over the top and unattainable to someone thinking $3K.

But those same numbers too others it may be useless, worthless and dog doo as their real budget and idea is $100k.

I think we are focusing too much on good, better, best and not on a more flexible idea of presenting options based on price and performance.  Giving a client three choices isn't much of a spread.  Look at it more along the lines of here are options for different disciplines and let them build a budget by adding and deleting.  You might nail the theater in your first bid but be low on audio or structured wiring.  Getting everything right in a bid that took you hours or days to produce isn't very realistic. 
People like to "browse" to find the right fit for their home, give them something to look at.  I still sold the same systems over and over again but with just a few variations for each project.  There will never be one prefect way to close a deal unless you are holding a gun to their head.  People are different, jobs are different, go with what helps you close the deal.  I have a furniture manufacturer that sells wholesale to stores across north America and using the option method this last weekend one sales guy did 1.2 mill, up from 780k last year.  While they liked the simple interface they really liked not having to read all the bad penmanship.  A good tool or method should only enhance a salesperson and they can decide how much and how to use use it.  I handle different clients in different ways, bottom line is to collect a check and a signature.  Sales is a numbers game, if someone can do more smaller sales than someone else doing larger sales in the same time, the winner is always the biggest number, profit that is.