Cash? No cash

Once upon a time, in an agency far, far away—and I do mean far, because it literally used to take me 1 hr and 45 mins to commute—we pitched an oMni-ChAnNeL marketing strategy to a prospect.

I can’t remember exactly who the client was, but I remember the brief: government-funded. Decent opportunity. Potentially useful doors opening if we landed it.

We did not land it.

"What was their reason for not going ahead?" asked the agency owner.

My boss shrugged. "We were too expensive."

"I'm not buying that," said the COO/salesperson/HR/office admin/owner's best mate. "We just didn't show them enough value."

"I dunno," I argued... because I was—and still am—an argumentative bitch. "Sometimes the price is just too high for someone's budget."

"Nut," was the immediate reply, coupled with an overdramatic shaking of the head. "People will buy something if they see the value. We just didn't show them enough value."

Sigh.

Allow me to share with you why I hate this way of thinking.

SOMETIMES THE MONEY JUST LITERALLY ISN'T THERE.

Like, even in a large corporate. If the CFO says no, the CFO says no. You can show all the value you want, but sometimes the cupboard's bare mate.

But look, as much as this person was a massive pain in the tit, they also weren't ENTIRELY wrong.

Because, looking back, the problem with this particular pitch wasn't JUST the proposal... it was everything that came before it:

1. We hadn't built enough credibility before the sales conversation.
2. We didn't have a strong enough point of view in the market.
3. We didn't have enough visible proof.
4. We weren’t showing how we thought, what we understood, why we were different, or why choosing us would feel safer than choosing someone else.
5. We also didn't have any close referral/networking relationship with them.

Come to think of it, I have no idea how we even got to the pitch stage at all?? 🤔

So by the time the price landed in front of them, they were judging it cold.

This is the part a lot of "overcome objections" advice glosses over.

Sales gurus act like value is something you sprinkle over the proposal at the end. Add in a few testimonials, chuck in a comparison table, say "investment" instead of "cost" and she'll be right, mate.

But value doesn't purely come from what you say when someone's deciding whether to buy. It's what they already believe about you before they even ask.

It’s the email they read last month that made them think, “Oh, they get it.”

It’s the story that made your approach click.

It’s the useful distinction they haven’t been able to unsee since.

It’s the sense that you’re not just selling a thing—you’re bringing a way of thinking they want access to.

None of this means price is irrelevant. Some people just won't be able to afford your product or services. Some won't prioritise it. Some WILL be able to afford it but just back away when they see the price anyway, no matter how much value you bring to the table.

But the goal shouldn’t be to argue people into affording you anyway. Make your value obvious enough, often enough, and you start earning a place in the consideration set of the right people before they’re ready to buy.

The price shoppers, tyre-kickers and "can you just…" people can filter themselves out before they chew up your afternoon and trigger an identity crisis lol.

Plus, bonus: you won't have to listen to some asshole go: “Nah you just didn’t sHoW tHeM eNouGh vALue” after you get the rejection email. 🙄

It's one of the reasons I write these emails. So you can see how I think, what's important to me, why the thing I sell isn't just some info-dump with a price tag.

The other reason is that face-to-face selling is NOT my natural habitat.

Like seriously, thank god for virtual calls... so no one has to experience in-person how sweaty I get from nerves. 🤣

But as much as I try to avoid it, at some point, most business owners will have to have a sales conversation lol.

Thankfully, my husband is a sales guy. And as I write this, I realise I should probably just make him do my sales calls in future lol... he'd be totally up for that, right??

But if you DON'T have this luxury—and I'm not even sure I do lol, TBC—the next best thing is coming to my mate Nick Gulic's workshop this weekend. You can check out the details here.

It's called Sell by Helping, and he's running it as part of Rise to Recognition, a LinkedIn coaching group run by another mate of mine, Rachel Lounds.

I don't wanna go full promo mode because this email is already long enough, but Nick showed me the slides and workbook for it today and my immediate reply was:

"Damn, this is awesome. I'm gonna do the workbook."

The whole thing is about making sales feel less like strongarming and more like helping someone make a good decision, which is EXACTLY the kind of sales conversation you WANT to have once your marketing has done its job.

I reckon I'm gonna go to the workshop too. So if you join, I'll see ya there. 😎✌️

Cheers,
Cass

P.S. Rachel just messaged me to say sign-ups close in the next 24 hours because the workshop is this Saturday at 9am AEST. So if you do wanna come, now would be the time: join Sell by Helping here.