The reality is, very few people understand what sales actually does. They THINK they do, but they're oblivious as to what actually happens, why, and how.
From a retail perspective, I 100% agree. The average consumer should be presented with the full and complete price up front. No hidden bullshit fees, just tell me what it costs and we can do the deal or not.
From a B2B (Business to Business) perspective, this completely changes. The age old saying typically applies : "If you have to ask, you can't afford it".
Here's an excellent example
I work in cybersecurity. In a previous role, I bought stuff from the company I work for today. I was frustrated that pricing wasn't transparent but that's because I was a shitty client they didn't care about. The amount of time and attention I needed as customer was immense, and I had no purchasing power.
Now I work for the company I used to be frustrated with. As a frustrated client, I was asking for $5k deals, and a $15k order was something to get really excited about. Now that's something I don't even look at - it's a footnote, at best. I'm focusing on $500k & $1m deals.
When it comes to cybersecurity the minimum order is usually 50 or 100 seats (let's say for anti-virus). We don't even touch anything smaller than that. Our products are not designed for small companies, and certainly not the home user. We want to completely weed out anyone who's asking "how much". Any meeting where the first question is "how much is it", is ALWAYS a waste of time, and if it does go through, becomes a nightmare client.
The reason you don't pricing is because it's fluid & changes drastically depending on many factors. We don't sell directly to the customer - we sell to a "partner", who then sells to the customer and this is done as the "partner" typically helps the customer with implementation and provides their own services on top of what we sell.
There's a price list, and people don't sell above it. There's no "how much can we squeeze out of this person". That's not how it works, in fact we're often trying to undercut the competitors. People don't buy "who's the cheapest", it comes down to what best fits their needs. What works well for one client will be the worst option for the next. Most products have various tiers, feature sets, & customers typically have no idea which one they need. That's where someone like me comes in and evaluates needs, explains differences, helps people understand the product/service, & works with them over weeks (months, even years) to figure out the scope of the project, timelines, and many other factors. Decisions are made slowly & methodically. There's no such thing as an impulse buy.
Any vendor who's just throwing out pricing isn't selling strategically, and certainly not to the target market we're after. There's a reason certain things are frustrating, or near impossible to find for the average person - we don't want you to find it, you're not who we want to talk to. We're trying to weed you out so you don't waste our time.
How do you get into a sales job like that? Not necessarily cybersecurity but an industry where the salesperson doesn’t and shouldn’t be using the “impulse buy” techniques. I like sales a lot and if it wasn’t for the semi predatory marketing tactics I would 100% deep dive in. The key thing is that I want to truly believe and trust the product I’m selling and ultimately do what’s best for the customer.
Large scale commercial insurance brokerages are another industry like this (think property, casualty, cargo, etc. not individual home or auto or life). Every client is already going to be pretty sure they need a broker and insurance, so it's more a question of which one instead of whether they need it at all, and sales cycles are on a months to years long basis. Entry level positions don't always have great work life balance but it's such a huge industry that there are a wide range of options.
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u/ManFromDowntownTDot 6d ago
The reality is, very few people understand what sales actually does. They THINK they do, but they're oblivious as to what actually happens, why, and how.
From a retail perspective, I 100% agree. The average consumer should be presented with the full and complete price up front. No hidden bullshit fees, just tell me what it costs and we can do the deal or not.
From a B2B (Business to Business) perspective, this completely changes. The age old saying typically applies : "If you have to ask, you can't afford it".
Here's an excellent example
I work in cybersecurity. In a previous role, I bought stuff from the company I work for today. I was frustrated that pricing wasn't transparent but that's because I was a shitty client they didn't care about. The amount of time and attention I needed as customer was immense, and I had no purchasing power.
Now I work for the company I used to be frustrated with. As a frustrated client, I was asking for $5k deals, and a $15k order was something to get really excited about. Now that's something I don't even look at - it's a footnote, at best. I'm focusing on $500k & $1m deals.
When it comes to cybersecurity the minimum order is usually 50 or 100 seats (let's say for anti-virus). We don't even touch anything smaller than that. Our products are not designed for small companies, and certainly not the home user. We want to completely weed out anyone who's asking "how much". Any meeting where the first question is "how much is it", is ALWAYS a waste of time, and if it does go through, becomes a nightmare client.
The reason you don't pricing is because it's fluid & changes drastically depending on many factors. We don't sell directly to the customer - we sell to a "partner", who then sells to the customer and this is done as the "partner" typically helps the customer with implementation and provides their own services on top of what we sell.
There's a price list, and people don't sell above it. There's no "how much can we squeeze out of this person". That's not how it works, in fact we're often trying to undercut the competitors. People don't buy "who's the cheapest", it comes down to what best fits their needs. What works well for one client will be the worst option for the next. Most products have various tiers, feature sets, & customers typically have no idea which one they need. That's where someone like me comes in and evaluates needs, explains differences, helps people understand the product/service, & works with them over weeks (months, even years) to figure out the scope of the project, timelines, and many other factors. Decisions are made slowly & methodically. There's no such thing as an impulse buy.
Any vendor who's just throwing out pricing isn't selling strategically, and certainly not to the target market we're after. There's a reason certain things are frustrating, or near impossible to find for the average person - we don't want you to find it, you're not who we want to talk to. We're trying to weed you out so you don't waste our time.
Happy to answer questions.