Marketing Tips: How to Sell an

Expensive Product
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If your product is not doing well on the market, price might be the first thing you look into.
Interestingly, it’s usually not the real reason why your products don’t get off the store
shelves. In fact, increasing the price in parallel with the quality has often been used to boost
the marketing impact. Now, we don’t suggest you do the same, but here are smart ways to
market and sell an expensive product without giving up on the price:
1. Let the prospect take their time on research.
You don’t go about your working day and suddenly realize you could really use a home
sauna right now and right here … let’s check on eBay! No, this simply does not happen. 

When it comes to making an expensive purchase, customers often need a long consideration

period. They need to do research to feel confident about the purchase, and your content
marketing strategy should take advantage of this. Your users go through a certain learning
process, your job is to align your content with that learning process to guide your readers
through the buyer’s journey. 
This means you should have content/information ready for every stage of the buyer’s
journey: when they are learning the features of your product, the alternatives available in the
market, the benefits of working with you and your competitors, or simply when they need a
new dose of inspiration. Draw a map of that journey and develop content for each stop. Then,
make sure those stops are connected to each other.

If they constantly receive valuable learning experience from your blog, website, or brochure,
you will become their trustworthy source, which makes your salesperson’s task much easier.
2. Discounts are not always a selling point.
There will always be a low-cost competitor; it’s inevitable. For that reason, discounts and
sales are a great way to attract new customers and delight the old ones, but when a prospect
you just started negotiating with asks for a discount because your competition did, resist the
temptation! You offer a high-quality service and it costs the price it does for a reason. Do not
offer discounts only because your competition did; it undermines the quality of your product. 
Go ahead and give them a discount because they signed up for more than one service, or
because they want to sign a long-term contract, or because their industry is your target niche
at the moment. If there is no reason other than competition, create a good reason yourself and
let your customers know about it.

Make sure your prospect knows that your price is justified by the worth of the product, and
every dime counts in the making of a high-quality product. Asking your prospects to earn the
discount allows you to stay in the quality group of their options, because it’s not easy
for anyone to get your discount. 
3. Compare based on value, not price. 
Customers love product comparisons, but the job of a smart marketer is to build the
comparison around the values that come in the product, not the price. It’s important that your
customers understand that they are buying the product, together with its features and benefits
—they are not buying the price. When the transaction is over, they are left with a product that
will be either a huge disappointment or an enjoyable part of their day.

Chances are that some of your prospects have already tried low-cost vendors in the past and
the reason why they are talking to you now is because the low-cost and low-quality solution
disappointed them. They might not tell you about it upfront, but a customer who has already
regretted a bad low-cost purchase realizes the importance of quality, even if it’s locked
behind a “monster” price.  
4. Encourage your prospects to research more.
What low-price vendors love doing is creating a sense of urgency to make the prospect buy
now … right now, or they’ll be late!
If your company offers expensive products, but you are absolutely sure about their quality,
never engage in spammy, low-quality marketing strategies. Instead, show confidence by
encouraging your prospect to do their own research. Keep in mind, you’re not asking them to
research the prices or competition; you want them to learn more about the product and its
values. While you do that, send that prospect useful content on a regular basis, so you
become their research buddy.  
You will establish a trustworthy image of a brand that’s on the customer’s side, not on the
side of the money-at-all-costs. Show your customers that they are not credit card numbers
and bags of money for you, they are your partners and supporters—your dream team! This is
what sets luxury brands apart from mainstream vendors. 

5. Add a complementary gift or an

upgrade after the purchase.
The high price is not your weakness; it can be your strength if you want it to be. The truth is
that most of the low-cost vendors cannot afford to follow-up with customers after the
purchase … but you can! A purchase does not end when the customer pays, it ends when the
customer is at their Second Moment of Truth, forming an opinion about your product after
using it.

You can own the Second Moment of Truth of your customers by adding a complimentary gift
or an upgrade after they made the purchase. Don’t make it a selling point in the beginning of
the negotiation process; this should be an exciting surprise that will leave final, positive
impressions about your product.
It’s a great way to make your customers feel special and turn them into brand advocates. The
next person referred by this customer, will not consider your high price such a painful
pinpoint anymore. 

Interested in learning more about the buyer’s journey and how your prospects research your
product behind your back? Here’s a useful ebook about the Zero Moment of Truth. Grab
yours, it’s free!
12

Sales rep monitoring high-ticket sales growth

Salespeople who don’t work for the low-cost provider in their arena often struggle with losing deals
based on price. Prospects are only human, and no one likes to pay more when they could pay less.
That’s why pricing in sales is one of the biggest barriers to purchase and a roadblock for many reps.

This roadblock is particularly difficult to overcome in the world of high-ticket sales.

What Are High-Ticket Sales?

A high-ticket sale is the sale of an expensive product or service. Because of price resistance, closing a
sale of a high-value but high-cost item often results in a longer sales cycle and requires a great deal
of sales skill.

While there are certainly steps you can take to win against a low-cost provider, you’ll never come
out on top with a poor product. If your product is only marginally better than your competitor’s —
but costs significantly more — you’re going to lose deals. It’s just that simple.

However, if your product’s price reflects significant points of differentiation, you can come out on
top. Here are nine tips for convincing the customer to buy a more expensive product.

How to Sell Expensive Products

Understand your buyer persona.

Use a high-ticket sales script.

Help them envision what success looks like.

Figure out your competition.

Eliminate low-quality competitors.

Talk price only after you’re in the lead.

Ask about when low-cost choices let them down.

Use examples of customers who switched from a less-pricey option.

Use a trial close.

Close for the technical win.

Learn stakeholders’ buying histories.

Formally close for a champion.

1. Understand your buyer persona.

Your product likely solves a specific pain or problem your ideal buyer is experiencing. It’s not enough
to talk nuts and bolts, features and pricing... especially in high-ticket sales.

You’ll need to identify your prospect’s motivations, pains, and triggering events — perhaps before
they even pick up the phone. To do that, create a buyer persona of your ideal customer and explore
why they’d consider a premium solution for their situation.

The information can give you an edge while building rapport, and you’ll have a profile to compare
against as you qualify prospects.

2. Use a high-ticket sales script.

Your conversation will take you in a number of directions, so it’s okay to rely on your knowledge of
the product/service and competitors during your sales calls. However, to sharpen your sales process,
you should have a sales script for the primary stages of each deal:

Intro:

The goal of the intro is to, of course, introduce yourself but also get their attention as quickly as
possible.

“Hello [Prospect Name]. I’m [Your Name], and I help [Their Title] like you [What Your
Product/Service Solves].”

Then, you’ll lead into the conversation with an open-ended question. For example:

“Hello, [Prospect Name]. My name is [Your Name], and I help hiring managers like you reduce the
time it takes to interview, hire, and onboard new talent in 50% less time than the industry average.
How many new hires do you have planned for the year?”

If they do not want to continue the conversation, you can ask to schedule a meeting. If they say yes,
continue on by providing more information and opening up a dialogue.
“We offer [Product/Service] because we’ve noticed that other [Their Title](s) have been experiencing
issues with [Pains]. Are any of those areas you are concerned about?”

The Pitch:

Here is where you discuss your product/service, the pains that it solves, and how it does it differently
than similar solutions.

For example: “We know that you have issues with [Pains], so we aim to solve that by [Solution
Description]. This goes beyond other solutions on the market because [Value Proposition], resulting
in [Concrete Case Study Details].”

The Close:

The close finishes the current conversation by asking them to take the next step. In order to have a
great close, you must have the stages of the sales process mapped out. This is particularly important
with high-ticket sales because many premium products and services have too long a sales cycle to
finish the sale on the first call. You might wrap up with:

“I don’t want to take up more of your time today, but I want to continue learning more about your
goals and strategies. How would you feel about a 30-minute conversation next Tuesday?”

“I’d love to share more information about this product. Do you have time to hop on a call for a quick
demo?”

“You’ve asked some good questions, and I think the best way to give you answers is by giving you a
quick preview of the platform. Would you be interested in a free trial?”

We’ve also included some sample sales tactics throughout the rest of this article, so read on for
more ideas to include in your script.

3. Help them envision what success looks like.

You know that the prospect has a problem they need to get solved. That manifests as a gap between
where they are and where they need to be. From a practical standpoint, you should be explaining
how your product/service fills that gap.

But don’t stop there. Paint the picture of what success looks like, what their life will be like if their
problem no longer affects them. This will indicate to them that you know the stakes, and it will
strengthen the emotional association with the conversation.

4. Ask about the competition early.

Reps typically wait too long before asking about the competition. Especially if you’re selling a
premium offering, you want to ask buyers about what other vendors they’re considering early and
often.

But questions such as “What do you like about Company X?” won’t garner you valuable information.
Instead, probe into the following areas:

“Which vendor is winning as we stand today?” Get the buyer used to thinking in terms of “winning”
and “losing.” This will reveal which provider they ultimately prefer — regardless of price. Remember:
Prospects will never buy from your company unless they like you more than the competition. If
you’re not “winning,” price becomes a moot point. If you are winning, you can work on the price.

“Where are you in the buying process with competitor X?” Make sure you’re keeping pace with the
competitor’s sales process. Alternatively, this can alert you to situations where you’re being used as
a last-minute entry to justify the decision.

“Who is the internal champion for competitor X?” In order to neutralize objections to your product
from stakeholders, you have to be aware of them in real time. Discover who’s rooting for your
competition, and reach out to them directly.

5. Eliminate low-quality competitors

Let’s say you’re in an RFP process with two other vendors. Vendor A is a low-cost, low-quality
product. You rarely lose deals to Vendor A. On the other hand, Vendor B is a competitor you bump
up with quite frequently, and have lost deals to in the past.

In a three-way heat, you want to help your buyer eliminate one option as quickly as possible. Which
would you ax?

Most reps would say Vendor B because they have a greater likelihood of winning against Vendor A.
But this is actually the wrong answer — I would rather stand with Vendor B. Why? Because you then
put yourself in what buyers consider the pool of quality.

If you can convince your customer to get rid of poor quality options early on, you’ll find you
strengthen your sales argument later in the process — and you won’t be faced with struggling to
match crazy low prices.

6. Get the number.

As the buying processes progresses, you might be asked to talk discounts. There are a number of
proven tactics to justify a higher price — calculating ROI, emphasizing value, etc. But when push
comes to shove, sales reps need to get buyers to say the number they’re looking for instead of
blindly throwing out prices.
First things first: I never offer a discount unless I know for sure that my company is “winning” in the
buyer’s mind. Once I have the prospect’s assurance that I’m in the lead, we can talk price.

Prospects often try to play vendors against each other on price, saying things like, “Well, we like you
guys better but Competitor X costs 25% less. If you can match that price, the business is yours.” As
soon as they hear a sentence like this, most sales reps go running for their manager’s approval.

But this isn’t the only way. Here’s what I would recommend instead:

Buyer: “Well, we like you guys better but Competitor X costs 25% less. If you can match that price,
the business is yours.”

Sales rep: “How did you get that 25% number?”

Buyer: “That’s what Competitor X told us was their price.”

Sales rep: “Well, you know we’re not going to match that price, so what’s the real number you want
to see from us?”

Think about it this way: Mercedes isn’t going to compete with Honda on price. Similarly, you
shouldn’t compete on price with a clearly inferior product.

So before you start negotiating, you must prevent the buyer from using the competitor’s price as a
baseline, and get them to commit to a realistic number. After all, there’s no comparison between the
two products — and that holds for price as well. Make this crystal clear to the buyer, and negotiate
from there.

And here’s a helpful article if they have pricing questions for you first.

7. Surface stories of how low-cost products let the company down.

If a decision maker buys a product based on price alone, it’s safe to say that’s not a very good choice.
There’s a reason why low-cost providers are cheap — they also tend to be inferior to other products.
Early on in the sales process, get your champion to tell you stories of when decisions made solely
based on a low price tag negatively impacted the company.

Everyone’s bound to have a few. Then, when the sales process is wrapping up, you can remind the
buyer — with their own words — that choices made to save money often end up costing money.
They can’t argue with themselves.

8. Use examples of customers who regretted their choice.

Along similar lines, a story about a buyer who opted for another vendor and wished they hadn’t is
extremely powerful. Suddenly, it’s not your word against your competitor’s — it’s the word of
someone who’s tried both products and found yours favorable.

For example, imagine you frequently lose deals to Thunder Tifflin, a paper supply company whose
product is half the cost of yours... and one-third the quality.

At least once per quarter, a former Thunder Tifflin customer calls you and says, “Yeah, the paper
weight is sturdy enough and our ink keeps bleeding through. I wish we’d gone with you guys in the
first place; we’re out [large amount], and we have a bunch of paper we can’t use.”

Next time your prospect is also considering Thunder Tifflin, tell them, “I understand Thunder is the
budget-friendly choice, and I think it’s wise you evaluate their company. However, I have to warn
you that we frequently hear about their quality issues. The paper costs less but is ultimately more
expensive because it goes to waste after falling apart.”

This soundbite first praises the buyer’s decision to consider Thunder Tifflin — an important step if
you don’t want them to get defensive — before raising a legitimate concern. Bring it home by
offering to connect them with one of your customers who made the switch:

“If you’re interested in hearing more, I can intro you to Cam Deesly, who decided to use us after
picking Thunder just six months earlier.”

The vast majority of prospects will be persuaded by this and won’t even require the reference.

9. Use the trial close.

Prospects often want to talk discounts before they’re ready to sign a contract. But the rep who starts
the discounting conversation too soon often opens a can of worms.
Whenever a prospect brings up discounting with me, I present a trial close. Here’s an example of
what I mean:

Prospect: “I’d like to talk about discounts. What can you give me?”

Sales rep: “Well, Prospect, if you and I can come up with a price that works for both of us on this
phone call, I’d be happy to send over a purchase order today.”

At this point, the buyer usually backs off:

Prospect: “Oh. Well … I don’t think that would work right now.”

Sales rep: “Understood. Well know that I am open to the conversation, and the moment you’re
ready to buy, we’ll talk discounts.”

By saying this, the rep makes it clear they’re not going to negotiate unless the buyer is ready to close
right then and there. This prevents you from discounting twice with different stakeholders and
ensures you only discount when a buyer is 100% ready to buy.

10. Close for the technical win.

The technical win is something we always go for in sales. It allows us to discover who’s best in a
competitive situation. But if you’re selling a high-priced product, you’re actually closing for the
technology, not the features or add-ons you offer.

In high-priced sales scenarios, you’ve got to ask the prospect, “Are we the best product technology
you’ve seen today?” If they say, “Well, it’s more than just products and features …” stop them and
reply, “But are we the best technology?” You have to close for this or you have no right to ask your
buyer for a higher price over a competitor.

11. Learn stakeholders’ buying histories.

Ask your champion about the buying history of everyone involved in final decision making. If
someone is actively involved in this sale, you want to ensure they have experience buying highly
priced solutions from other vendors. If you learn everyone has experience buying an expensive
solution — that’s encouraging.
If you find several decision makers lack experience with expensive solutions, your likelihood of
closing is lower. There’s no tactful way to inquire after this. Just come right out and ask your
champion who has experience in this area. This is not a time to play games, as the answers you
receive will have a major impact on your ability to close the deal.

12. Formally close for a champion.

If you’re the highest-priced offering in a competitive situation, the price objections from non-
champions will be fierce. They’re going to be in your main buyer’s ear saying, “Why would you pay
50K for this when you could get it for 30K?” In these cases, it’s crucial to have a champion firmly
advocating on your behalf.

If you strike out at each of these tactics — move on. Some companies will be impossible to close. It’s
important not to waste too much time on them. Remember: buying history is more important than
budget. Closing for the technical win is more important than getting your buyer to trial. And closing a
champion is more important than closing for expanding your audience.

Using these tactics, you can help your buyer justify spending a little more for a lot more quality. With
these tricks up your sleeve, you’ll never use “my product just costs too much” as a reason for a lost
deal again.