One of the major things I’ve learned during the internship so far is the importance of persuasion. One of our coaches recommended we read “To Sell is Human,” by Daniel H. Pink. The book talks about how everyone is in some capacity a salesperson because he or she has to constantly convince others to part with resources, whether it be time, money, or energy, in order to get something they are trying to sell.
During a recent pricing discussion with one of our clients, we had to convince them to consider alternative pricing strategies since we thought they were pricing their product way too low. I never really thought about how important the persuasion skill is, but it was gratifying that by the end of the meeting, we had convinced them to be open to revising their pricing model.
In arriving at their desired price, for example, they compared their application with other applications that I didn’t think were comparable services. I was able to convince them to look at direct competitors, as people have different elasticity to pricing depending on the product or service.
I made sure to frame my recommendations as a discussion and as an informational service rather than trying to be pushy, which I think was the best tactic to take.
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