How to Make a Deal With Your Entitled Customer

Spend any more than, say, three days in the world of sales and you will come across that one entitled customer whose only goal in life is to grind you down into making a lopsided deal.

This entitled customer will throw everything in the book at you:

• “We are ABC, Inc. We get a better deal on everything.”
• “I can buy the same thing for 10% less from _____.”
• “My budget will allow me to pay X; take it or leave it.”
• “I have other options. You need to make it worth my while.”

Negotiation is an unavoidable reality of the sales world in which we live. When faced with an entitled customer who skips any actual negotiating and immediately throws down an ultimatum, it is only human to want to respond with something along the lines of “Nice NOT working with you!”

Of course, we do not say this (out loud) and having tactful responses for the most entitled customer is an important sales skill.

Try adapting any of these stand firm statements to your sales scenarios and see how your entitled ‘my way or the highway’ customer responds.

• (Hold up a picture of your product alongside an image of the competitor’s) “Look at the pictures. Tell me why both should have the same price. My product is better, so my price is higher. That’s it.”

• “If the cheap solution is what you want, I cannot help you. If the right solution is what you want, let’s do this.”

• “Do not buy the deal first; it will cloud how you see the product. Identify the product that works for you, first. If you do not get the terms you want and you can get the deal you are looking for on your second choice, you have that option.”

• “I am going to tell you right now that I will not match their deal. To do so would  say that my product and their product have the same inherent value and you and I both know that is not true.”

• “Less expensive now means more regret later. Pay the slightly higher price and sleep at night knowing you made the smart move.” 

• “You are the one who must make the decision. Just know going in that when you buy the deal on your second choice product, you will be living every day with having chosen second best.”

Some customers really dish it out. I encourage you to tactfully and professionally dish it back!