It's the moment that many sales people dread; the time when the conversation shifts to cost and budget. You may have established a great rapport, but if the client can't afford your product, all of your work may have gone to waste. So how do you successfuly transition the conversation to money?

To figure out the best way to steer the conversation toward the issue of cost, we spoke to Jeff Ragovin, Chief Strategy Officer for Salesforce Marketing Cloud. He shares how to get the budget conversation started.

How Do You Bring Up the Subject of Cost?

 "I've found that it’s a big stress reliever to just be transparent." says Ragovin. "Say what it costs: 'I’m going to give you a low range and a high range, and depending on what your services are, here’s where we can actually see it.'"

"The low range is the absolute bottom of the floor; the high range is the potential of what it can or might be. You want to be as prepared as you possibly can going into that meeting, knowing what the range can be."

Ragovin notes that in many cases, "You might be in the first or second meeting and have no idea about the cost; so it’s not OK to talk about the pricing then. But as you learn a little more about their business, and start collecting more information, and start to understand how they’re going to push this out, then you can have a better idea of pricing, and it doesn’t hurt just to be open."

"If you’re not transparent about it, they’re going to know. If you’re transparent about it from the beginning, and they have a better idea of what it’s going to cost them, they will figure out what they need to do internally to make that budget available."

How does your sales team approach the topic of cost? Any tips of your own for approaching this moment in the sales process? Share them in the comments. 

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