Imagine you're visiting a potential client, a head chef of a popular hotel, who is happy with his current food supplier. He says, 'Why should I switch? Your product costs more.' How would you handle this objection?

Situation

During my time as a sales associate at a local food distributor, I approached a popular hotel's head chef to introduce our soy sauce. He immediately objected, 'I'm satisfied with my current brand and your price is 10% higher. Why should I switch?'

Task

I needed to overcome his resistance by demonstrating the product's superior value without sounding pushy or disrespectful of his existing choice.

Action

I acknowledged his loyalty but asked permission to do a quick comparison. I showed him a blind taste test card from a recent food expo where chefs preferred our product's richer umami flavor. I also calculated the cost-per-plate rather than per-bottle, showing that a little goes a long way and the actual impact on his food cost was negligible. I left complimentary samples and offered to do a free culinary workshop for his kitchen team on new Filipino-fusion dishes using our ingredients.

Result

He agreed to the workshop. After the team experienced the product's performance, he switched to our brand for three key menu items, resulting in a 20% increase in average order size from that hotel.