Finding out your prospect's budget is a huge part of being able to make the interactions all about them, therefore making yourself look different than every other salesperson. It's not a matter of maxing out their budget, but a matter of helping them prioritize rather than trying to squeeze every last cent out of them.
A couple years back, one of my clients that works in digital marketing was talking with a new client. He'd already consulted with them and offered some recommendations, and his client had now started to implement his advice.
His client happened to have multiple locations in the area, and my client discovered they weren't showing up when people searched for them on various online map websites, known in my client's industry as local search.
Naturally, my client understands how important that is, so he recommended they have him help with that as well.
Now, his client was actually in the process of opening additional locations, so their cash flow wasn't great right then. There wasn't a lot of flexibility in their budget and they were hesitant to invest additional money.
Knowing how important the problem was, my client approached the subject strategically. "This doesn't have to change the total dollars, just where we invest the dollars," he told them. "We can keep the total the same if that's all that's stopping you."
Not surprisingly, his client had him move forward, and he fixed their local search issues.
Understanding their budget and priorities was key to making this happen. Do you think a traditional salesperson would have found a way to make the budget stay the same?
Of course not!
Traditional sales methods would have you squeeze your prospect for every last cent. Instead, my client was careful to understand the budget and priorities, and he worked together with them to get what was important done. He made it all about them.
