Hi Brendon

This is an interesting question. Every sale is different of course so I can't tell you how to react to every customer, however, you might find the sale easier if you agree the principle first, sign the contract, and then go on to the detail on another visit. In that way you have made the sale before you get bogged down in the detail.

If you take this route, however, I suggest that you make sure your contract contains a real estimate of what it will take to sort out the detail. There is nothing worse for a customer than to agree a R10,000 expenditure only to discover that the final bill is R100,000.

In your industry (IT) there is a big difference between the customer's expectations and the final product. When a customer hears your competitors advertising websites for R5,000 they expect all the bells and whistles and, of course, if you pay R5,000 for a website you will get a R5,000 website. That's all! It is your job as a salesperson to make sure the customer knows what he is letting himself in for.

Hope this helps.

Richard