Brian Tracy has developed a technique he calls value selling, saying that, ‘If you focus on value, the price becomes less important. If you don’t focus on value, the only thing you can talk about is price’.
When you sell value, you focus on the benefit to your client, aiming to paint a vivid picture of the value they will receive through using your company. If clients grow to value your products and their perception of specific benefits, they will be prepared to pay the price you quote. When you sell on price, you do exactly the opposite and provide a service at reduced value to undercut your competition which can start a race to the bottom affecting your business’s sustainability.
Before we look at how you go about selling value, it’s also important to remember that 70% of sales are unsuccessful due to companies deciding to keep things as they are. Price is a factor, particularly in some industries, but it’s not the key decisive one.
So how do you go about selling value?
There are two stages to this:
- Identifying and developing the key value in your business: This is key to the success of this approach as you and your team need to be clear on your offering and where you add value before you can go out selling it. Important elements to consider are:
- Get clarity on your business USPs, remember that you can have as many as you like and they don’t have to be unique to your business
- Consider your delivery, can it be faster, improved in quality, come with added value?
- Improve your customer service and customer care
- Make it easy to do business with you
- Selling value not price: remember that the success of this approach relies on perceived value, meaning your customer need to understand how your product will bring value to them. This clearly means that you must get clarity on who they are and what they are grappling with before you discuss your solution. Key things to consider here are:
Fact find stage:
- Get information about the person you are dealing with and not just the company. Identify their behaviours, style and preference
- Make an effort to get to know you customer and understand what matters to them as people
- Identify their key pain points, scratch the surface, and get to the bottom of it.
- Understand their buying process, what works and what does not
Presentation stage
- Only put forward relevant products and services based on their need. Putting forward the right product will make much more impact than rolling through your entire list
- Explain the features but sell the benefits
- Keep it interactive throughout, ask them for their opinion to try and get a true assessment
- Always ask what you might have missed when you are done. Another good question is what they still found open or worrying. Give them an opportunity to guide you before you finish the meeting
It is important to remember that developing value in your business is a key stage to undertake before you go about selling value. While you and your team may know a lot of it already, making it a part of your sales process is very powerful. Not sure where to start? Our tailored sales enablement service starts with a gap analysis and the development of your blueprint sale process. Click here for more information: https://www.yourbizdevteam.co.uk/sales-consultancy.php