You and I both know that customers don’t always choose the least expensive option. When you’re the consumer, I bet you don’t always pick the cheapest either. If we did, we’d all be driving $3,990 Yugos from 1985 and the company wouldn’t have gone bankrupt in 1989. As a salesperson you may have heard this phrase from your management, “We don’t sell on price, we sell on value! We provide the greatest value to our customers.”  That all sounds great. I think it’s wise to sell on value, not on price. But as a salesperson, the difficulty arises when you don’t have a solid definition of value.

What is value?

In professional selling, value includes three ingredients: filled business needs, aligned decision criteria, and you.

1.  Fill the business need

This is so much more than just taking the customer’s order. All customer buying decisions are made for a reason. There is a business problem the customer is trying to solve. It’s your job to know the customer’s business problem. When you know the business need they are trying to solve, it becomes easier to position the appropriate product or service to address that need. If you’re only selling based on what they asked for, without knowing their business issue, you will end up selling against your competition instead of selling to the need. Discover the business need and propose the best products / services to address the need.

2.  Align with customer decision criteria

All buying decisions are made using the customer’s decision criteria. Think of it as a prioritized list of requirements. If you’ve ever had the pleasure (*SARCASM*) of responding to an RFP (Request For Proposal), then you know about decision criteria. The company or government entity issuing the RFP created a list of criteria for evaluating all the provider responses. The criteria may also be ranked from most important to least important. It can also include weights for the higher priority criteria.

For example, if you are selecting a moving company to load your house of furniture and move it across the country, you would probably evaluate potential providers by move-date availability, experience, insured or bonded for damages, price, boxes provided, and maximum delivery distance. While price is on your list of criteria for evaluating potential movers, it may not be the most important criteria.

Before you propose any solution, ask the right questions to uncover your customer’s decision criteria. You can even ask them to rank them from most important to least important. Price will always be on the list, but it’s rarely number one.

3.  Your Credibility

The final ingredient for providing value is you. It is how you communicate and interact with the potential customer. It is your credibility. Credibility is build on trust, empathy and competence.  You can build trust by always setting expectations and then meeting or beating them.

Showing empathy gives your understanding of the customer’s situation. Let them know about your experience and some of the customers you’ve helped before. Take the time to listen to their specific  business issues. Although you may have seen these types of issues before, every customer feels their situation is unique. Finally, make sure you know your products and services. Be an expert in your field.  Your competence adds to the customer’s level of trust in your ability to deliver value.

In sales, it’s not just about having the lowest price, it’s about providing the greatest value. Focus on these three ingredients and you’ll be providing the greatest value to your customers.

Always be professionally persistent, but never pushy!

Best,
Russ

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