‘Value’ is something you are offering the customer, not what you can get out of a sale.
‘Value’ is something you are offering the customer, not what you can get out of a sale.
Where is value in your sales equation? Where is value in your sales presentation? What role does value play in building customer loyalty?
How does value help build solid business relationships?
How does value convert selling to buying?
How does your prospect perceive what you’re saying and offering is actually valuable to them?
Answer: Your value proposition needs to define value in terms of the customer (in other words, fix your value proposition).
Giving value and adding value are words that many salespeople and sales executives have a difficult time understanding, let alone providing. Most people think that value is all about something the company adds. Some small additional service, something tacked onto the product, a slight reduction in price, even something free. Wrong.
Value is something done for the customer, in favour of the customer. The right value proposition will: engage; gain interest; eliminate price as an objection; eliminate bidding; eliminate competition; and double your sales.
And it can only be acomplished by proving value.
Last week I gave you the first four elements of the 5.5 components of the value proposition. Part one is available on my website. The instructions are below.
Here are the rest of the 5.5 value proposition elements.
5. The value that helps your customer produce more, benefit from, and/or profit from
The paradox of this element is that it is the most important of the entire value proposition, and almost never employed by the salesperson (that would be you). In most cases it’s the only thing that your prospective customer is interested in; and in all cases it’s what will create the greatest engagement.
There’s an old cliché in sales that goes, “They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” That statement is wrong. It should read: “They don’t care how much you know unless they know where the productivity is, where the benefit is, where the risk reduction is, and where the profit is.”
In short, they want to know what’s in it for them and where the value is. They have to perceive value for them. And, in short, if you don’t spell that value out, I guarantee that you will fight a price war. And even if you win the war, you will lose your profit.
Note well: Because this is the most important element of the entire value proposition, it’s where you must put the most emphasis, and spend the most time.
Action step: Take a moment right now and write down all the ways your customer produces, benefits, or profits from your product or service. Just a bunch of bullet points will do. Some of these bullet points may be scattered throughout your sales presentation, and I’m challenging you to put them all in one segment. And there’s a secret here; make certain that these value points and these profit points are added into any request for a proposal bid that your customer may have. This means that your competition will have to prove their value at the same time they’re trying to figure out how much to cut their price.
5.5 The continuing value after the sale
This is my version of added value. By continuing to provide value, you let the customer know this is a relationship, not a transaction; that this is a partnership, not a vendor/customer process. Continuing value has to do with service, help, ideas, trends, updates, upgrades, supplies and critical industry information that continues to help your customer produce, benefit, and profit from their relationship or their partnership with you.
Converting your sales pitch into a value proposition is not easy. That’s the best part. It will represent a change from your normal, boring way of presenting your product or your service. It will immediately differentiate you from the way all the others do business. It will allow you to rise above your competitors, not wallow in the mud with them. It will give you the opportunity to set the standard, not match the standard.
What is the value of ‘value’?
When you master the value proposition and use it in your selling process, you will double your sales, keep your profit, generate a long list of loyal customers, and confuse the ‘price-no-value’ competition.
What are you doing or giving that benefits your customer? What are you doing that they perceive as valuable to them?
The formula
The more they perceive value, the more they will buy from you at your price.
Jeffrey Gitomer is an American author, professional speaker and business trainer, who writes and lectures internationally on sales, customer loyalty and personal development.
© 2015 All rights reserved. Don’t reproduce this document without written permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.
