Move Up the Priority Chain with Your Customers

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Move Up the Priority Chain with Your Customers

Written by Stu Schlackman

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4 Secrets To Selling Value Versus Price

You've told your prospects in so much detail about all the great value they will receive but they just don't seem to get it. You know that if only they could see the value in your products and services then price would not be such an issue.

Do you find that your prospects are focused on the price of your products and services and often pressure you to give them discounts?

Here are four secrets, if learned and applied, will guarantee that your prospects will see the value in your products and services so that price is no longer the issue. These four secrets are commonsense and obvious once you know them but in selling what is commonsense and obvious is rarely applied.

Secret #1: Forget about selling and trying to get your prospect to buy your products and services.

The common trap, that you don't want to fall into, is to start selling your products and services from the very first conversation with your prospect. Instead, you want to forget about selling and trying to get your prospect to buy your products and services. Just have a conversation and ask the right questions so you can understand their problem and determine, if in fact, you can help them. I call this initial phase the 'Discover Phase' and it is where you should be spending the majority of your time in the sales process.

Secret #2: Have your prospect tell you the value (instead of you tell them).

If you tell your prospect about the value you offer, they may or may not see this as relevant, of interest or of value. However if you ask the right questions so your prospect tells you the value of solving their problem, they will then see this value as relevant, of interest and of value. The big difference is that they have told you (and themselves) the value as opposed to you telling them.

Secret Number #3: Have valuable conversations.

The conversations you want to have with your prospect should include so much value that they actually thank you for speaking with them and, in fact, look forward to having more conversations with you. How do you have such conversations? It's easy really. You see probably no one has asked your prospect powerful questions which help them get clarity around their problem and what it is costing them. This sort of clarity and information is of great value to your prospect. They will see that you have a valuable skill and they will want to have future conversations with you to continue gaining clarity in other areas. They will see having conversations and having a relationship with you as valuable.

Secret #4: Add your value to their value.

Once your prospect has told you the value they will receive from solving their problem, they will be receptive to listening to how you can add even more value. Not only will they be receptive to listening to how you can add more value but they will also be appreciative of the additional value you can add. This is because, at this stage, they will have effectively sold themselves on taking action to solve the problem and the more value they can see that they will receive; the easier it is for them to justify buying your products and services.

In summary, as a consequence of not selling while you ask the right questions, your prospect will see both the value in solving their problem plus they will see the value in having a relationship with you. You are then in a position to help them justify a buying decision by adding more value to what they have told themselves. This all leads to a decision based on value and not on price.

How can our products and services become irresistible in the eyes of our prospects and customers? It seems as though we are in a new day and age of selling where the mantra of the customer is, “don’t call me, I’ll call you”! Have you noticed that too? They get back to you when they are ready, period. Why? Are they really that busy, or maybe their plate of priorities is so full, they feel your products and services can remain on the back burner until their load eases up. What can we do to move up the priority list? It’s like the standby list for first class at the airport. We ask where we stand and what are my chances of moving up the list and getting that first class seat? Membership and rank has its privileges. It also does with prospects and customers!

If we want to move up the priority chain with our prospects we must not just convey our value, but create the perception that our products and services are something they can’t do without. It has been said that perception is reality. No one ever got fired for buying IBM, so they say. Mark Joyner is the author of The Irresistible Offer and talks about the three necessary components of such an offer. They are a high ROI offer, a touchstone and believability. Let’s look at each of these.

A high ROI offer as Mark explains is 90% of the game. Giving the customer more than their money’s worth is a high return on investment. To the customer every purchase is an investment. So if your customers are not getting something from you that is perceived as greater in value than the amount they are investing, they are getting a negative return resulting in a short term unsatisfied customer-not good for your credibility! Bad news travels way faster than good news, so you need to not only satisfy our customers but delight them. When your customer is getting great value for the investment your marketing becomes a lot easier.

A touchstone addresses what you are selling, how much it will cost, what’s in it for your customer and why they should trust you. What the touchstone says is “here is such a great offer; you would be a fool to pass it up”. A touchstone is a very short version with little detail of your value proposition. Like your value proposition, it is tied to your corporate strategy. A touchstone must have the following four key elements to drive home your point.

Clarity- don’t make it hard for the customer to figure out what you’re saying.
Simplicity- it should be a simple statement that your customer can easily understand.
Brevity- keep it short and sweet with just a few words.
Immediacy- if your offer is strong enough you don’t need to pitch it.

The customer either wants it or not and if they don’t, you just saved yourself and the customer a lot of time. The touchstone gives you 75% of the high ROI offer. Mark mentions Domino’s that has one of the best touchstones ever created- “Pizza hot and fresh to your door in 30 minutes… or less … or it’s free”. In my own company, I use the touchstone – Superior Sales Results – clear, simple, brief & immediate! After all, who doesn’t want their sales results to be superior?

The last component is believability. How do you prove to your customer that you can be trusted? It’s good to be bold with your statements, but the bolder you are the harder it is to make yourself believable. There needs to be “proof” to gain credibility. There are three types of proof:

Social proof - testimonials from customers
Technical proof - the effectiveness of your product or service
Factual proof - research that shows your value or popularity compared to competitors?

Lastly, believability must be credible - can you be trusted or do you have endorsements from a highly regarded authority who vouches for your product or service?

As a process, your customers will first have their interest piqued by your Touchstone that should excite them to dig deeper. Second, they learn to trust you, your products and services because you are Believable – and now they dig deeper still. Finally with your High ROI Offer you show that your touchstone does capture the spirit of what you are offering and you get the sale.

I like the way Mark Joyner provides these simple steps to making irresistible offers. His ideas support my Sales Intelligence System, which is based on the premise that when we understand what our prospects value, we can more effectively serve their needs – we do provide that important touchstone – we are believable and we naturally offer a high ROI.

Good selling!

Stu Schlackman
		About the author:
		Stu has spent over 25 years in sales management, sales and sales training with world class companies like Digital Equipment Corporation, Cap Gemini and EDS. His focus is on “the application” of the skills and techniques he shares. He is the author of Don't Just Stand There, Sell Something and Four People You Should Know. .