Pick at the Scab

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Pick at the Scab

Written by Kelley Robertson

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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.

Sales professionals usually ask a few questions in order to gain a better understanding of their prospect's situation. However, most of them don't probe deep enough into the size and scope of the problem. I remember hearing a great phrase from another sales trainer. He suggested that sales people "pick at the prospect's scab" which referred to the pain or problem that a prospect may be facing.

Your objective in taking this approach is to help your prospect discover the implication or impact of an issue or problem. When you talk to a new prospect and they express a particular concern or problem, take a few moments and probe a bit deeper. For example, if they say they experience a few customer complaints ask them how often they get complaints. You may discover that a "few complaints" actually means three or four per month. Follow up by asking about the financial impact of those problems. In other words, how much does it cost the company to resolve the problems? Then, ask how those problems affect the prospect in terms of stress, time, and aggravation. This helps the prospect see the bigger picture and understand the impact of the problem on their business AND themselves.

Here are a few examples:

My wife had a client who needed to record the break times of its employees. Records were kept of the times when workers left the floor and returned to work. Every Monday morning, one person was responsible for sifting through the previous week's information (approximately 5000 Excel records) to determine payroll deductions. When my wife asked how much time that employee spent on that one activity, she was told "approximately 5-6 hours." Further questioning uncovered that this manager could use her employee to work on other projects.

My wife was able to create several macros in the Excel spreadsheet that cut the employee's time to complete the task by three hours every Monday. Three hours doesn't seem like much until you extrapolate that into a year. My wife's solution saved over 150 hours of time which is the equivalent of almost four weeks of work. A month of productivity freed up from one solution!

A client of mine specializes in the packaging and shipping of large and awkward items which include valuable artwork. One of their art gallery customers used to spend hours or time figuring out how to package their work so they could send it to their customer without being damaged. This process interfered with the operation of their gallery because they did not have the necessary space, knowledge or experience. When they enlisted the services of my client, they reduced their stress, improved their customer experience, and increased their reputation in the local marketplace. All because my client knew how to ask more questions and pick at the scab.

The challenge here is that most salespeople accept what their prospects say at face value and they make assumptions. Which means they fail to ask the right questions. Many people feel that they are prying and this prevents them from probing deeper to discover the impact and implications of the problem. However, if you have opened the conversation and your prospect is comfortable responding to your questions, they will probably give you the information you need.

Here are a few questions you can ask to uncover that information.

- How has this situation affected your business, sales, customer service or market share?
- How much time do you or your employee(s) spend on that?
- What would it mean to you if that particular problem was resolved?
- What does this problem cost you or your company (in lost sales, customers, market share, image)?
- How does that affect your reputation in the local market?
- If we could solve that issue, what would it mean to you, your company, or your shareholders?
- If each of your sales reps closed one additional sale per month, how would that affect your sales/profitability?

These are not easy questions to ask. However, when you develop the courage to ask them, you will help your prospect think through extent of the pain of the problem. This will then give you the opportunity to better position your product, service, solution or offering. Pick at your prospect's scab then offer them a Band-Aid.

Kelley Robertson
		About the author:
		He is the author of two books, Stop, Ask & Listen—Proven Sales Techniques to Turn Browsers into Buyers and The Secrets of Power Selling. Kelley is a frequent contributor to magazines and his articles have appeared in dozens of publications and hundreds of websites around the world. .