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What Would It Take For You To Marry Me?

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.

The Eight Worst Words You Can Ask

What will it take to earn your business? These are probably the worst eight words a sales professional can ask to win the customer’s business. It’s almost like asking, what would it take for you to marry me? If you have to ask this question, you haven’t set the right expectations or developed a trusting relationship with the customer. You don’t yet know what’s really important to the customer, what they’re looking for or what they are trying to achieve. When they’re ready to decide who gets the business, if you are hoping you win, you’ve already lost! Vendor selection should not be viewed as winning the lottery.

At Competitive Excellence, we believe there are three proactive actions sales professionals can take to avoid getting so desperate that you ask the question, what will it take for my company to win the business?

To earn the customer’s business, you first need to be proactive - the opposite of reactive. Yet many novice sales professionals let the customer set the tone and drive the agenda, lay out the request for proposal, the specs, timeframes and requirements to be selected. Customers tell the seller the issues that need to be solved and if you’re like most sellers, you immediately address what the customer wants without digging deeper. When you don’t go beyond the offered customer needs, you never differentiate yourself from the competition. You also limit the level of customer insight that you gain. When you are proactive you have the opportunity to explore alternatives that the customer might not have thought of. The best way to be proactive is to develop questions that go deeper into the customer’s situation. Why is this an issue? How has it been addressed in the past?

That brings us to the second point which is to probe. Asking questions can be superficial or just going through the motions of qualifying without truly understanding what the customer is really facing. When are you planning to make a decision? Who else are you considering (our competition)? What are the issues you are trying to solve? While these questions are fine, they don’t help us to understand the root cause of their problem. For example, if the customer says they’re having problems with their inventory control system, you need to dig deeper and ask what they mean by that. What are the problems, what might have caused them and how does it impact their overall business operation? Probing three to four levels down puts you in a consultative problem solving role which is what customers look for in a sales professional.

The third point is to be patient. For many sales professionals, this is the hardest. The problem and reality in the world of sales is that you all have a quota to achieve and it usually comes in quarterly increments. Therefore, you try to force fit your customer solution into a certain timeframe and behold - you miss your forecast to sales management anyway. Not only that, you’re forced into asking your prospect, what will it take to earn your business? You become desperate, the customer sees it, and they lick their chops and set you up for the good ole “Hail Mary” discount. You then sprint back to management believing you actually have a shot of winning the business by slashing your price (and profit margin). The customer then goes to their vendor of choice and gets them to beat your price. Being patient means you take the time to understand all the issues and avoid getting into the “product pitch” pushing what you think the customer needs. Being patient helps you understand that it’s all about the customer and not about your offerings. Put another way, it’s all about giving value that builds trust and relationships that will, in turn, lead you to more business.

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. .