We are all told to "sell value" but what does it mean? It certainly isn't new. I was in a meeting with a CEO of a training company today and he was saying that he trains salespeople to sell to value. We are all talking about it, but what does it mean?
Well to be honest it means different things to different people. There is no checklist.
Take a Rolls Royce car, to some people that is "value" to other people it's a gas guzzling waste of money.
Take a plastic bag, it's a very useful and cheap way to carry things, to other people it's killing the oceans.
As you can see, "Value" can mean different things, it can mean different things based on your experiences.
So how can you give "Value"? Well it's not as difficult as this article makes out.
First, don't sell, we all hate sales pitches.
Second, offer your experience and or advice, after all you are an expert and your customer is not.
It's as simple as that .... take this article, I'm not pitching to you, I'm offering practical advice.
To get you started ....
What are the 3 big issues impacting your industry today?
What are the 5 reasons, projects like yours fail?
What will your industry look like in 5 years time?
Give 3 examples of best practice....
etc, etc .....
Of course, you now have to show this to the client.
First, you could call them up, interrupt them, piss them off or leave a voicemail that nobody ever returns. Because we all know that salespeople are out to sell, trick and manipulate. The same with email. Join the throng of all the other sales people doing outbound. The same old, same old, doing the same thing we have done for the last 30 years.
Or, just connect with them on social. You don't have to wait for prime selling time, you can do this at any time during the day. There are no gatekeepers. As I say, don't sell. Social isn't for selling.
Then post your content. You are waving at them every day. No interrupting, no pissing people off ..... just adding value and being different.
It's as easy as that.
The most challenging part of S2V is in the Discovery phase, during which the natural tendency of salespeople is to focus on uncovering the specifications and requirements that lead to the salesperson’s product or service. The traditional approach to Discovery is to ask leading questions that direct the conversation toward your pitch. This approach allows the salesperson and the customer to address a need. There is nothing wrong with that and, in fact, it often works well.