Value Selling In Two Distinct Phases

Your value selling training taught you a lot about clearly distinguishing your offering from the competition in terms of compelling value rather than price and benefits. The approach is a sound one but too many sales folks do not begin at the beginning. They do not first define the value of the client’s problem or goal.  Instead, they launch too quickly into selling the value of their solution.

If your customer does not understand the downside of doing nothing, they are unlikely to make a decision to buy. That is why we recommend that you think of presenting value to your clients in two distinct phases.

1. First you need to work with your customer to fully identify and define the problem. 
Before they can be persuaded to buy, they will have to understand the extent of their business problem and the consequences of not addressing it.

Try to attach some numbers to inaction. What would the costs to the business be if they let the problem continue? What, for instance, will be the result of continuing to promote ill-prepared and ineffective managers? Likely disaffected and disengaged employees and progressively higher turnover and decreased performance. Figure out just what this might cost the organization and how valuable it is compared to other initiatives.

2. Next you can propose the value of your solution. 
The customer has been primed to recognize that the problem needs fixing. It is your challenge to effectively illustrate how your solution can address their unique problem in a way that makes sense for their unique strategy and organizational culture. Now you can paint a clear and compelling picture of the ideal situation…managers who know how to motivate and lead their teams to higher performance, employees who are engaged and committed to the organization’s values and goals, lower turnover and greater productivity. What will it take? That is where you apply your creativity and knowledge of the customer’s specific needs and situation to craft and propose your specific solution and capabilities.

Help your customer along the path from recognizing to defining their business problem and what would happen if they maintain the status quo. Then coach them to understand how you can help and why your solution is better than the alternatives. That is true value selling from start to finish.

Learn more at: http://www.lsaglobal.com/solution-selling-training