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Value-Added Selling
Value-added -- that word is used so much it has become a cliché in business circles. There may not be a business in the world that doesn't claim to be a value-added seller.
The problem is that once a word or phrase becomes a cliché, it often losses it's original meaning. This is true with "value-added." What exactly does that mean?
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CORPORATE KEY
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| TOP SHELF TIP NO. 83 "Every big problem was at one time a wee disturbance."
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Ask six business principles what it means when they say that they are a value-added seller, and you'll likely hear six different explanations.
Almost every business claims to have better people, better service, and more technical expertise than all their competitors. What is puzzling to me is that their competitors say the same thing. Someone has an inaccurate perception.
Value Is In The Eye Of The Customer
The truth that we often overlook is this: Value is defined by the customer, not the salesperson or sales company. And customers don't always think alike, so the operating definition of value-added varies from customer to customer.
The demands of customers and their subsequent definitions of value have grown more varied. For example, local inventory may have been universally valued in the 1990s, but today some customers would rather buy direct and absorb a longer shipping time. Experienced people may have been valuable to everyone a few years ago, but some customers today would rather gather their information off the internet and pay lower prices. Technical expertise may have been universally valuable a few years ago, but some customers today would rather reduce their purchasing costs through an integrated supply contract administered by the home office miles away.
Find The Value
If you are going to be a true value-added seller in today's marketplace, you must be flexible and capable enough to offer different things to different customers, responding to the individual customer's definition of what is valuable to him or her.
That means that you must have some way of ascertaining what is valuable to each of your customers, and then have some processes in place that allow you to package, present and implement those aspects of your offer that appeal to the customer's individual definition.
Specifically, value-added salespeople will need to enhance their ability to create positive business relationships with anyone and everyone. They'll need to relate to a variety of positions and job titles. Additionally, they'll need to expand their abilities to deal positively with a wide variety of personality styles. The sales person who doesn't will severely limit his or her value.
Additionally, effective salespeople will need to fine tune their skills in asking questions, listening constructively and ferreting out the deeper needs of customers.
Creative Solutions
Salespeople who understand what customers considers valuable, and can then bring creative solutions to these customers, will be the indispensable value-added sellers.
Each value-added selling skill is a learnable behavior. No one is born with the ability to ask penetrating questions, create positive relationships, listen constructively, or develop creative proposals and solutions. And once a minimum level of expertise is attained, you can continually improve on these behaviors for the rest of your selling career.
This is a great opportunity for businesses intent on maintaining and expanding their position as a value-added seller. Those who develop systems that encourage these key sales behaviors, who train their salespeople in these behaviors, and who stimulate them to continuously improve implementation, will be those who rise to the top as value-added sellers.
Source: Source: Dave Kahle offers a variety of resources that can help your business stay competitive in changing times. Click here to learn more. | |
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