Salespeople love to think they’re smart.
We like to think we’re so good at our profession that we have the ability to know what the customer is looking for even before they ask. Let’s fact it — we all think we have that “sales gift.”
Now let’s look at the real problem.
I don’t think it’s that we as salespeople think we know what the customer wants. I will pass that off as being confident in what we sell. What I think the problem is we also try to determine for the customer their definition of value. This is the big mistake!
We leave huge sums of money on the table when we make judgement calls about what we believe is the customer’s definition of value. I’m amazed at the number of times I can be working with salespeople from the same company and they can’t even agree on what fair value is for what they sell.
Best solution is don’t try to determine the definition of value. Let your customer decide.
Your objective is to help the customer to see the need, the benefit or the outcome they can achieve with what you’re offering. Once they identify that part, you can then focus on magnifying what it is they seek to gain. It’s at this point of the conversation where the customer will begin to define value.
The worst thing we can do other than define value for the customer is to get them talking about value before they’ve defined their need. When we rush this part of the sales process, the only outcome is lost profit. To me it’s a little bit like taking the idea of “ready, aim, fire” and changing it to “ready, fire, aim.”
The outcome is simply not going to work.
Let the customer define value based on your expertise in drawing out from them what their needs are and helping them to see the full implications of their needs.
Copyright 2014, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price.
Click on the below book cover for more info on boosting your profits!
