Are you tired of getting caught in the discounting game?
Are you still selling on features/benefits?
Do you know the value of your products and services?
If you have been in the sales game very long you most likely have been trained with the features/benefits methodology. Do not get me wrong, all the sales training I have had over my 25+ years has been valuable and I have taken many good things from it. However, if you really want to elevate yourself as a credible partner with a real economic buyer you must know your value and the value you can bring to your customer.
How many times have you been pushed down to purchasing or human resources where you were then pitted against other vendors and discounting away all your margins to win the business?
When you base your efforts on value you can truly build a relationship with the true buyer or what we sometimes call an economic buyer.
Selling value means we must do some homework up front and understand the norms of our customers'industry. Here's an example: You do not go into the doctor's office without the doctor first gathering some normative data. He does not look at you and say, "Man, are you are sick. Get to the hospital immediately." No, he consults with you, asks questions, takes your temperature, blood pressure, etc. He does a diagnosis before presenting a prognosis.
The same is true in sales. We must know where we are going in the account that has the most revenue to increase or costs to decrease. If we are in the retail space and we want to increase the inventory turns we can find out what the industry norms are for a particular size retail store.
If we are in manufacturing and we want to decrease waste we will need to know what the industry norms for waste or off-quality for the industry-specific manufacturing unit.
For example, a paper mill that makes high-quality coated paper is losing $14 million in off-quality or broke as they call it the paper industry, and the industry norm is $8 million for the same size mill. We have customers helped by our solutions that brought that down to $6 million. We now have a value and a "What if?" proposal. Mr. Customer, what if we could bring your off-quality paper down from $14 million a year to $6 million? What impact will that have on your business?
The true buyer cares only about the value we can bring to his or her functional area. The reason is the language of business in the final analysis is how we can help our customer become more profitable.
A P&L true economic buyer cares about three things and three things only:
Taking the time and patience to follow these six principles will actually increase your pipeline and your margins on each sale.
How do we find the real buyer? Who is this person? What functional area or department does he or she reside in?
Where do we want to spend valuable time building this trusting relationship?
I will propose to you where real buyers will not be found:
It may take a bit more research and time but if you know your true value and what value you can bring to your customer in quantifiable, measurable outcomes you will now become a value-added partner with a buyer who can write a check for your products and services. No more sitting in the purchasing office being asked to discount your price. True economic buyers tell purchasing what they want done and when. Good selling!
