Tweet

Win At Selling Your Value

Guest post by: Jennifer Loftus

Article Overview: Does this situation sound familiar? You’ve been working at your company for a couple of years, performing well, getting good feedback, and positive annual reviews. You and your manager have talked about the possibility of you taking on more responsibilities and becoming more integrated into the organization. The first year you heard this, you were excited. The second time around you’re left wondering if this will be the year. You ask yourself why no one seems to see the worth and value you can bring to your position and the organization.

Win At Selling Your Value

Stacey Jerrold MBA, SPHR of Jerrold HR Soluitons LLC (Guest Author)

Does this situation sound familiar? You’ve been working at your company for a couple of years, performing well, getting good feedback, and positive annual reviews. You and your manager have talked about the possibility of you taking on more responsibilities and becoming more integrated into the organization. The first year you heard this, you were excited. The second time around you’re left wondering if this will be the year. You ask yourself why no one seems to see the worth and value you can bring to your position and the organization.

Having these dialogues running around in your head and/or waiting for management to take action won’t get you anywhere. You need to stop the “BMW” (bitching, moaning, and whining) and learn how to sell your value. A lot of you are probably starting to get nervous at this moment because you don’t think you have what it takes to “sell your value.” But, you actually have been doing this for most of your life. It began in your childhood when you tried to “sell” your parents on a type of candy, toy, or present, that you may have wanted, and it continues to this day. Now, put aside any concerns or preconceptions you may have about selling or salespeople. Keeping an open mind will allow you to fully capture the buying/selling process and help you to win at selling your value.

First, what is the definition of a sale? According to Zig Ziglar, a famous sales trainer, a sale is the transference of feeling. What does this mean? It means that if you don’t have a passion for what you do and what you feel about the service you offer, then you will have difficulty helping people to “buy” what you are selling; in this instance, your value and worth.

Buying / Selling Process

By following the steps outlined below, you will be able to develop and maintain relationships with decision makers and other individuals throughout your organization; thus, expanding your network and opportunities for increased responsibilities.

Step 1: Introduction – In this phase, it is important to maintain eye contact and make your audience smile.

Step 2: Gaining Favorable Attention – This is the stage in which you build rapport. Remember, you are paying careful attention and listening for something you can use or say in future meetings or conversations. Focus on your audience and eliminate the use of the words “I”, “me,” or “mine.” This is also the point in the process where you will be asked to describe what you do. This is where you use your “elevator pitch,” a powerful and concise statement of your skills and accomplishments.

Step 3: Discovering Wants and Needs – This is the phase where you dig deeply into the issues facing the organization, management, etc. You need to focus on open-ended questions.

Good questions begin with who, what, where, when, and why. Some tips to help you navigate through this phase are the following:

• Listen 80% of the time and talk 20% of the time.

• Refrain from evaluating or judging the information being shared.

• Be alert to the behavior of your audience. Their verbal as well as non-verbal behavior will guide you through this process.

• Resist the urge to talk about solutions. This comes later on.

Your goals during the Discovering Wants and Needs phase are to:

• reinforce your rapport and credibility;

• aid you in gaining a complete understanding of the situations at hand;

• help your audience tell you how you can help them; and

• stimulate their interest and urgency in working with you.

Step 4: Presenting Benefits and Consequences – Now you can talk about your capabilities and how you can help the organization. You want to make sure that you demonstrate the following points.

• You have a thorough understanding of the situation.

• The objectives you will help them to achieve and your approach to achieving them.

• The measurable outcomes and, if possible, the return on their investment (you).

The key in this phase is to tie back your skills and the benefits to the specific issues detailed in the discovery process. The goal is to help the manager make a positive decision to work with you and thereby expand your current responsibilities and exposure within the organization.

Step 5: Getting Commitment – If you have been navigating the “buying / selling” process correctly at each step, you have gotten verbal and non-verbal permission to proceed to the following step. Getting commitment is a natural progression of the previous step.

Step 6: Follow Up / Execution – It is critical that you understand your role in executing the tasks that need to be addressed and that you do so while creating value throughout the organization. Make sure management understands the results you are delivering. Make yourself indispensible and you thereby create more opportunities for your own personal and professional growth.

Congratulations! You have navigated and survived the “sales” process. Following these steps in the order presented and making sure you have approval, either verbal or non-verbal, before you move to the next step will afford you the opportunity to demonstrate your value as well as grow both professionally and personally.

Related Articles
  Selling Power 26
  Does Sex Sell?
  The "Use Seasoned Sales Professionals As Trainers" Myth
  Consultative Selling
  Finding The Right Prospects For your Business
  At-ti-tude, n
  Increasing the Velocity of Your Selling Cycle
  Consultative Selling Won't Fill Your Pipeline
  The Value 2 (Squared) Equation
  Seth Godin Reinforces the Proper Sales Process
  What Are You Really Selling?
  Sales and Marketing: Know and Apply The Separate But Equal Ideology
  Entrepreneurs - Check Your Changed Market In These Recessionary Times
  Stepping Beyond Consultative Sales
  The Power of Benefits in Today’s Market
  How to Never Sell Again - No Matter What Business You’re In
  It Ain\'t About You by Keith Rosen, MCC
  Marketing and Selling
  Why Is Selling The Greatest Job?
  Is Selling Simple or Complicated?

Article Tags: bmw, candy toy, dialogues, guest author, jerrold, mba, parents, passion, preconceptions, rsquo, salespeople, second time, situation sound, sphr, transference, zig ziglar



Related Forum Posts
Re: Kevin's Case Study #10 - When to become an entrepreneur? - When the bug bite you. A lot of successful entrepreneurs started in their teens or at school. Selling sweets to fellow students or lemonade to firends in the neighbourhood.
Re: This is Marketing Warfare! - Hey GT, I guess this was from a while back, and it'll test your memory a bit but could you possibly elaborate on Unique Selling Proposition? Can you give us some examples of good USPs?
Blog pinging - Thanks Martin - yes, I do ping and it has been very effective. I'm currently on the first page of Google for Mastermind Group and on the second page for Selling to Small Business.
Business magazines - Fast Company is pretty good if you're into technology although it can be very on the edge. Entrepreneur has become one giant advertisement and I cancelled my subscription. Selling Power also has some useful content if you're looking at improving your sales skills / presentations.
Re: Newbi here - thanks for your responses guys.. I really appreciate it. Well, I have learned from realhomebasedsuccess dot com that there are home based business opportunities and ideas that could be our option such as: -Selling Goods or Providing Services Online -Making Money through Direct Marketing -Becoming an Affiliate Marketer -Getting Paid on a Click Thru but I was thinking which is the best one and most effective in terms of generating consistent Ongoing Profits. What do you think? do you have any insights?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Angel Investors Where Are You?

Life is a Balancing Act!

Web Design in 30 Minutes - Can this be Right?

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.