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People Shop Price. They Buy Value

Guest post by: Bob Janet

Article Overview: It is great to sell VALUE because you have two different groups of value to sell. One- The value of your product. Two- Your value. Your uniqueness.. USV's - Unique Selling Value -- What is unique about you that is not unique about your competition?

People Shop Price. They Buy Value

Frustrated sales clerk: "I am unable to sell our products because our prices are higher than the competition.

Successful Sales Professional: Stop selling products and start selling VALUE"

Unless you have a completely unique product to sell chances are you are selling the same products as your competition.

OH, your product may be made better, may last longer, and may do a better job for the customer, but to the customer it is still the same product.

Most customers think a hammer is a hammer, no matter how much better one is constructed than the other.

But that is OK, because your customers do not really buy products (hammers). They buy the results the product (hammer) will give them. And if your results, THE VALUE are of more worth to them than the competitions value, you can easily receive a higher price for it.

It is great to sell VALUE because you have two different groups of value to sell.
One- the value of your product
Two- your value. Your uniqueness.. USV's - Unique Selling Value -- What is unique about you that is not unique about your competition?

To determine your products value or uniqueness do this exercise.
On a piece of paper write down the products features on the left side. The product and the components it is made up of.

On the right side across from each feature write the benefitthe customer receives from the feature.
The Benefit is the VALUE.

It is easy to determine the benefit values of your products. And a lot of sellers are doing it. But the top sales producers go one more step.

They determine their Unique selling Propositions (USP's).

To determine your USV's make a list (a long list) of all the things you do for your customers. Then go back and cross off the ones that are not unique, the ones your competition is also doing. You end up with a list of your USP's. Now you have something to talk about the competition can not talk about.

Here are four ways to turn your intangible VALUES (benefits) into a dollar value your customers will buy.

Put a DOLLAR VALUE on your benefits and USV's:
1.Give the customer examples of how others have suffered money loss when not using your benefit (horror stories).

2.Show the customer testimonials showing the dollar value others put on your intangibles.

3.Ask the customer what he/she feels the dollar value of your benefit is.

4.Tell the customer the dollar value of your benefit.
(After all you are the Expert)

Putting a dollar value on your benefits and USP's work because your customers are always thinking in dollars. They are thinking

"What will it cost me?" "How much can I save?"

You are far ahead of the competition when you can show the customer real dollar VALUE they receive when buying from you.

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Article Tags: benefit, competitions, dollar value, exercise, hammer, intangible values, job, piece of paper, producers, successful sales, unique selling propositions, uniqueness, usp, usv



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Re: Hi from Greenville, SC - [quote="Evan":39hn23oh]Welcome Philip - from my experience in working with different merchant service providers I've found the following criteria to be important: 1) Price - at the end of the day it's very competitive industry and you don't need to be the cheapest option but you can't be too far ahead of the other guys. Automatic volume discounts are also much appreciated. Ones I've been involved with in the past give you volume discounts only if you apply. 2) Service - are you available when I need you? If I call will you be available and help me right away? If I email will you get back to me quickly? People often don't need service from their merchant service provider. It's one of those things where as long as it's working we tend to forget about you running in the background. But when there's a problem it's usually a big problem because we can't get money so we need fast and good quality service. 3) Integration support. Help people get set up. Even offer to do it for them - now that's a great way you can stand out. The integration support from most merchant service providers is terrible. You're pretty much on your own to figure out how their APIs work. I hope that helps - good luck![/quote:39hn23oh] I find all of these to be true on a daily basis. I have a strong hold in my particular area. Fast service is imperative. If I can get a restaurant a new terminal in a couple of hours as compared to the fastest national company(at least overnight) then I win. Being local is huge in my industry. I have successfully managed accounts is other areas. Usually I give them a back-up terminal so if the other one breaks down they can switch out the two ship the broken one to me and have a new back-up the next day. I have done a few online accounts. It is not my specialty though. I have found it to not be too hard if you are using a CMS and your host is at least fair. We can integrate with almost every website. It is usually as easy as dropping a pem file in the correct folder in cpanel. For more difficult ones I have a webmaster that I consult with. Price is the last one. Price is always the biggest. You cant give it away or you have no way to give good service. How apt am I to give back-up terminals or make sure I have 24 hour customer service if the margins don't support it? At the same time I have to be very competitive especially when landing large accounts. I made things too easy on one of my large accounts one time I guess. They thought all providers were like me so when they got a quote for less they switched. 11 days later they called me to help them get their machines downloaded back to my companies settings and their website was completely messed-up. I had to delete everything in the file and reload a back-up I had.
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LastMinute New Web Site (Draft) - Louis, I like it much better than the previous one. I like Topic, Location, Date, Discounted Price. That is what I need to know to get interested. I believe that you are moving in the right direction. Andreas
Re: Hi from Greenville, SC - Welcome Philip - from my experience in working with different merchant service providers I've found the following criteria to be important: 1) Price - at the end of the day it's very competitive industry and you don't need to be the cheapest option but you can't be too far ahead of the other guys. Automatic volume discounts are also much appreciated. Ones I've been involved with in the past give you volume discounts only if you apply. 2) Service - are you available when I need you? If I call will you be available and help me right away? If I email will you get back to me quickly? People often don't need service from their merchant service provider. It's one of those things where as long as it's working we tend to forget about you running in the background. But when there's a problem it's usually a big problem because we can't get money so we need fast and good quality service. 3) Integration support. Help people get set up. Even offer to do it for them - now that's a great way you can stand out. The integration support from most merchant service providers is terrible. You're pretty much on your own to figure out how their APIs work. I hope that helps - good luck!
Re: Is Gas Price Affecting Your Business? - I work at home so I don't have the need for car. My office is a few seconds walk from my bedroom. Gas Price is not affecting my business in any way. All my work is done online


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