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6 Keys to Communicating Your Value
| Guest post by: Mike Schultz |
Article Overview: Co-author of Rainmaking Conversations, Mike Schultz, explains how to conversationally portray your value when introducing yourself.
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Free Download - Six Questions You Absolutely Need the Answers to for Sales Success By Mike Schultz |
6 Keys to Communicating Your Value
“So, what do you do?”
Such a simple question that lands so many sales and business
professionals in hot water. Hang around any conference and listen to how a
bunch of “What do you do” conversations unfold, and you’ll hear some pretty
anemic attempts at answers.
The answers are painful to listen to. The only thing more
painful… is when you’re the one who’s not quite sure how to answer the
question.
If you want to succeed in business or in sales, there’s no
time like the present to start succeeding with the answer to the question,
“What do you do?”
To do so, you must be able to communicate your value. Start
by building your value proposition
positioning statement. This is a compelling, tangible statement of how a
company or individual will benefit from buying from you. If you can’t
communicate your value then, as you might imagine, it’s pretty tough to succeed
in sales in general.
There are six building blocks that you should consider in
building your value proposition positioning statement.
As you read through them, take time to answer each question
thoughtfully:
1. Target customers.
Whom do you serve? What makes for an ideal customer regarding industry,
location, size, type and so on? This allows the person on the receiving end to
think, “They work with companies like ours and people like us.” Know your
target customer so you can craft messages that will resonate with them. In
addition, the more you can position specialization for a particular buyer set,
the more you differentiate.
2. Need/business
problem. What types of needs and business problems do you address? How do
you help? This helps prospects understand how and when they should use you.
3. Impact of solving
need. What are the financial and emotional benefits of solving the need?
How do you provide value? You may be thinking, “We do so much, and the
specifics are always different.” When crafting your value proposition
positioning statement, choose one or two, generalize the type of impact, and
later, in proof of concept, you can give a specific example or two. This helps
people see why they should address the needs you can help them address.
4. Your offerings.
What’s your product and service approach, how do you run your company, solve
problems and work with customers? Notice that company and offerings are a
fourth here. Don’t lead with your capabilities. Take a customer-centric
approach and frame your offerings within the context of the needs you can help
solve.
5. Proof of concept.
How can you demonstrate that your approach has worked to solve similar problems
for others? How do you substantiate your claims? How do they know that what you
say will happen, will actually happen?
Tip: Use reference stories and case studies to provide
evidence for your customers to substantiate your claims.
6. Distinction.
Why is your offering preferable to other options for solving the need? Do you
have something unique about you that’s worthwhile to share? Is there some way
to highlight how you’re distinct from others?
As you build your value proposition positioning statement,
take care not to build just one canned statement that you use with everyone.
Slick “elevator pitch” deliveries always sound just a little too practiced and
smooth. These six components are building blocks that you can use to build the
story you want to deliver.
Just like the wooden blocks we all had as kids, you can use
the same blocks to build all sorts of different shapes, towers and cathedrals.
Pick and choose which blocks to use in your conversations based on the
particular situation. The more you practice, the more you’ll be able to make it
sound natural.
Then you’ll be ready in any business or sales conversation
to properly position your value.
People all too often stop here, though, thinking that
getting their value proposition positioning statement down is the end of the
story. It’s not. It’s the beginning.
Kick off a conversation right by positioning yourself and
your value well, and you place yourself on a great platform for leading an
amazing rainmaking conversation.
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Article Tags: coauthor, conversations, mike schultz
|
About the Author: Mike Schultz RSS for Mike's articles - Visit Mike's website Mike Schultz is President of RAIN Group, a sales training, assessment, and sales performance improvement company that helps leading organizations improve sales results. Mike is author of Rainmaking Conversations: Influence, Persuade and Sell in Any Situation (Wiley, 2011) and publisher of RainToday.com. He also writes for the RAIN Selling Blog. He can be reached at mschultz@raingroup.com. Click here to visit Mike's website   THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES MARKETING AND HOW TO AVOID THEM GENERATING LEADS BRAND RELATIONSHIPS AND TRUST AT THE SAME TIME PROPOSAL WRITING STAY ON TARGET PROPOSALS WITH FOCUS WIN NEW BUSINESS Six Questions You Absolutely Need the Answers to for Sales Success FIVE STEPS TO GETTING THE FEES YOU KNOW YOU DESERVE |
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