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How does a Sales Manager teach people to sell their product without giving away the farm?

Guest post by: Wayne Berry

Article Overview: Are you and your sales people selling on value for money or price. Here\'s how to sell on value

How does a Sales Manager teach people to sell their product without giving away the farm?

There will always be a cheaper product competing with yours, and people will always buy on price….if you let them. Of course price is an important factor in any purchase, but it’s just one of the factors which should be considered by your prospect. However if you don’t bring these other factors to their attention, they will buy on price.

The truth is we all by on value for money rather than price. Think of some of the purchases that you make. Do you always buy the cheapest? Plastic shoes are cheap, but you wouldn’t want to wear them would you? Instead you buy shoes which you believe are value for money and present you professionally. How do you figure that out?

You consider the way they look and feel don’t you? Do they have the styling and features that you want in a shoe? Interestingly enough, the price is a feature as well with some shoes, suits, bags, pens, ties etc. Sophisticated people don’t buy cheap stuff. If something is too cheap they won’t buy it, because they will make a judgement about the quality of the product. Cheap price, cheap and inferior product right. I am sure that you know that some people, maybe even you, who won’t buy an automobile unless it has the right badge.

So what does all of this mean to you?

There are two factors to be considered when making a purchase. One is the features and benefits, and the other is the price. You and your prospects weigh up the benefits and compare these benefits with the price that is being asked. So the average sales person who believes that everyone will buy on price will always want to sell on price and will want to “give away the farm”. They will go to their manager and say, “Boss, boss the price is too high, we need to give them a discount.”

The true professional sales person will sell on value for money, not on price. So they will bring certain features and benefits of their product or service to the attention of their prospects who can then weigh up all of the benefits and compare those with the price being asked. If the benefits are big compared with the price, then they will understand that what you are offering them is excellent value for money. People buy on value if you help them to.

Now if you really want to be what I call a Top Gun in sales, you’ll go one step further. Rather than treating every prospect the same, and explaining all of the benefits that you can, they will first use questions to carefully understand what the prospect really needs and what is important to each individual, and then focus their presentation on presenting only those things that they now know are important to their prospect. For example if a car salesperson focuses on the time their motor vehicle will go from 0 to 100km/hr and they are talking with a young mother with two children, will that be important to this buyer? No probably not. What should they talk about? How about the safety aspects of the vehicle, the airbags etc. And what if this lady is with her husband? As well as the safety features, he or she might explain the performance and economy features to the husband.

So here’s the short formula. 1. Find out prospect’s needs 2. Present the benefits that address these needs 3. Show the prospect these benefits, compared to the investment (we don’t say price) so they see the value for money. 4. Ask them to buy.

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Article Tags: negotiating, persuasion, sales, sales coaching, sales presentation, selling



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