Value Selling
Value Selling
Are you interested selling more or selling more effectively?
If you are still reading I am going to assume that you are and learning about value selling will be important to you.
Values are not solid things that we can see and touch but are made out of the stuff of consciousness and have as much substance as a thought. Despite being so vaporous, values are the most powerful drivers of human behaviour. Values represent what is important to us and yet we may not always be conscious of our values, they can be operating ‘at the back of mind’. Values are unique to each individual and so we need to know how to uncover them.
In this short article I am going to share with you a strategy that will increase your sales dramatically.
As a sales person, you will know how to build rapport and trust with your prospect (if you don’t read my article on ‘connecting with the client’. The following strategy only works when you are in rapport.
To discover the client’s values you need to give yourself permission to use probing question, the first of these sounds like:
“Do you mind if I ask you a question (pause and wait for affirmation) what are your criteria for making this decision?”
This question flushes out the primary level values in regards to you product or service, for instance you are selling a workshop or training and you ask what are your criteria. Your prospect might answer:
“Well it’s important that I get to practice the skills I will learn and I want to know that it fits into my work.”
If you don’t know what they do for a living then you will need to ask this, but what is important to you is that the prospect has given you two of their values about your product. The first value is the importance of practice and the second is that their work is important. Many sales people might just acknowledge these values, but a pro would probe detail. The probe would go something like:
“So it’s important to you to practice what you learn (this is a pacing statement to acknowledge what is important to the prospect), I’m curious, (softening statement) what’s important about that?”
Asking what’s important about what’s important causes the prospect to access their value system and get in touch with what’s driving the potential purpose. In this example the prospect might say something like:
“Well I learn best by doing and I don’t want to waste time on a purely theoretical training.”
With this the prospect has told us that he/she values time and is motivated not to waste it. At this point you might think you have enough information, and you might but if you just ask one more question, such as:
“Ok, so you don’t want to waste time, may I ask what’s important about that?”
And the prospect says:
“Because I want to learn as much as possible to further my career as I’m concerned that promotions are getting competitive.”
Now your prospect had really shared their driving value – promotion in a competitive environment. Whilst you might have sold them with an explanation about how the training would be practical and job applicable, imagine how much more compelling your sales proposition will be when you talk about previous clients who have used the information from the training to get promotions.
So in summary, learn to ask:
1. What are your criteria for making a decision?
2. What’s important about that?
3. And what’s important about that?
Once you know your prospects values around your product and service you can make a persuasive presentation using ‘the three magic words’ – but that’s another article.
For more information on sales training and coaching visit www.selfleadership.com
Value Selling - To learn more about this author, visit Andrew Bryant's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
Value Selling
Are you interested selling more or selling more effectively?
If you are still reading I am going to assume that you are and learning about value selling will be important to you.
Values are not solid things that we can see and touch but are made out of the stuff of consciousness and have as much substance as a thought. Despite being so vaporous, values are the most powerful drivers of human behaviour. Values represent what is important to us and yet we may not always be conscious of our values, they can be operating ‘at the back of mind’. Values are unique to each individual and so we need to know how to uncover them.
In this short article I am going to share with you a strategy that will increase your sales dramatically.
As a sales person, you will know how to build rapport and trust with your prospect (if you don’t read my article on ‘connecting with the client’. The following strategy only works when you are in rapport.
To discover the client’s values you need to give yourself permission to use probing question, the first of these sounds like:
“Do you mind if I ask you a question (pause and wait for affirmation) what are your criteria for making this decision?”
This question flushes out the primary level values in regards to you product or service, for instance you are selling a workshop or training and you ask what are your criteria. Your prospect might answer:
“Well it’s important that I get to practice the skills I will learn and I want to know that it fits into my work.”
If you don’t know what they do for a living then you will need to ask this, but what is important to you is that the prospect has given you two of their values about your product. The first value is the importance of practice and the second is that their work is important. Many sales people might just acknowledge these values, but a pro would probe detail. The probe would go something like:
“So it’s important to you to practice what you learn (this is a pacing statement to acknowledge what is important to the prospect), I’m curious, (softening statement) what’s important about that?”
Asking what’s important about what’s important causes the prospect to access their value system and get in touch with what’s driving the potential purpose. In this example the prospect might say something like:
“Well I learn best by doing and I don’t want to waste time on a purely theoretical training.”
With this the prospect has told us that he/she values time and is motivated not to waste it. At this point you might think you have enough information, and you might but if you just ask one more question, such as:
“Ok, so you don’t want to waste time, may I ask what’s important about that?”
And the prospect says:
“Because I want to learn as much as possible to further my career as I’m concerned that promotions are getting competitive.”
Now your prospect had really shared their driving value – promotion in a competitive environment. Whilst you might have sold them with an explanation about how the training would be practical and job applicable, imagine how much more compelling your sales proposition will be when you talk about previous clients who have used the information from the training to get promotions.
So in summary, learn to ask:
1. What are your criteria for making a decision?
2. What’s important about that?
3. And what’s important about that?
Once you know your prospects values around your product and service you can make a persuasive presentation using ‘the three magic words’ – but that’s another article.
For more information on sales training and coaching visit www.selfleadership.com
Value Selling - To learn more about this author, visit Andrew Bryant's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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