Tweet

What value do you bring to your customer's table?

Guest post by: Paul Burr

Article Overview: In my first article I describe how customers only ask four questions. The 2nd of which, "What Value Do You Bring to the Table?", could do with further explanation.

What value do you bring to your customer's table?

I list some sources of value (business drivers and problems to fix) that I find CEOs look for:

• Cash - Will your proposal improve our cash position?
• Cost Down - Will we reduce costs?
• Revenue/Market Share Up - Will we make competitive gains?
• Agility/Speed - Can we move, reshape, transcend quickly?
• Security - is it/will it be safe? Which links to...
• Governance - Am I compliant with Company Law.
• Product/Service/Cost Leadership - Will our own customers notice/value the change

The "gestalt" requires us to tackle the customer's 'What value...?' question both emotionally and intellectually.

Customers view (potential) value through four 'lenses' -

1. Ease suffering now
2. Avoid suffering in the future
3. Grab an opportunity now
4. Grab a future opportunity.

In today's economy, 'lenses' 1 and 3 tend to get most focus.

So as we inquire about the customer's current issues and opportunities ('lenses' 1 and 3), we have the opportunity to raise the (emotional and intellectual) desire by raising the customer's accountability for what's going on. For example...

• "How long have you had this problem?"
• "What have you done about it so far?"
• "What worked well?"
• "What didn't work out as planned?"

We can further raise the customer's desire to fix a problem by asking the question "Why do you have this problem?" Focus the customer on the actions that they took (doing-nothing is an action!) that somehow created or allowed the problem to happen.

Further problem-related questions can get the customer to sit in the feeling of failure. For example:

• "What will happen if you do not fix this problem?"
• "How will this impact your customers?.... you financially? ....your people? (Summarise all the consequences of in action)
• "How will that make you feel, right now?"

Move quickly and bring the customer back to now. Ask "So as we sit here today, where is this issue on your priority list?" If the problem is indeed important the customer will already be asking you how you can help them.

Lenses 2 and 4 will still grab a customer's attention if the pitfall or opportunity is large enough. For example, I know a Health and Safety Consultant who grabs the attention of prospects by informing them of the threat of a prison sentence for serious cases of mis-governance. (He's aknowedgeable and reliableconsultant. He wouldn't win his clients' trust without being so.)

It's the quality of our questions that raise the customers' desire, to begin with. Then the onus falls upon us to articulate to the customer how we can help them best.

Related Articles
  The bad table
  Financial news
  You're not that interesting!
  The Only Ways to Build a Strong Brand
  The Invisible Close Sales Nugget: What to Do After You Get Off the Stage
  Using Latency to Improve Customer Retention
  Tables or Table-Less Design in Website Development
  How to Make Your Customers Feel Welcome
  Luncheon Meetings - NoNos
  Don’t Throw the Rolls! Communication Tips that Will Help You Survive the Holiday Season
  Tell Them Why They Should Buy
  Book Signings – Do I Sit or Stand?
  Why Is the Chief People Officer Missing from the C-Suite?
  Negotiating for the Successful Entrepreneur. How Do You Do It And Still Get What You Want?
  Is your business a kitchen table or barstool?
  What to do When You\'re the VP of Sales AND Marketing
  How to Go Above and Beyond the Call of Duty with Customers
  Direct Sale Marketing At Trade Shows
  What Questions Do New Customers Ask of Entrepreneurs?
  The Pro & Con of Groupon

Article Tags: Clevel, sales, selling, value generation



Related Forum Posts
Re: Great To Be Here With You - Hello Sir and welcome aboard, It's always nice to welcome new members especially those who can bring some experiences to the table. I look forward to seeing you around the topics although I see you are already getting your feet wet which is great to see, best wishes, Mal.
Re: Adrian Fernandez - GH Caskets - Hi Adrian, Welcome to the forum and thank you for the introduction. It sounds like you have a wealth of business experience to bring to the table and we can look forward to sharing experiences here and seeing you around the topics, regards, Mal.
Firing your customers - We all work so hard to bring on new customers and generate new revenue but sometimes certain customers are just too difficult to deal with and can be a drain on your time, energy, and resources. Have you had to fire a customer for bad behavior?
Re: Greetings Hi from John Alexander at SearchEngineWorkshops - Hello John, Welcome to the forum, I hope you enjoy your time here. We are a friendly bunch and with your background you have a lot to bring to the table. I very much look forward to seeing you around the topics and sharing your experiences with us, best wishes, Mal.
Re: Team, Need your Help . . . . - Barry, It would be helpful if you would give us an idea how much income you are looking for. Do you want to supplement your current income while you are working on your ecommerce site or are you wanting to generate enough to live off of in the near future while you build your site for instance? It would also be helpful to know what skills you bring to the table. For instance, if you have zero presence online, no promotional skills as of yet, etc. it would be hard to generate income fairly quickly with a program which requires you to earn off the efforts of others you bring into the program. I've some ideas for you, but would need to know a bit more info first. Cheers, Zac


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

The OLD Way of Advertising, May Not be so OLD

How to Write Your Articles for Better SEO

How do I finance a franchise?

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.