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What if you doubled the price of what you are selling? What additional value would you have to demonstrate to make it so valuable to your customers still wanted to buy it over the cheaper alternative?
The key here is value demonstrated – not features added.
Once you have identified this, you know how to step away from the price war and protect your margins. That’s what Rolls Royce does.
Customers buy value – not features
Cheers
Darren
There are only three possible outcomes after a sales pitch:
Most companies have strategies for two of these three outcomes.
Pack is customer nurture. Push off is start again
Provide is where it is let down. Most companies have a 2 strategy approach for follow up. They are:
Neither approach offers value to the customer, or dignity to the sales person. After all, who likes begging!
You’re better off to offer the customer value so they want to talk to you. (A discount is not value – it’s prostitution)
This is an edited extract from my new book “Better Positioning Deeper Conversations More Sales”. To find out more or to purchase copies of this book click here
If you want an audience (buyer) to engage with you, you need to communicate from their world – not yours.
But many sales people will ask about the content they sell (e.g. Do you need any blue widgets?). If the buyer says yes they have a chance for a sale. If the buyer says no, they ask another content question (e.g. How about red widgets?).
These sales conversations are usually short and produce nothing.
This happens because subject matter experts love their content. They spend their time thinking about what they have and how it can benefit their customers. Their passion is clear.
The draw back is that they can see problems that the buyer is not yet aware of and go straight for it. They are selling a pill for a problem that the customer does not know they have.
If they don’t know they have a problem, they have no need to buy your pill.
This is an edited extract from my new book “Better Positioning Deeper Conversations More Sales”. To find out more or to purchase copies of this book click here
The buyer does not care about you.
They don’t care how old your company is, how long you have been working in your position or how many awards your company has won.
They have no reason to care. They don’t wish you malice – they just don’t care what you have done. The buyer only cares about themselves.
They care how they will be better off after listening to you, how they will be able to use what you tell them to make better decisions in the future and to take better actions. They care about what is important to them.
We know this is true. Just look at the biggest movement in history – Facebook. Facebook is nothing more than a platform to tell other people what you are doing. (There is a secondary bonus to this that you can see what others are up to as well.)
Present your message to market in a way that means something to the buyer. That way they will care about it and then they’ll care about you.
This is an edited extract from my new book “Better Positioning Deeper Conversations More Sales”. To find out more or to purchase copies of this book click here
The role of any person in sales is to meet the buyer, understand their problems and guide them to the sale.
The role of the buyer is to evaluate the sales person, their product/service and the value it brings them.
When the buyer meets the sales person they feel guarded about them, “Will you rip me off?” They see everything as a commodity “They are all the same” and measure you against the competition based on the common currency – dollars.
When the sales person seeks to understand the buyer, the buyer feels respected, sees the offering as being relevant and can appreciate the features as to why they would buy.
It is only at this stage that the sales person has the permission to guide the sale to the next stage. This is because the customer feels they have been understood (the sales person is not just trying to sell me anything), they see that there is a fit for what is on offer and can now understand the benefits of buying.
Problems occur when sales people try to guide the sale to the next stage before going through the meet and understand stages. This is why they have to argue on price – because that is where the customer still is.
This is an edited extract from my new book “Better Positioning Deeper Conversations More Sales”. To find out more or to purchase copies of this book click here
There are that we deal with every day. They are:
It is the interaction between these types of information that will give you the edge in any sales presentation.
The interaction between Content and Context is interplay. The Context will inform the content, and the content proves or disproves the context. Knowing this will show you what forces are at play in decision-making.
The interaction between Context and Meaning is Interpretation. How beliefs, values, experiences and expectations change what someone understands.
The interaction between Content and Meaning is Implementation. This exposes drivers of behavior. It is the proof of what will happen. It’s post purchase. Can they afford to operate what they bought? What action will they take?
These 6 levels of information are about awareness. They inform what is going on in any sale or presentation. Understanding this will keep you away from dealing on price.
This is an edited extract from my new book “Better Positioning Deeper Conversations More Sales”. To find out more or to purchase copies of this book click here
When app developers ask if I would recommend their app they are assuming that I want to recommend it.
I’m not sure if anyone sits around thinking, “Now who can I recommend this app to?”
They ask this because they want their app recommended – and that’s fair enough.
But that’s not where the users’ thoughts are. Their thoughts are how easy the app is to use, how functional it is and if they like it.
If that is where their thoughts are, that’s the place to start. Simply ask, “How do you like our app?” If the user likes it then you can suggest they recommend it. If the user doesn’t like it you get valuable feedback.
It’s like asking if you can move in on the first date. Sure you both might want to do that eventually, but the first date is not the time to ask.
What questions is your team asking?
This is an edited extract from my new book “Better Positioning Deeper Conversations More Sales”. To find out more or to purchase copies of this book click here
Sales people and buyers have a different perception of time.
A sales person is very reactive. If the phone rings they answer it. If an email blings they check it. If a fax comes in they process it.
Any productivity expert will tell you this is a terrible way to run your day – you’re at the mercy of others. However, every sales manager will tell you to answer every call – it could be a sale! Sales people spend so much time and effort getting the phone to ring they need to answer it.
Buyers on the other hand are very deliberate. They know they need to buy your stuff, but not for three months. They will answer your call then.
Getting the buyer to shorten the three months is about the value the sales person offers them.
If the buyer won’t take your call for three months, best check the value you are offering.
This is an edited extract from my new book “Better Positioning Deeper Conversations More Sales”. To find out more or to purchase copies of this book click here
An in-house engineer is paid around $100,000 a year – give or take. That’s about $50 per hour.
Their employer charges them out at $150 per hour. That’s how they make their money.
If a sales person visits and offers them less than $150 potential value during the call they will not be invited back.
If they offer $150 in potential value the sales person will be seen as doing the bare minimum amount of work to get by. They generally aren’t invited back.
To be taken seriously, the sales person has to offer potential value greater than $150.
How much should be offered? Two times, five times, or ten times?
The answer to that is not as important as the value your sales team heads out with. A new brochure is about $1 in value – even full colour ones.
This is an edited extract from my new book “Better Positioning Deeper Conversations More Sales”. To find out more or to purchase copies of this book click here
There is nothing worse than the party guest who spends the whole time talking about themselves. You know the one – they are just itching to tell you about what they do and why they are great. They are boring and to be avoided at all costs.
They’d be more interesting if they knew something about the person they were speaking to and could share what they do in a way that would be interesting to them. Unfortunately they don’t.
Are your sales presentations that awful party guest? The way you tell is to look at the first few slides of your sales presentation. If it’s about your company you could be that guest.
This is an edited extract from my new book “Better Positioning Deeper Conversations More Sales”. To find out more or to purchase copies of this book click here
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