Dear Colleague:

            According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, VALUE takes on various meanings:  1) A fair or proper equivalent in money, commodities, etc. for something sold or exchanged; fair price.   2) The worth of a thing in money or goods at a certain time; market price.   3) Estimated or appraised worth or price; valuation.   4) That quality of a thing according to which it is thought of as being more or less desirable, useful, estimable, important, etc.; worth or the degree of worth.
            It didn’t take much effort to look-up these definitions, and it certainly isn’t difficult to understand them intellectually. But how business people like yourself deal with that simple, five-letter-word – VALUE – when communicating with a customer, client or prospect, can cause or cost the entire sale.
            Let’s take a look, from a sales perspective, at three words that play a part in the above definition:
            Fair – What does “fair or proper equivalent* (fair price) mean to both the salesperson and the prospect? Fair in this case is a perception that many not be viewed the same by both the seller and the buyer. If we can agree, that with few exceptions, the price is set by the seller, then let’s see how the buyer can agree that a price is fair.
           A mathematician might put this concept in an equation that looks like the following:  Need to Sell = Need to Buy. Theoretically, this is wonderful. Find the prospect who has a need to buy that equals your need to sell and “bingo” – a sale. The problem with this equation is two-fold. Finding this equality not only approaches the impossible, but it puts too much pressure on the salesperson. If the inability to fail, the stress of having to find the right prospect, and the tension of getting enough orders to meet quotas are hanging over you in your day-to-day business environment,  then you are setting yourself up for failure. The salesperson who is out to get his or her “needs” met is “pushing” too hard, and the prospect will quickly see this.
           The prospect’s biggest interest is in the prospect, not the salesperson. Learn this, believe this, accept this, and learn how to deal with it in business. If you cannot take a sincere interest in searching out your prospects needs, then your prospect will quickly lose interest in the all-too-often, over-emphasized features of your product.
          Worth – The worth of a product or service, like the fair price, is also a perception. When you tie worth to a time frame, you get “market price.” Again, intellectually this is an easy concept to understand. The problem is that many salespeople are carrying this intellectual message to their prospects every day of the week, and wondering why their prospect see things the way they do.
          I’m sure we would all agree that water carries a greater value to a person who is dying of thirst in a desert than to the person who is swimming in a freshwater lake. Now I’m not suggesting that you have to find that prospect who is in dire need of your product or service, but I am questioning why so many salespeople don’t investigate their prospects’ needs and priorities until after they tell them about the product’s value and worth.
          Quality --  Do you find yourself touting the quality of your product or service to your prospects, and at the same time challenging or insulting their previous decisions? All too often, when it gets to the point of a mismatch in price or worth between a salesperson and a prospect, the defense mechanism becomes the line, “Is it important to you to buy a quality product?” Or, “Are you interested in doing business with a quality company?” Many salespeople believe this is the way to probe a prospect and win them over to the increased quality of their company and product. What they fail to recognize is that they are actually building a wall between the prospect and themselves. The prospect’s defenses go up, and he or she is forced to justify a previous decision. Although an order may result from handling the objections which result from this strategy, and wondering “what happened” or “how to do it better next time.”
          When enough of these “no sales” repeat themselves, the salesperson gets into a rut. Sometimes the salesperson will even seek professional assistance. At this point, however, the salesperson is usually looking to work on the wrong end of the problem. Learning how to be better handle these objections is not the answer. The salesperson who seeks this solution is planning to work harder than is necessary. Basically, if you expect someone else to help you get out of a rut that you dug yourself into, then you are not looking to work smart. The key is to learn how not to get into the ditch, and learn how to be the salesperson who takes the path of least resistance in getting to the sale.
            It’s not easy. If it were, then everybody would be in sales. It takes commitment to become the true sales professional – commitment to a specific discipline. Most won’t even take the time to seek the right path. Of those who do make the search, most will not make the investment – the investment it takes to learn, understand, believe and become adept at applying the tools and skills of the trade. Many salespeople talk “quality,” but few deliver it, not in their product or service, but in their personal ability to work for the customer or client. Many talk “worth,” and all they seek to do is justify their own personal worth. When it comes to VALUE – HOW DO YOU HANDLE IT?

Cordially,

Steve Taback