Selling Value

Before you start selling value you have to recognize that products don’t sell themselves.

While you may hope you can simply wave a banner that tells people your product exists and they will eat it up like a starving man with a slice of pizza, unfortunately most selling doesn’t work this way.

Instead, you should concentrate your efforts on selling value.

When you start selling a product, don't focus on what you like about the product. Find out what your sales prospect needs so you can show him specifically how he'll benefit from buying your product.

And you do this by asking intelligent sales questions. Good sales questions uncover problems and needs. Your products then become the solutions for these problems.

So, always start with your customer, not with your products/services.

Of course this is easy to say and hard to do, especially if you enjoy talking the way most salespeople do.

Let’s say you have a new product. Let’s call it a “Thingamajig.” It is, by far, the greatest thing in the history of the world - or so you believe.

Now, let’s say you're going to start making sales calls to your list of sales prospects.

You have two choices. You can either:

A. Talk about how "Thingamajig" is the coolest thing to ever exist and talk about the features you like most.

Or you can . . .

B. Talk about the benefits of your "Thingamajig" and emphasize the value to your sales prospects.

While a) may be a lot more fun, b) is how you'll help more prospects and sell more products. You are selling value – that is, you are trying to show your prospects how they'll benefit from using your new product.

This is a major mistake salespeople make when they attempt to sell their products. Many salespeople try to sell a product by describing how great it is - all the while talking about product features and specifications.

But your sales prospects are thinking “That’s great, but why should I pay $X.XX for it?”

However, when you can show the customer that the real value of your product exceeds the price they are paying for it, then you have sold them on the value of the product.

You have established why the product is worth more than its price.

Selling value is an important part of selling any product or service.

Here's another sales tip - once you establish the value of the product for your sales prospects and customers, your sales will improve dramatically.

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