Value selling works. It makes sales professionals very successful. Yet many feel unable or unwilling to try. I say that if you sell a big ticket, complex product to businesses, you should adopt value selling.
Here is my list of the biggest obstacles (aka excuses) for NOT Value Selling and my responses.
At the end of this article I share links to value selling resources.
#1 - I Already do This (sort of)
Well that depends on how Value Selling is defined. My definition is making a tangible, customer-specific business case for using your product.
An example: our solution will reduce your customer onboarding time by half, saving your company up to $50K in operating costs a year while increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty which can eliminate about $200K worth of potential churn.
Not only does Value Selling mean the ability to make such specific, detailed estimates but also having the ability to communicate confidently with the customer so they are believable.
Talking up features does not count. Describing specific customer benefits is a good start but does not go far enough.
#2 - I Don’t Have Time to do This
No question about it, value selling does take additional time and effort. But consider the time and effort of lost deals. Even worse, the time and effort for nudging along a stuck, zombie-like deal.
Wouldn’t it be better to prioritize your pipeline according to the amount of value your solution can deliver? Often it correlates to those accounts who are most interested in making a business case and will provide the inputs that make better value estimates. Likewise it can allow you to de-prioritize accounts that are not a great fit for your product solution. Value selling helps you identify and close deals faster.
#3 - It’s impossible to put a dollar estimate on our value.
I’ve heard different variations of this. One example is “customers buy us because of our brand/reputation!” In other words it represents unmeasurable, intangible value.
I disagree.
Almost any differentiation can be measured if you try hard enough. For example, deconstructing a strong brand image reveals things like better performance, responsiveness and reliability. These brand characteristics can certainly reduce customer costs of operations directly or by reducing risk (potential costs).
Forrester has research data that shows a clear correlation between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, enrichment and loyalty. All three of these have measurable monetary impacts.
#4 - My customer does not want to have financial conversations.
What customers DON’T want are unsupported ROI claims made by vendors. But they are very interested in making a solid business case to their executive team who approves large purchases. Executives will demand to know what positive business impacts they can expect from your product/solution.
The only way to build a credible business case is with the input and collaboration of your customer contacts, so financial conversations are unavoidable.
It’s more likely the case that it’s the sales people who don’t want to initiate financial conversations because they aren’t prepared to have them. Financial conversations can feel intimidating to the uninitiated. This can be remedied by value sales training and sales playbooks.
#5 - I/My customer does not have the data to do this.
You do not need much data to make a good initial business case nor does it need to be precise. Start with industry averages as a proxy to get a reaction of the “straw man” estimate (too high? too low?). Your customer contact can always find someone else in their company who can get better inputs. This ask is reasonable once you’ve established a collaborative relationship
During the early sales phase, what matters most is the magnitude of the potential business impact of using your product solution. If you estimate business value in the 5 or 6 digit range, then you have the basis of a very strong business case.
What objections do you have or heard? Let me know and I’ll update this article!
Value Selling Resources
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How to Start Value Selling TODAY
Fact is that when sales people introduce the concept of value early in their interactions with prospects they have better success. Yet many don’t feel confident enough to do it.
Do you have a “Killer” Value Driver?
When I started doing value models 15 years ago, many of them were for specialty chemical products like coatings and catalysts. Chemical producers were early adopters of a value-based pricing and selling approach. They had to be in order to survive.
Value Selling Best Practices
Value Selling is the final stop of our product value journey. To recap the previous steps: