Here’s a secret: all sales, at its heart, is value based selling.
You may run into salespeople who have lost their way, stuck positioning their products strictly on price, or a laundry list of features and benefits.
Maybe you’ve been one of them.
But here’s the truth: the most successful direct sales reps know how to position their products and services with value selling.
That’s why we’ve put together a little guide to value based selling, so that you can understand what it truly is, and how to communicate value to a customer who can truly use what you’re offering.
What Is Value Based Selling?
People don’t buy based on logic.
People buy based on how a product or service makes them feel.
They use logic to justify that feeling.
There can be several reasons why, several different types of feelings that lead to buying decisions. But regardless of the reason, customers focus on the benefits they feel that product gives them. These can be real, or perceived.
Those benefits are the value that customer sees in the product.
Value selling cuts right to the heart of that. With value selling, you’re trying to determine what the customer values and illustrate how your product or service delivers on that value.
This is not a list of features. It’s a feeling.
Your goal in direct sales isn’t to sell the features of your product. It’s to sell maximum value to your customer.
Don’t underestimate the power of feelings in this process.
You Can’t Sell Value Without Knowing Your Product
While we understand that the laundry list of features aren’t what the customer ultimately makes their final buying decision on, it’s important that you understand your product. Inside and out.
Why? Well, it’s pretty simple: you never know what will be important to your customer. What will inspire that feeling of extreme perceived value.
That’s why you need to know all the values your product or service can offer, and do that, you need incredibly thorough product knowledge.
The more knowledge you have, the better you will be able to position your product.
Use Categorical Benefits
You’ll not only want to understand the specific features of your product or service, but how they can be applied, categorically, to different groups of people.
For instance, if you’re selling in the telecom space, you’re working with a product that has an incredible variety of features and potential benefits.
Some will apply to your customer. Others will not.
If you are selling to young, tech-savvy customers, you’ll want to position new cutting edge technology as a benefit. If your customer is older, more set in their ways, they may not see the same value in that flashy new tech.
However, they may see value in ease-of-use features that younger customers don’t see a need for.
Each group can get something out of your product: but the categorical benefits you highlight are different based on what each group truly values.
Position Your Value Over Your Competitor’s
The goal of value based selling is to effectively communicate the extreme value of your services over that of your competitor’s alternatives.
That doesn’t mean that you drag your competition through the mud. Or try to undercut them on price. Neither of those things impact a customer’s perceived value.
What you should aim for instead? Watch for the customer to start agreeing with you.
If you position your products well, you should start seeing nods from your customer. Agreeing with your value propositions. Maybe they start comparing what you’re offering to their existing service, or comparable offers they’d seen advertised.
In that moment, they are valuing you over your competition. And you didn’t have to trash talk them, or lower your prices to do it. You just showed extreme value.
Tell A Compelling Story
Far and away the best way to communicate value? Tell a compelling story about the value of your product and the benefits a customer would receive.
But here’s the trick: don’t just tell anybody’s story. You don’t want to tell your story. Your company’s story. Even another satisfied customer’s story.
You want to tell their story. Show them how your product or service can make the story of their lives better.
Here’s how to do it:
Step 1: Ask Great Questions
You need to learn about your customer before you can effectively tell their story. So ask great discovery questions!
For example, let’s stay in the telecom space. You would ask questions like:
- How do they use their current service?
- What do they love about it?
- What frustrates them most about their service? If they could change one thing, what would it be?
You can get even more specific… how often they travel, are there children in the home, etc.
Every question you ask gives you further insight into who your customers are… and what they value.
Step #2: Tell A Story
Now, take that information and tell your customer a story.
A story about your service, your product, and how it can enhance your customer’s life. Show those perceived benefits in action. Get them invested in your product before it’s actually in their life.
When the customer sees the extreme value of your services in the context of their own lives, the value is real. It’s tangible to them. They can feel it.
And buying decisions are all about feeling.
Value Added Selling Is All About Your Customer
Your product isn’t perfect. It can’t be.
But the good news is, you don’t need to have a perfect service or product in order to win business, to edge out your competition, and to avoid chargebacks and negative customer interactions.
You just need to make sure the customer feels the real, measurable value that your product’s benefits will bring to their lives.
So make it about them! Your sales results will speak for themselves
If you’re ready to take your direct sales career to the next level, consider working with Solcomm! We’re a direct sales leader in the telecom industry and we provide the necessary training and support for sales reps and subdealers who are ready to take the industry by storm. Check out our opportunities to learn more!