Does Your Sales Team Have Enough Value IQ?

Getting your fair share of price in the marketplace is dependent on your sales team’s ability to sell your value. The stronger case made for your value directly translates into the price you capture from your customers.  Is your sales team selling your value and capturing the best price? Or, worse yet, are you losing sales due to a weak value message?

Value is an often misused term that conjures up images of low quality and low price. Not so in B2B markets. Value refers to the underlying economics that support the purchase of an item or service. It defines the benefits of the offer that help increase sales, reduce costs, reduce risk or improve competitive advantage for the user.

Presenting an economic case is a powerful approach to drive value perceptions and willingness to pay more. Here are three critical elements that every sales team member must embrace in order to effectively communicate value and defend their prices.

Understand the Numbers

Take the time necessary to understand the economics in every sale. How will the buyer justify the purchase? How will they compare our offering to the next best alternative? This requires understanding how your offering helps the customer improve their economics. For example, think about increasing production throughput, reducing waste, increasing quality and increasing revenue. All of these benefits are measurable and should be presented at the time of proposal. Once you can talk dollars and cents you will move the discussion away from price and focus on value.

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What the Customer Values

Don’t assume that you know what the customer values. Every buyer is different even in identical industries. Buyers like to talk about what they value. Using your basic selling skills, ask questions, (lots of them) that uncover their value needs and their picture of success in this purchase. Here are a few to get started.

  • How will you measure success of this initiative/purchase?
  • What business results are you trying to change? How much?
  • What would you consider to be a “home run” in this purchase?
  • How will you know when this initiative/purchase is a success?

Get the buyer to paint a picture of success.

Trade Value

Despite the best executed value selling process, buyers are trained to cut your price anyway. Be prepared for the discussion and be committed to avoid discounting your price. Instead, trade value. When the buyer asks for a lower price offer to reduce the benefits of your sale in order to maintain a balance in value. Buyers will quickly recognize that you are negotiating and not discounting. Discounts are not free.  

Buyers are pushing your sales team to view your product as a commodity.

Improving your sales team’s Value IQ begins with understanding the value selling process.

We recommend starting with training and coaching programs that lay the foundation for executing value concepts. Additionally, include solid price negotiations training that give your team the confidence to present and defend prices in the marketplace. The net result will be higher close rates and improve profit margins through better price negotiations.

Build your sales team’s confidence

PricePoint Partners provides powerful training and coaching programs to empower sales teams to sell value and protect prices. For more information on programs that can improve your company’s Value IQ contact Ralph Zuponcic at 330-958-4036 or email Ralph at rzuponcic@pricepointpartners.com

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