Value Selling: How to create business when the PO's all dry up.
By Steve
Waterhouse
If you have not experienced a drop in sales recently,
you might choose to skip this issue. On the other hand,
if you miss it, you just might find yourself competing
with those who learned this technique.
Two things happen in a down market that directly
affect every sales professional.
1. Total spending is cut irrationally
2. Buying power moves up the organization
The cure for each of these problems is found in Value
Selling. Simple features and benefits selling is
designed to satisfy needs when the client is buying but
it's tough to use them with a client who isn't.
Total spending is cut irrationally
In down markets, you will often hear clients complain
about their company's 10% across-the-board budget cuts.
They explain it to you as if it actually made sense and
then use if as an excuse for not buying. It's safe to
say that any company that cuts 10% out of every
department has failed to take the time to analyze their
spending needs properly. After all, if you were in a
boat that was 10% over weight, would you toss 10% of
everything overboard? If you did, the engine would stop
running and the hull would begin to leak!
Your job is to help your clients examine their
businesses in such a way that they realize that your
offering will actually add money (Value) to their bottom
line. Only when we do, will they feel justified in
reallocating money to buy your product or service.
There is one major caveat to Value Selling: Your
offering must, in some way, actually be able to help the
client earn or save more than it costs.
Step 1: Develop your case
Imagine you are the CEO of your client's company.
Even in a downturn, you would gladly give a trip to
Aruba to any employee who could show you how to
significantly increase sales or cut costs. Your job is
to make a case that would earn that trip. Here's how to
do it:
a. Understand the client's business - You must
investigate your client's business as if you were going
to buy it. You need to know their "critical numbers",
those statistics that every manager watches every day.
You need to know how your offering fits into their
business and what affect it could have on the critical
numbers.
b. Build a positive scenario - Once you fully
understand the details, prepare a proposal that shows
the positive affect of your offering and the return on
investment that the company will experience by
purchasing it.
c. Prove it - Assume that you'll be challenged on
your assumptions and projections, so be prepared to
defend them. Where possible, use number gathered from
the client's executives.
Step 2. Present it
Here is where you address the fact that buying power
moves up in a down market. The same person who
authorized a $2M contract last year only has $200K in
buying power this year. If you present your big deal to
that person, they will be forced to either reject your
plan or try to sell it internally themselves. You must
identify the real buyer and make your case directly to
them. I recommend that you start as high in the
organization as you can. After all, if you are asking
them to reallocate precious funds from one department to
another, a department head will not have the power you
need.
Step 3. Close it!
Big, complicated sales sold to high-level executive
can get tied up in delays and shuffled from one person
to another. Always remember that you are there to help
the top dog win and you should never be afraid to let
them know that this important project is stalled in
middle management. Let the CEO be your Roto-Rooter and
help you clear the clogs in their system.
Obviously, this was an abbreviated version of the
Value Selling process, but many of you should be able to
get started on it today. Pick one account and make it
your goal to make a big value presentation by a given
date. Please share your successes with me. I love to
hear good news.
For a free copy of "20 Questions That Uncover Your
Value", please email article17@waterhousegroup.com and
ask for article #17.
Steve Waterhouse is Principal and Founder of Waterhouse
Group (www.waterhousegroup.com), a sales consulting and
training company that helps companies dramatically
increase their sales. He can be reached at
1-800-57-LEARN or
info@waterhousegroup.com.
Re-Print Permission
This article may be reprinted in it's entirety if the
following conditions are met:
- The complete tag with the author's name and contact
information is included immediately after the article.
- A copy of the printed article is mailed to the author at
1467 Walnut Creek Drive, Orange Park, FL 32003 within 30
days of publication.
- The article is presented in a positive light as part of
an appropriate business related publication.
|
