Here’s what I’ve discovered after working with thousands of sellers around the globe for over 20 years: a very small number of sales reps conduct business value conversations with their buyers. This is despite the reality that value selling improves margins, close rates, and customer satisfaction better than any sales strategy out there.
Presentation is everything, from food and fashion to thought leadership and value propositions. There’s a lot riding on how well your team articulates the customer’s problem and presents the value of your solution. When it’s done clearly, persuasively, and with a sense of urgency, buyers will take action quickly and decisively in your favor.
When it comes to closing new business, there are various tools and dynamics that can make or break a sale. They are all complementary, so it’s not always possible to know which of them ultimately closed the deal.
They’ve been to your website to research your product and download free content. They follow you on social media and learn from your posts without commenting. Though they lurk in the shadows, today’s buyers are hard at work educating themselves about every possible solution to their problem.
Our series on value pricing wraps up with three pitfalls that can jeopardize future sales, customer satisfaction and of course, your bottom line.
When you get right down to it, B2B deals are driven by the buyers’ desire to lower costs or grow sales. Even if they tell you they want to “mitigate risks” or “achieve compliance,” buyers still expect to achieve their desired outcome along with a positive impact to their bottom line.
Previous posts in our series on value pricing have examined its risks, rewards, and mechanics, all with the goal of maximizing earnings for your company. Let’s expand on this foundation with practical tips and methods for considering the impact and likely market response to your pricing decisions.
About four years ago, we published a blog post titled Why Value Based Selling is So Successful, written by Jim Heffernan, an associate and business partner. To this day, it is our most popular and most read post.
Our series on value pricing continues with a detailed look at how to set prices that benefit both you and your customers. Now that you understand the risks of other pricing models and how value pricing leverages the value your offering creates for customers to maximize earnings for your company, let’s look at one way to actually calculate the optimal price and the data you would need to populate the formula.
The vast majority of buyers evaluate technology solutions based on the criteria of “better, cheaper, faster.” This approach seeks technology that can improve some aspect of their business at a lower cost. While this is important, it’s often incomplete.
