As 2018 comes to a close, it’s natural to reflect on the content and themes that have shaped this blog over the past twelve months. Subscribers were joined by new readers to expand our active community of sales and marketing leaders, as we continue to explore the ever-changing contours of the B2B landscape.
The following five blog posts were among our most active topics, both in terms of reader engagement and the discussions we have with our clients. Whether you are seeing these posts for the first time or you’ve read them before, I encourage you to spend a few quiet minutes with each post and contemplate how the ideas presented can help you achieve your professional goals in 2019.
1. Why Value Based Selling is Still So Successful
This post expands on viewpoints we first put forth five years ago. The original post remains our most popular but this updated version is widely read as well.
A value-based selling discipline shifts the focus away from product and price. These are replaced by emphasizing the buyer’s problems and how they can be solved, and articulating the value in solving them becomes paramount. Sales success hinges on understanding customer needs and building the justification for change.
2. Sell the Problem You Solve, Not the Product You Have
This post contains real world advice from an interview with a value engineer at a global cybersecurity enterprise. The discussion is impactful and reveals deep insights from an expert value selling practitioner.
Customers look to vendors to facilitate the financial justification for solving their problems. In response, leading business value consultants first help identify the customer’s needs and desired outcomes. Only after mutual agreement on the desired results do other considerations such as product, benefits, cost, risk and alternatives become considerations.
3. Philosophy of Value Selling
Ethos, Pathos, Logos, and Kairos were terms used by Aristotle to help advance the art of rhetoric. This interesting post relates how you can use these concepts to become more persuasive when selling complex solutions.
Recognize which, or which combination, of these techniques to use depending upon the selling situation or buyer’s role. These timeless rhetorical strategies offer understandings into relationships, motivations, and decision making.
4. How to Make Every Sales Rep a Challenger
This post examines the six statistically significant attributes found in Challenger reps and the relationship of those characteristics to value selling.
Value selling methodologies and tools strongly align with these attributes. A value selling discipline enables strong Challenger reps to do what they already do best, but in a more efficient and repeatable manner. For sales reps still growing into their Challenger potential, value selling provides the structure to accelerate that development.
5. Value Pricing: The Math Behind the Methods
In setting a product’s price, the only goal should be to maximize the company’s earnings over the product’s lifetime. This post dives into the intricacies associated with that process.
A value pricing strategy leverages the value customers expect to receive from your product to set the optimal price for your product. There are seven variables, many of them interrelated, that influence the price that should be charged. Although the market information may be imperfect, the more important consideration is to understand the thought process behind setting an optimal price.
Bonus: How to Sell Complex Solutions to Multiple Buyers
This additional topic, published just a few weeks ago, is already becoming one of our most widely read posts for 2018 so it was worth calling out. The post is a summary of my guest appearance on The Sales Conversation Podcast, hosted by Bruce Scheer, founder of Sales Conversations. The feedback from listeners to the podcast episode has been quite complimentary so I offer this aide-mémoire to our readership about this opportunity to learn more about value selling.
Conclusion
The contents of these posts are linked by the principles of value selling. Value selling programs and tools have many applications and can help overcome numerous B2B marketing and sales challenges. Explore and subscribe to our blog for more ideas on how value selling can help you achieve your professional goals.
