Value Selling Blog

When leaving a trade show, most professionals are focused on one thing and one thing only: Beating a fast path home. But if you’re leaving the show minus the investment of time and money with little to “show” for it, then what was the point of leaving home to begin with?

If you’ve leveraged the value selling guidance we’ve provided thus far, you should arrive home with a virtual box full of qualified leads. Once you're back from the show, you may just want to put your feet up and relax a little. But you can't!

“You're off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain [of qualified leads] is waiting, So...get on your way!”  -  Dr. Seuss

Today’s the day you get to meet all those wonderfully qualified attendees who made appointments to meet you at the big show and see the results of their assessment. You’re all set up and your team is ready to dazzle, as you await the first of your pre-qualified meetings.

It’s time to really put the value-selling approach to the test, and begin to show them the money. You’re ready to start helping each attendee begin building a business case that closely defines their business obstacles and begins to illustrate how your solution can tackle those problems. 

According to the SCi Sales Group, it takes an average of 80 calls to get an opportunity to speak with a C-level executive. Unpacking even more statistics, the group also found that 76% of junior executives rejected the last three sales calls they received; however, only 47% of higher executives did the same.

What does that tell us? The higher you reach, the more likely it is that you’ll actually connect to someone willing to take your call and able to make a decision. And that’s exactly what you want to do -- begin your sales relationship with the most senior accessible contact.

Trade show require thorough preparation to ensure a successful outcome.  As Stephen Covey said, you need to “begin with the end in mind.” In other words, you have to establish your goals for the show before you get there. Who are your targets and how many meetings do you want to schedule? What do you want to accomplish at the show? How much revenue do you need to generate to justify the investment?

When it can cost $25,000 or more to exhibit at a tradeshow plus the time and expense of travel for each individual you send to the show, you need to wring every bit of return possible out of your investment. We are offering a four-part series on planning improvements to your trade show results, designed to help you gain more new customers and reduce the risk inherent in making such a significant investment.

This initial post will provide an overview of the challenges of making a trade show appearance pay off, and show you how to take advantage of multiple opportunities to increase the likelihood of success. Learn the best  strategies to increase your customer base so you can turn this substantial expense into meaningful profit.

Engaging channel partners can be part of an effective strategy to grow your company, enter new markets and increase your sales volume. A good partner can help build your credibility with introductions and referrals to their customers, provide access to new prospects, and expedite and secure their entrance into your sales funnel.

If your company recently launched a new product or service, or is competing in a new category, you may be wondering how to convince prospects to consider your solution.

You haven’t had the opportunity to build up much evidence yet; you lack testimonials, and don’t have the data to show potential buyers how your solution can save money, build revenue, or help solve a problem.

The underlying challenge is that buyers don’t know how or why to buy your solution. Since it’s new, it’s different. Buyers are unsure where to start, especially if the value your solution delivers falls outside of traditional metrics and thinking. 

People like, no make that love to talk about themselves. If they do all the talking, they think they’ve had a great conversation. 

Did you ever walk away feeling you really connected with someone, and then realized you didn’t really know anything about the person you just talked to for 30 minutes or more?

It’s like a blind date gone bad, but it happens all the time in sales. Salespeople want to sell and, to many, selling means telling. The show up and throw up method doesn’t project well on a blind date any better than it does in an early sales interaction.

What is a sure way to lose a sale? Give a demo before you know what the prospect needs.

We get it. Demos are easy. Demos are sexy. But did you notice that demo is a four letter word? Like many four letter words, you need to know when to use it for greatest effect. 

Demos aren’t effective sales drivers when they’re deployed at the wrong place in the sales cycle. That’s because before you demonstrate your product or service, you must fully understand the business problem your prospect needs to solve. 

No longer can a single executive make buying decisions on behalf of the entire company. According to a survey by CEBGlobal, the average number of people required to make a B2B purchase has risen to 5.4.  

As a seller, you need to convince more than five people, all with different agendas and priorities, that your solution is the one to buy. You also need to keep in mind that each of those 5.4 people can have veto power over organizational purchases. 

Consensus is not built easily; it typically requires someone to bring the factions together, a facilitator, if you will. That facilitator must be you, the sales executive.