Author: Vincent Bull in: Food for Thought
Business Solutions
As discussed, there are Three Ways to Sell Value. This is called Value Based Sales, or VBS. But which approach should you take? To answer this, you need to do some research.
First, determine what sets you apart. For example:
Determine what added value you can better apply to your offers and where you can improve in a way that adds further value. Once you know this, you know the best place to start offering the value to your prospects.
Next, determine your prospective clients’ weak points. For example:
In this, each VBS approach has different benefits for your clients:
Knowing what they need helps you know what approach to use to sell your strengths in a way that is mutually beneficial.
Your team is there to instruct and inform. This change to current processes can create conflict. This means that you can expect there to be people that resist your changes. When this happens, remember: Understand their side, communicate your understanding, and negotiate a better resolution.
These conflicts arise with different groups, based on your approach.
This approach can be met with resistance from your sales team as they adjust. Your team will still use their expertise in your industry as their core, but they will need to shift their focus from product features to measurable benefits. This gains appeal at higher levels in the customer organization.
To ensure your success your team will need training, value calculators, and new incentive schemes.
Most resistance in the customer process VBS comes from the customer teams. Here, your teams need to have deeper understanding of the clients’ target industry along with process management, consulting, and some conflict resolution skills so they can work with the customer to improve production areas as they see them.
To ensure your success your team will need core members that have a better understanding of the customer goals and processes along with an understanding of their industry.
This approach can be met with resistance from all related teams. Your teams need to have open communication with your customer and be ready to have customer representatives as agents on your shop floor and vice-versa. This blurring of customer and supplier requires added management oversight as staff adjust to their new roles.
To ensure your success your teams may need new organizational structures that decrease team silos and ease cross-team communication along with clearly stipulated client and supplier responsibilities, value sharing, and incentive schemes.
Not everyone is ready or willing to buy that higher sticker price that comes with VBS. Even when it means better returns in the long run. Because of this, and the cost to implement VBS, it is important to know your customer base and what they are willing to accept.
For your clients to buy your value, they need to have a better understanding of the total cost of ownership and the long-term effects of the added cost. They should also understand the risks that come with that value.
Your VBS customers also need to have enough buying power to support the changes that may be required to buy your value, especially for customer process and performance approaches.
You need to understand your clients well enough to know which ones are a good fit for your VBS approach. The size of your offer and the access you have to clever decision-makers should impact your sales approach.
When approaching a customer for VBS:
Joona Keränen, Harri Terho, and Antti Saurama, (September 01, 2021) Three Ways to Sell Value in B2B Markets
Value Selling: The Ultimate Guide To Value-Based & Value-Added Selling
Alfred, Lestraundra (Nov 12, 2019) 7 Key Principles of Value-Based Selling
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