There aren’t many customers who don’t ask for a discount, right?
And you’ve instructed your reps to sell value vs price… right?
You’ve trained your reps that value is the difference between the price you charge and the benefits the customer perceives. You’ve shown them how to stack value up to outweigh the price.
But, the request for discount hasn’t stopped, plus the buyer is still not ‘getting’ your value and buying from someone else…and the vicious cycle of losing deals keeps happening.
My friend Colleen Francis reminded me of this activity we’ve been doing for years. Any time we did this exercise reps reduced the sales cycle and drove more sales.
It’s your turn to do this exercise Monetize-Value-Worksheet.pdf and take selling value vs price to a new level.
Let’s look at a better way to sell value vs price.
It’s about monetizing the value. Not just stacking up the value and there’s a difference.
The value you bring solves a problem or gains the buyer something.
Reps tend to be really good about asking current questions – what the buyer’s current situation is.
And reps are getting better at asking tomorrow questions… questions to discover the tomorrow… what they don’t have, yet what they truly desire.
Here’s where we fall short and could make or break the buyer really buying from you.
Reps may ask the tomorrow question… “What would you prefer it to be?”
So the buyer may say they want more (fill in the blank)… and yup… the rep has their tomorrow.
The key is… DON’T STOP THERE.
Here’s where you begin selling value without ‘selling’ just yet. This step is the holy grail to monetize the value.
It goes like this…
Buyer: I want more (fill in the blank)…
Sales rep monetize the value questions (select appropriate ones for your business):
1. What’s that’s costing you by not having what you want more of?
2. What are all the costs with not having what you want?
3. How does not having more of what you want effecting your organization both monetarily and other?
4. What are the downsides to not having what you want?
5. What are the upsides if you were to have what you want?
6. How does not having your ideal affect your customers in the long term?
7. What else happens in the domino effect when you don’t have what you want more of?
Next… the Sales rep’s how important question…
“How important is it for you to get the more of what you want?”
When the buyer says, “Yes, it’s important for them to solve their issue to get to their tomorrow”….
NOW, this is how you bridge to monetize the value….
“So what we are looking at doing, is getting you more (fill in the blank) by not having it is costing you (fill in the blank with a dollar amount) a year and with our help (product, solution) we can minimize your loss to only (insert dollars per year).
Does that sound right to you?”
Wow… look what just happened. You worked them through a process to clearly see how painful it is to them and the organization by touching their pocket book and not getting their tomorrow. You can be the hero to either minimize their loss (because some products it’s hard to make it all disappear)…. Or save them whether it’s time or money or gain them time or money!
Guess what…. The competition isn’t doing this.
How do I know… because your reps aren’t doing it either!
Starting tomorrow they are… because all you need to do is follow this simple 15-minute exercise with your team…
Monetize The Value Meeting
1. Place your reps in teams of 3-5 people.
2. Ask each team to select a customer problem, want, need, or opportunity you solve.
3. Each team has a
Monetize-Value-Worksheet.pdf with 3 columns. At the top the of the worksheet the team places their customer issue in the space provided.
4. In the first column the team creates a series of questions to drill down how that problem is costing them. Reminder… this is important to be written as open- ended questions – not statements.
5. In the next column estimate the average of what the element costs them.
6. Next, add up all of the potential cost losses – tangible and intangible. Your reps now have monetized the value.
7. In the last column, ask the reps to create a the statement to rephrase what the customer said adding the lost dollar amount.
8. Each team shares their worksheet. Also, copy and provide each worksheet to everyone.
Now that’s how the top performers really sell value vs. price.
P.S. Here’s Colleen’s video with a few examples!
