People buy things to deal with present or future pain or to get present or future pleasure. The strongest reason to buy is to get rid of present pain. These reasons all go to the value the potential buyer believes the seller brings. So as Peter Brusso told me: "People pay you money because you add value in their lives."
Our task as sales people is to provide value to our customers. Yes, the second task is to position your statements to help people perceive and believe you bring value, but the first task is always to provide value. If you get the second task confused with the first, you will come across as manipulative and untrustable. The first task is not getting them to believe we bring them value. The first task is to actually provide value to people. When you are providing real value people pay you money. That is more true today than twenty years ago when people had money they were willing to risk because the "pitch" sounded intriguing. Then, people were willing to bet some money on the possibility that the product or service would bring them value.
Bringing value means if they spend $20 or $200,000 with you, they will get $40 or $400,000 from it. Break your product or service into smaller pieces so buyers can take small steps and recognize the return on their investment you bring them. People will tell you NO if they do not see the return on investment. Help them see how you can help them get what they want.
Demonstrate to new prospects (who have not yet spoken to you) that you can bring them value. Use case studies or testimonials to help people recognize the value in $$$ your product or service has brought to others like themselves.
When I work with my clients who are engaging new people every day in conversations, I ask them to find out what their prospects are struggling with. I notice that many CEOs and founders have developed great products and services they want to sell. They hire sales people to go into the marketplace to spread the message, demo the product, and "get" people to buy the product or service. They provide the sales people with literature, websites, and demonstrations to show people what they can do.
The problem is there are so many new ideas, products, and services in the marketplace my head begins to spin when I try to stay up with the stream of press releases and articles announcing the latest release. I have interviewed several hundred business leaders on my radio show. They often get so excited about what their online products can do they forget to tell the listeners how using it will bring value. I call this the "look Ma, no hands" conversation. Remember when you first learned to ride a bike and you were so excited that you had mastered this step on the road to being a grown up. When you could ride down the street with your hands off the handlebar, you were showing what you could do. I am sure your mom was impressed. I know mine was.
I am impressed with the great many things brilliant people can do with data, the Internet, hardware, and technology. I am a sucker for the "look Ma, no hands" pitch. I don't believe this always brings value. I am entertained and fascinated by many of the apps on my iPhone. I have probably bought a hundred or more. There are only a few that bring me a return on my investment.
What value, what return on investment, will your product or service bring to the people you are talking to today? I am not talking about formal ROI studies you can present as part of your sales pitch. I am asking you to get very clear in your own mind before you speak with people about the $$$ value your product or service will bring.
You and I know business leaders are looking for ways to reduce the cost of doing business, for ways to increase their revenue, and for ways to reduce the risk of unforeseen events. Get very clear about how your product or service is a way to do at least one of these things. When you are clear in your own head about exactly what value you will bring to business leaders, then you can move on to the second task which is communicating that value to business leaders.
For instance, Bo Turner of Social123, knows that business leaders he speaks with are only interested in how quickly they can get a return on their investment. Social123 is a SAAS service that helps businesses monetize social media with business development by generating leads from social media. When he speaks to business leaders he knows that the investment is $29 per user per month or $360 per year. He also knows that for a $1500 one-time implementation fee, he can bring the greatest number of leads quickly.
Knowing this, he prepares to help business leaders come to the belief that they can use this tool to produce over $4,000 in new business profit within a year. Of course ,the goal would be to produce multiple times that number. But let's not get into blue-skying the product. If the business leaders came to the conclusion that he or she would, in fact, obtain at least $4,000 in profit in a year from a $2,000 investment, they would have a high probability of buying.
Bo can show the business leader how he is getting 2% to 5% initial response with Social123's demand generation techniques. Any business using Social123 will learn, not only how to use the system, but also the techniques Social123 is using to get 2% to 5% response. The next step in Bo's process is to find out a couple of facts from the buyer. He wants to know the current conversion rate from responses to campaigns. He also wants to know how the business is currently using social media to generate leads.
It is amazing to me how many businesses have jumped on the social media bandwagon, put lots of energy, resources, time, and money into social media campaigns without getting any metrics about results. All the effort is a "look Ma, no hands" exercise with lots of hope, but no accountability. Bo can ask the business leader if there is any value ($$$$) to knowing whether or not social media efforts are producing qualified leads that convert into sales. This is a significant value Bo can provide to a business.
Secondly, Bo will ask about what dollar value a closed business opportunity will produce. From that Bo can help the business leader to calculate how many closed opportunities are necessary to produce $4,000 in profit. It will take that many closed opportunities to justify investing in Social123's solutions and services.
This is how Bo goes about helping the buyer to convince him/herself that Social123 will bring $$$$ value to the business owner. From there the prospect will close him/herself.
I wonder how you are asking the business leaders you are speaking with to consider what value they need to believe they will receive in order to invest in your solutions and services? What do they need to consider and how will you help them come to the conclusion that it either makes no sense or makes all the sense in the world?
I am curious. Let's get a conversation going. Leave your comments.
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