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Summary: We have to bring value to our customers or we simply become order takers. Order takers are easily replaced.

There are two basic types of value that you bring to your customers.

The company you work for has capabilities and strengths beyond just the products or services sold. The customer recognizes these as added value. The verbal or written expression of these values is called a value proposition. Hopefully your employer has taken the time to provide you with some carefully researched value propositions (which are basically just feature-benefit statements) that you can use with your customers and prospects.

You don’t want to use value propositions verbatim; you only need to have the basic concepts in your arsenal to use when appropriate. The best time to use them is when you are providing information to the customer or prospect in response to their expressed needs. Value propositions are for responding to the customer; they aren’t intended to be verbal sales brochures that you throw around.

The other type of value that you bring to your customers is what I call your personal value. This type of value is more important than the value your company adds. Your customers recognize the value that you, their sales representative, bring to the table because you know the following things about them: who/when/how to contact decision makers, their buying cycles, how they want things packaged and shipped - and where, how their purchase order process works, how they like to be invoiced, their policy on product/service substitutions, special packing requirements, budget limitations, etc.

Your ability to help them in these areas makes you a valued partner with your customers. These are things that allow you to charge a higher price than your competitors because you’re doing more than dumping products and services on their doorstep.

Without establishing your company’s value to the customer, and more importantly your personal value, you are really nothing more than an order processor who has to sell on price and availability. That can be limiting.

The best time to demonstrate value is during the prospecting stage of your sales cycle. This goes a long way in preventing many objections and helps you justify your pricing before it becomes an issue.

Of the two types of value that you bring to your customers, please know that your personal value is the most important. I am surprised at how many salespeople don’t realize how important this is to their selling success. Make sure you leverage personal value with your customers. At the end of the day it’s why your customers buy from you.

Are you aware of the value you bring to your customers? Have you stopped to think of all the things you personally do to partner with them?

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Tags: value

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