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What is value added selling?

Almost all companies claim to have better people, better service, and more technical expertise than all of their competitors. The problem is that your competitors often say the same thing. And not everyone can be right.

This factor becomes even more confusing when sellers are asked what they think added value is. Some state that their clients require more frequent visits, while others believe that this is their experience.

However, the one thing that defines value in the eyes of the customer is overlooked by most in the sales field, and that is that buyer value can only be defined by the customer, not the buyer. supplier. Because it doesn’t matter what the seller thinks value is, it only matters what the customer thinks it is, and because customers don’t always think the same thing, the operational definition of added value varies from customer to customer.

Do you understand sales with added value?

Unfortunately, most salespeople don’t, because value-added selling is more than just a selling concept or some kind of new selling technique. Many of the people I’ve talked to seem to think they know what it is, but in most cases they don’t understand what value-added selling really is.

The reality is that value-added selling is a way to improve a packaged solution to the prospect that tends to promise a lot, but in essence, when run with only the needs of buyers in mind, usually delivers more, usually exceeding customer expectations. .

Put even more simply, value-added selling is a proactive way for the seller to personally take the initiative to add value. In essence, it is handled similar to how a professional pre-handles an objection by building more value up front so that price becomes less of an issue during the sales process.

Value-added selling is simply a course of action taken by the seller based on trust, because trust is the foundation of the relationship. The philosophy here is simple, if two people trust each other and want to do business with each other, they will work out the details. Buyers may have a preference for brands, but they will give up their allegiance for the people they like.

Value-added selling is the desire to achieve beneficial results for both the buyer and the seller, however, transactions should be more about the buyer than the seller because it is their problem; their money and a solution they must live with.

Also, value-added selling should be customer-focused, not vendor-focused. If the seller defines value in terms of the customer, he is willing to pay a little more. But when a seller imposes “value” on the customer, the seller pays for it at a higher discount.

Because of this focus on customer value, value-added salespeople approach the sale by looking for where they can help make the greatest impact on the customer’s business. By doing this, the salesperson helps the buyer achieve higher levels of success, because the salesperson’s attitude is the primary motivator of customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention.

When the seller understands these principles, he will also be aware that if he sells only the product, he opens the field to competitors. Alternatively, understanding salespeople add value with their problem-solving skills, knowledge, getting things done, and initiative.

THE ROLE OF THE VALUE-ADDED SELLER

In traditional selling, sellers focus on finding new business. In fact, some are so obsessed with finding new business or developing new opportunities that they often ignore existing customers in the process. Whereas salespeople focused on customer satisfaction will follow up, and it is during this follow up that they discover additional business opportunities.

The role of the value-added seller evolves throughout the sales process and adapts to the buyer’s needs in increased business opportunities by cross-selling additional products or services. While traditional salespeople focus on selling products, value-added salespeople focus on solving problems.

Perhaps a better way to put it is that where a traditional seller will try to create the buyer’s needs in order to sell a product or service, alternatively sellers focused on adding value on behalf of the customer seek to understand the buyer’s needs and act. Consequently, and where traditional salespeople focus primarily on making deals, those salespeople who focus on adding value are the ones who want to make a difference for the customer.

The fundamental difference in the two groups is that traditional salespeople’s primary focus and selling skill is closing, while value-added salespeople’s primary focus and selling skill is listening and adapting what they’ve heard you hear. are the main needs of customers and combine tailor-made solutions, whether they are product-oriented or service-oriented solutions.

Here are some tips on added value

By applying value-add as a sales concept, today’s effective salespeople will not only need to create much more positive business relationships with everyone they work with, but they will also need to further hone their current skills in asking questions, listen constructively to others as well as understand better ways to eliminate the deepest needs of your customers.

These are the same salespeople who want to understand what each customer finds valuable to them and then can work to apply creative solutions to what those customers value in their day-to-day business. It is then, and only then, that the customer will consider the seller worthwhile and an effective value-added seller.

But the most encouraging thing here is that each of these value-added selling skills can be learned. That’s right, a learned behavior that we can all benefit from. The fact is that no one is born with the ability to ask insightful questions, build positive relationships, listen constructively, or even develop creative proposals and solutions.

Remember, there has never been a born salesperson, nor will there ever be. Some think they may have natural sales talents, and we’ve all met plenty of them, but on closer examination, they’re generally fast-talking, bordering on unethical stalkers, and most don’t last long anyway. in the field of sales.

The beauty here is that the knowledge and processes applied by the best and most effective value-added salespeople can also be learned by anyone in sales today. Then, once a minimum level of experience is reached, these same (now retrained) salespeople can continually improve these further enhanced behavioral skills for the rest of their sales career, and will only improve over time to serve their customers at optimal levels. .

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