There is a formula that is often covered during my sales training presentations. That formula is Price = Need + Perceived Value. When the price of your product or service is higher than the need the customer has and the value they perceive in your product or service they more than likely will not be doing business with you. When the price of your product/service is equal to, or less than the need they have and the value they perceive in your product, then you stand a pretty good chance of securing that business.
Establishing Price
If you think about this formula, Price and Need are somewhat fixed in nature. Your price is your price - or should be your price. Some salespeople do not have much flexibility in setting the price. It is established by somebody else in the organization, and in order to maximize your commission you don’t want to come off that price very much. Others in this audience may have total control in the pricing that gets presented to customers. In that case you should be striving to establish a price that is profitable for your business, because let’s face it, making a profit is the only reason to be in business.
Establishing Need
The customer’s level of need is determined by them. The urgency, pain points, wants, desires are all in their court. You do not determine their level of need, but you certainly have some influence over it. How well do you explore their situation? How skilled are you at asking questions, listening to the responses, and asking follow-up questions to guide a conversation where you think it should go? During this questioning phase of the sales call, look for ways to bring their feelings of emotion into the discussion, as well as increasing their level of urgency. Emotion and urgency assist you in influencing their level of need.
Revealing Perceived Value
That leaves us with Perceived Value. By its nature this is variable, and you have almost total control over the level of perceived value established during a sales call. Your presentations must be impactful and memorable … you must not drone on like many of your competitors. You must stand out from the crowd and rise above the “white noise” that prospective customers hear from all the other companies that have presented to them.
It's All About "You"
Two ideas that would benefit your sales story, and thereby create a better value message are the use of “word pictures” and the words “you” and "your" during a sales presentation. A word picture describes something about your product but also associates that to a mental picture they can carry in their head that makes you and your story more memorable. “You” and “Your” are incredibly powerful words. When used during any written, or verbal communication they draw the audience in, make the message more personable, and increase the audience’s desire to find a solution. It is no accident the words “you” and “your” have been used 34 times already in this article. The goal is to create messages that resonate with people and those two words certainly help. They can help you too!
Time is of the Essence
The passage of time can complicate the idea of perceived value in the mind of your potential customers. If you leave the home with no order and the customer stuck on either “They want to think it over” or “We will be getting more quotes”, then they will make an incredibly important decision, with a lot of money at stake, with just two pieces of information: 1) What you, and every other company that has been to their house has left behind (a leave behind packet), and 2) their memory. That is all! They will be sitting in their house looking over all the assorted packets of information, thinking back on each sales presentation, and trying to remember key points about each offering. You have to your in person communication memorable. To stand out from the crowd, you must communicate in a purposeful, meaningful, and impactful way. Happy Selling!
