While at your kid’s school event, a friend’s backyard cook-out, or a sporting event, you might meet somebody new. You make introductions, and if the conversation lasts long enough, they may ask “What do you do?”
How do you respond? Do you say something like “I’m Joe Smith, and I own XYZ Remodeling.” Or perhaps “I’m in sales for XYZ Home Improvement.” In this column I want to challenge how you see yourself, how you define yourself, and how you communicate that message to those around you.
Tangibile Value
The concept of value in sales does not have to be an intangible, hard to describe notion. Simply put, value is the total experience you deliver to your customer in the form of product, company, and you. I often say the value story is like a three-legged stool. There is a leg for the company you represent, for the products/services you sell, and for you. A stool with two legs is nowhere near as stable as a stool with three legs. Like a stool, a solid value story needs to share information on the company, products, and salesperson.
Salespeople are quick to talk about the company they work for and the products they peddle, but very few have a relevant story about themselves. If that sounds like you, then you are selling yourself short. There is information to share with the customer that could increase the value of your offering and you never bring it up.
I encourage all salespeople I work with to think about the value their customer receives when doing business with them. What value do you bring that is unique and impactful to the homeowners in your market? Everybody’s story will be different. It will be based on the individual’s past, strengths, personality, knowledge, work history etc. This does not have to be a 20-minute monologue about how great you are. I am suggesting a 15 to 30 second story about the value you bring to your customers and the benefits they receive from doing business with you.
How to Communicate Value
To communicate this value story in an effective way, use language that focuses on the customer and demonstrates what it means to them. The crux of the story should not be on what you do, but why you do it. This forces you to incorporate in your messaging a deeper level of value for the customer, making your presentation more memorable and increasing the customer’s perceived value in the offering. An example might be “I help homeowners, just like you, to increase the energy efficiency of their homes, so they keep more of their hard-earned money in their pockets, which also helps, in a small way, global warming. Another one might be “I help homeowners increase the beauty and value of their homes; elevating their pride of ownership is one of the greatest rewards of my job.”
So, I ask again: What do you do? While holding a recent sales training session, and discussing the analogy between a solid stool, and a solid sales story, a participant asked me what my story was…what do I do? My response was “I help people just like you find greater success in sales.” What we talk about, we get paid for. What we don’t talk about, we’ll never get paid for. Happy Selling!
