"When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier"

Roy. E. Disney

Chew on this one for a moment... How much value are you creating for your clients and prospects to help grow your sales?

All too often, I hear sales reps, sales management and those in executive management sing praise to the importance of creating value for their customers and prospects. Inside a sea of sales sameness, VALUE; irrefutably becomes the single biggest aspect within the sales process.

However, in order build value, how many know the true meaning of value? Why is this so important?

"Know thy value, know thy worth"

SEA OF SAMENESS

Too many sales reps act like 'walking, talking brochures', as they simply regurgitate product information. Your clients and prospects aren't buying into your facts and features, most aren't even product oriented in their thinking; what they're focused on is finding a solution to their problems and solving their problems. This is what creates value for them.

When you pound your chest and rattle off great wizardry about your products, you fail to position you and your knowledge as the answer to their pain, frustration or aspiration.

Instead, all you've done is position yourself as a commodity, swimming in the deep blue sales ocean known as the 'sea of sameness'. You've allowed your customers and prospects to base more of their purchasing decision on price, thereby pressuring profit margins as they crush you with the sales sameness hammer.

A true sales professional creates value with their proposition through the eyes of their customer. With 20/20 vision, they clearly gain the opportunity to be viewed like none other in the marketplace; as if they've almost created a new market segment of one. These sales professionals have effectively repositioned themselves from their competition. Price now becomes a less dominating factor within the purchasing decision. I get it, price will always be an issue, but if the customer perceives unique value, price will never be THE issue.

"Creating value not only transforms sales effectiveness, it provides insulation from the price hammer."

THE THREE V'S A SALES PROFESSIONAL TAKES TO HEART

Building strong relationships and understanding holistically what value means, lays the foundation for becoming valuable.

THEY KNOW THEIR VALUE

A sales professional understands their value. They know value is deeply cemented within the foundation of their business house. What makes you valuable? People won’t ever engage in a business conversation nor buy from you if they don’t even understand why they should pay attention to you.

A sales professional understands their value proposition is their promise. It's the value they deliver, communicate and our held accountable for fulfilling. 

"How well do you know your value proposition?"

Given customer expectations and the competitive business landscape, a sales professional consistently reviews their value proposition as part of their personal business strategy. They spend time with their current clients to see if they're actually meeting and fulfilling the aspects within their value proposition with them.

On a daily basis, a sales professional will ask themselves...

• What do I represent?
• What is my ideal self?
• How would I describe myself?
• What are my values?

THEY KNOW THEIR CLIENTS VALUE

A sales professional always looks at things through the eyes of their clients and prospects. They develop a true understanding of what they value. They realize all customers value different things; as there's no cookie cutter model of what customers value and how to create it for them. The same can be said for different people within the same organization. A sales professional gains an understanding and builds credible relationships with all of the people making up the customer buying team. This is to ensure their sales communication is appropriate for each one of them.

"A sales professional doesn't cut corners and assume they know their clients or prospects value"

By solidifying the relationship, a sales professionals is able to get a better sense of their current business situation and where they want to be; as this information is used to position their value proposition to address their problem and needs.

A sales professional will spend as much time as is necessary in gaining an understanding of client value. They know taking shortcuts and skimming over key details will result in a failure to create and communicate value. 

THEY KNOW THEIR COMPANY'S VALUE

Company values are the guiding principles that are most important to a sales professional about the way the company works.

They align their values to the company's to create a value based go to market strategy. Words they align to...

• Being accountable
• Making a difference
• Helping others
• Focusing on detail

When alignment of values happen, people understand one another, everyone does the right things for the right reasons. Value alignment helps the company as a whole to achieve its core mission, taking care of their clients and employees.

"How well do you know your company's mission statement?"

When values are out of alignment, with people working towards different goals, with different intentions, and with different outcomes; this ultimately can damage work relationships, productivity, job satisfaction, and creative potential. In the end, a sales professional marries both values together in harmony and uses this to take care of their current clients as well as to grow new opportunities.

BUILDING VALUE REQUIRES PAYING CLOSE ATTENTION

Done with precision, building value positions sales professionals with a great chance to grow sales and long term business relationships. A sales professional understands the sales process is both the same and different for each customer.

Therefore, to help crush their sales, a sales professional pays close attention to the strength of their relationships, tolerance for change, the customer's current situation and asking the right questions.

To crush sales numbers, it's imperative that sales professionals marry their value, their client's value and their company's value in complete harmony; one that is uniquely suited to promote growth and better business.

I understand, I get where you all are coming from. Every day, I walk in your shoes. I am fully committed to helping your sales team integrate social aspects and modern strategies into your current sales process to grow new business. I want you to get results. This is why I am passionate about doing this the right way, the genuine way, the authentic way!

I'm writing a book. The title is Selling From the Heart! I'm pouring my heart into every page of this book and I think you're going to love it.Enter your email address here in this hyperlink and you'll be updated as the book is released. You'll also become part of our launch team. As a thank you, I'll have some special bonuses waiting for you! 

You can find more advanced training material inside the Social Sales Academy website.

I appreciate getting the opportunity to share my stories. Integrating the use of social and sharing my story on LinkedIn was my “game-changer” in the highly competitive office technology world. With great pride I transform, challenge, coach and inspire sales teams to grow new business by helping them share their story and how they communicate it out by integrating the use of social inside the sales process. You can follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Social Sales Academy and on my podcast by clicking on Selling from the Heart.