Value Selling: What It Is, Why It’s Important, & How It’s Done
Value selling is a sales approach that focuses on benefitting the customer throughout the entire sales process. Essentially, you’re selling the prospect on the value your service/product brings to the table versus selling the product itself. For example, don’t spend the entire sales meeting droning on about the latest features of your product. Instead, show and tell your prospect how your product impacts their bottom line, saves time, or solves a specific challenge they’re facing.
74% of buyers end up choosing the company that was the first to add value. Basically, if you want to stand out from competitors, value selling is the way to go. Read on to learn more about the best practices to effectively sell value in every sales interaction.
Put the needs of the prospect first
Ultimately, the most important relationship a sales rep has (besides the one with their mother) is with their buyer.
On a serious note, a crucial aspect to value selling is to foster mutual trust and respect in buyer/seller relationships. By putting the needs of the prospect first, the seller is creating a comfortable and personalized environment for the buyer. When asked what can a sales rep do to positively improve the sales experience, 69% of buyers said, “listen to my needs.” To execute value selling, the sales rep needs to deeply understand the prospect. Essentially, the seller must have a solid knowledge of the buyer’s background, their pain points, needs, and wants. The more background knowledge the sales rep has on the prospect, the more value they are able to sell.
This deeper understanding helps sales reps more adequately sell value to the right prospect. Knowing a prospect’s main pain points and providing them with a valuable solution shows that you did your research and took the time to develop a personalized solution.
To learn more about Sales Enablement, read our guide: What is Sales Enablement
Focus on value selling by educating the buyer
Another aspect of value selling is educating the buyer. By educating the buyer on a topic of interest, sales reps are already providing value. For example, let’s say your prospect is looking to purchase a life insurance plan. But your insurance firm offers so many different options! Which one is best for the prospect? By educating the buyer on your insurance plans and on how these plans prove to be beneficial, you’re selling value.
A great way to educate the buyer when value selling is to use case studies from satisfied customers. Trust is accumulated when a buyer learns that the company has hundreds or thousands of happy customers. This tactic is a great way to sell value without being too forceful or pushy. Actually, 50% of prospects think sales reps are too pushy. A sales rep’s role is to act as a trusted advisor. So don’t be pushy, just provide value at each interaction.
Personalize the sales process
You can’t properly execute value selling if you don’t fully personalize the experience at each stage of the buyer’s journey. Through our own research, we found that interactive and personalized sales content can be up to 25% more effective in communicating a message. Personalized sales materials help the prospect visualize the value the seller’s product or service will provide.
When it comes to value selling, it’s absolutely crucial to personalize the sales process. Think about it. How can you sell value to someone without knowing what it is they find valuable? Ensuring personalized customer experiences is to make certain the prospect knows that you understand their needs. For example, gaining personal details about a prospect’s health background, habits, and insurance requirements, enables sales reps to provide the prospect with a solution tailored specifically to their needs.
Additionally, the prospect should also have a solid understanding of how your service will bring them value. Consider this example. You’re selling a product that will positively impact the prospect’s bottom line but they are having a difficult time understanding how. Instead of just telling them how your product can save them a large amount of money, visualize exactly how much money they can save by purchasing your product. One of the most impactful ways to showcase your company’s value is with ROI calculators.
Use ROI calculators when value selling
ROI calculators visualize the value prospects gain when investing in your product or service. This creates a highly personalized experience for the prospect and is a great value selling tactic. Think about it this way, ROI calculators put your prospects in the shoes they’ll be in once they invest in your product/service.
Imagine you are an insurance sales rep. And, your prospect tells you they are interested in learning about life insurance plans. By using an ROI calculator in your presentation, you can visualize a potential insurance payout for that individual customer. To do this, the prospect will need to input their own information into the calculator. This information may include annual salary, whether or not they need a pension for their children, and other criteria. The calculator will take this data into account and show the prospect their unique potential insurance payout. This is value selling at its best. Before purchasing insurance, the prospect fully understands the value they will gain by purchasing this insurance plan.
Primarily, ROI calculators enable sales reps to focus on a prospect’s main pain point and illustrate the value of the solution. In the end, prospects are able to see the value in making a purchase.
For an in-depth overview of value calculators, check out our blog ROI Calculators: The Ultimate Selling Tool.
Final Thoughts
To put it simply, value selling is ensuring that a sales rep is accurately portraying the value of the product/service to each prospect. Why is this product valuable for the prospect? How will this service improve the prospect’s daily life? These are the questions that sales reps will be enabled to answer through value selling tactics. By providing value to the prospect, sales reps are better able to close the deal.
Ready to sell value to your prospects? Request a demo with our team and transform your sales now!