Posted by: dgrissom
Category: Achieving Excellence, Creating Value, Customer Retention, Improving Performance, Sales Mastery, Self Mastery
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Get Clear About Your Value.
Do you understand your value from your customer’s perspective?
You can’t sell what you don’t understand. That means the first step in selling to or influencing anyone is to clearly understand in your own mind the value of what you’re selling. The second step is to be able to articulate that value proposition in a clear and intriguing way.
Value is always defined by the customer. Your value is how you and your product or service provide relevant solutions to the customer. In other words – how you and your product represent value to the customer. It’s not just what you or your company or your marketing materials state as valuable. Rather, it’s what your customer perceives as valuable. This requires that you understand your customer both inside and out.
This may seem obvious, but sadly it isn’t. The reality is, many people go out to sell or influence every day without a clear picture of their value proposition, or the ability to communicate it. It is easier to deliver a scripted spiel of features and benefits. It is easier to assume or expect customers to perceive your value simply because you do. It takes effort to understand the customer’s business and connect what you sell to his needs and wants. But when you do it, the payoff in results is substantial.
What will you do to better understand what your customer values?
