The Perception of Value: Salesperson's vs. Prospect's

Customers buy when the value of a product or service is greater than the cost of that product or service (assuming they have a corresponding need and corresponding resources to pay for said product).

The determination of value is solely in the hands of the prospect. We may think our product is extraordinarily value, but if the prospect doesn't share our thinking, the customer isn't going to buy. That can be challenging for salespeople to understand.

And once we accept that, the even more challenging part of this value thing is that different individuals define value differently. We often sell with our individual value biases at the core of our selling methodology. But the next ten prospects we talk to may very well have ten different value points-of-view. Our message has to resonate with each of those ten prospects, not just the ones that share our value perspective.

Therefore, it's important for salespeople to know what value looks like to the customer. Sometimes we can simply ask the prospect, and sometimes the prospect will give us an accurate answer. But because a lot of people confuse value with price, we can get sidetracked and end up discussing price, when a discussion about value would be more helpful (price is a separate component of a buying decision). Salespeople who can get a clear picture of value from the prospect will have an advantage over their competition.

How do you do this?

- Advanced questioning skills
- A high degree of perceptiveness
- Wisdom developed through experience and learning
- Customers' verbal and non-verbal clues
- Changing the course of the selling interaction when necessary
- Skepticalness

To be more successful, strive to understand value from each prospect's s unique point-of-view.

How do you determine value from your customers' points-of-view? Please share your thoughts.

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Skip Anderson is the Founder of Selling to Consumers Sales Training, a B2C and retail sales training and management consulting company. Skip is nuts about helping companies and individuals sell more.