Most, almost all, salespeople do not make a conscious effort to engage a prospect in a thorough conversation about Value. Some salespeople may disagree with me because they ask a question or two like: Is this something you can see yourself using? Or, Would this Solution X be valuable to you? Or, What would a solution like X be worth to you and your organization?
These types of questions are just not enough to get a prospect to actually calculate in her/his mind how much “hard dollar” value Solution X would bring into their world. The salesperson has to take this conversation to the next level. I call this going Five (5) Levels deep…
Let me ask you, would you spend your hard earned money on something that you do not consider of value? Would you spend a dollar on something that you do not perceive (either mentally or emotionally) to be worth at least a dollar?
Well, your prospect won’t either! When your prospect is in the process of determining if they are going to buy from you they are going to have an internal discussion about the value of your offer.
If you are smart, YOU WILL BE A PART OF THAT DISCUSSION!
So, what are some questions you can ask your prospect to help them realize that your offer is so valuable (such a great deal) that they have to act right now and make the buy?
There are many questions you could ask but what is important is the end goal must be kept in mind. The end goal is to get the prospect to tell you what the value of your product is to them in hard dollars, time savings converted into hard dollars or some other great emotional value they would receive with a hard dollar value assigned to it.
The last thing you should ever do is for YOU to tell the prospect how valuable your offer is. It is not your opinion of value that counts here. The prospect must determine the value in their mind (with your assistance…).
This is where you come in… This is where you can continue to ask questions (going 5 levels deep) until you get the prospect to tell you in “hard dollars” what is the value of the product. Don’t stop until they tell you in dollars and cents how much value they are assigning to your product. The idea here is to get them to state a dollar figure that is much higher than their product price. This way, using their own numbers you can show the prospect an immediate return-on-investment (ROI).
Your job here is to continue to ask the prospect questions to drive up the “client assigned” value. Ask them questions like… if you think you can save $100 per day with Solution X then what would that add up to over the course of a year. Of course you could do the math yourself and tell the client the number but that doesn’t work… the prospect HAS to tell you the number.
Remember this rule: If you tell the prospect the value of your offer … it doesn’t count. The prospect will not assign any credibility to your number (after all, you are trying to sell her/him something). When the prospect states the number it is REAL (and you can ask them to write it down when they tell you the number – this will help to anchor the value in the prospects mind…).
My main message here is you have to get a NUMBER… a hard dollar value. Once you have the hard dollar value then the prospect often will sell you on why they need to buy the product. Additionally, this information (the value that the client assigns to your product/service) will become very useful when it is time to close.
You can say: Bob, earlier you told me that you felt that Solution X is worth $20,000 to you this year… and I told you that Solution X requires an investment of $6,000. I’m confused… can you help me understand why you would not purchase the product? (then shut up…).
The top “TenPercenter” Salespeople always have this discussion about value with their prospects. I always say you can teach a monkey to Build Rapport and Find out the Needs of the client… but it is a truly polished professional that can handle the Value Conversation.
Write down 10 questions right now that you can ask your prospects to get them to tell you how valuable your product is to them… Let them sell you!
Contact:
Shane Byers
Connect on LinkedIn… linkedin.com/in/shanebyers-sales-trainer-growth