It seems as if the phrase “sell on value, not on price” must have been around since shortly after the dawn of B2B selling, and it would be hard to argue with the sentiment. But what do we actually mean by value - and perhaps more important, how do our customers perceive value?
If your prospective customer is seriously evaluating a new project that involves both a significant investment and a change to their existing approach or environment, it is close-to-inevitable that they will be seeking clear answers to 4 key questions (and a clear consensus across all key members of their decision-making and approval stakeholder groups) before they will be prepared to make a commitment:
Statistics tell us that 50% of all non-technical graduates of four-year colleges will spend some career time as salespeople. There are over 4000 colleges and universities in the United States. Among them, only about 200 have more than two courses in selling or sales management.
At the peak of my Solution Selling business, in the mid-90s, I was speaking to one of our clients. He was the VP of Sales of an enterprise B2B salesforce of 200 reps, and he was frustrated. He was selling highly complex software as a service application to chemical, drug, and oil companies.
There’s a major flaw in most of our (sellers/marketers) mindsets when we think about opportunities and the customer buying journey. This flaw is embedded in our engagement approaches, our processes, how we think about deals and moving forward.
I got annoyed recently at a post that went viral on LinkedIn. It wasn’t something I disagreed with or found problematic. It was just that I was jealous.
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