Learn how to sell to value by aligning your offering to the business value it creates for customers | Sales strategy article | Wilson Learning Worldwide

Permettre au client d’expérimenter comme atout vente

Selling to Value: The Art and Science of Discovery

Télécharger le PDF

Pat was not happy as she left the meeting with a long-term customer—now a former customer.

“Pat, we have done business together for a long time,” her customer started, “but we have decided to go in a different direction this time.” The customer went on to say how ABC Company, one of Pat’s biggest competitors, worked with them to integrate ABC’s solution into the customer’s systems, resulting in faster inventory turns with fewer shipping errors, and they were able to demonstrate how this will increase margins and profit for the customer.

The ABC Company’s salesperson sold value.

Everything has changed, yet nothing has changed.

Salespeople and sales managers are struggling.

Some have been rendered almost frozen, under the false belief that everything has changed about selling and they don’t know what to do. What had brought them confidence is now a source of anxiety and concern.

Others seem to be operating under the false assumption that nothing has changed. They believe there is no need to change their behaviour or learn new skills, but then they struggle upon discovering that many of the old ways of doing things are no longer effective and they don’t understand why.

At stressful times, salespeople, and sales managers, need to reach inside themselves and rediscover the reasons they went into sales—to connect back to the values of the profession and the rewards that come from it, and yes, it is a lot more than just the money.

Selling to Value (S2V) refers to a distinct approach to selling that focuses on aligning your offering to the business value it creates for the customer. This approach requires the sales practitioner to develop an ever-expanding mindset and skill set—and it requires a commitment to a purpose that goes beyond self-interest to include both the interest of the individual customer and the interests of that customer’s business organization.

S2V needs to be considered in all aspects of the sales process: prospecting, qualifying, contacting, proposing, and closing a sales opportunity. But Selling to Value has the greatest impact on how a salesperson discovers needs. Discovering needs is at the very heart of the selling to value relationship. When done correctly, it has a profound effect on the customer’s understanding of their business and where they can generate growth.

Traditional Discovery

In a more traditional sales process, discovery is focused on gathering information about customers’ needs. The salesperson asks good questions; the prospect/customer provides relevant answers. This enquiry proceeds until needs that can be met by the features of the products or services of the selling organisation are clearly understood by the salesperson. At that point, the salesperson enters into a discussion of how the features of their products or service meet or exceed the discovered needs of the customer organisation. In short, the salesperson explains to the customer how to solve a business problem.

On the surface, there is nothing wrong with this needs-based selling approach; millions of salespeople use it successfully every day. Unfortunately, since almost every salesperson follows this process, your product gets compared to competitors’ products feature by feature. This parity makes it extremely difficult for both the customer and the salesperson to distinguish amongst competing solutions and may confuse the customer into inaction. Therefore, while a traditional discovery process is necessary, it is not sufficient.

Traditional needs discovery ignores additional sources of value that can be brought into consideration. At its core, S2V is a thorough consideration of how the customer organisation creates value for its customers. In the S2V approach, the salesperson brings a broader understanding of the customer’s business context into an exploration of the business impact of their decision.

Discovery for Selling to Value

In a recent study of buying executives, 94% indicate that they want salespeople to engage them in a business impact discussion—but those same executives indicate that only 19% of salespeople are effective in this regard.

This gap between what buying executives want and what they get is driven by three critical elements:

  1. The Intention of the Salesperson
  2. The Science of Creating Value
  3. The Art of Asking the Next Question
Intention: Where is the Energy Focused?

Where traditional selling may focus its intent on solving the customer’s problem, S2V requires a different intent—advancing the customer’s business. S2V requires salespeople to expand their role beyond finding and solving problems to truly wanting to see their customer’s business flourish and grow.

Salespeople, by their own report, experience different levels of energy associated with their sales activities. When they are focused on solving a problem and achieving their quota, their energy is internally focused and fixed on self-protection. However, when focused on advancing the customer’s business, they report that they feel more focused and fully engaged in the moment. They are free of fear and second-guessing.

Exploring enriching ways to advance the customer’s business performance, in partnership with the customer, creates new energy for creativity and innovation.

The Science of Value Creation

With this clear mindset, moving beyond solving problems and engaging in exploration of how to advance the customer’s business requires salespeople to expand the conversations they have with their customers. These expanded conversations need to follow a discovery process that is focused on the customer as a business. That is, the conversation needs to move beyond the traditional product-centred discussion of problems and solutions. The new business-centred conversation explores how the customer organisation produces value for its customers.

We have found that this conversation can be greatly enhanced by following a Business Needs Identification approach.

The Business Needs Identification approach provides an organising structure to guide the exploration of how the customer organisation produces value. The company’s ability to produce value for its customers is influenced by five major elements.

1. Market

Your conversations with customers begin with exploring the market in which the customer organisation competes. The value produced by the customer organisation is always best understood from the perspective of the market, its customers, and its competitors.

S2V involves exploring market trends and helping the customer organisation to exploit opportunities that arise from a growing market or to minimising the effects of a contracting market.

2. Strategy

The conversation about market forces flows naturally into an exploration of how the customer organisation’s strategy addresses their market and produces a competitive advantage. Questions about their source of competitive advantage and their Critical Success Factors (CSFs) dominate S2V discussions to determine their long-term goals and resource allocation.

3. Structure

The customer organisation’s strategy cannot be implemented unless the organisation’s structure is aligned to execute that strategy. With a solid picture of market conditions and current strategy in place, the conversation easily flows into a discussion of the customer organisation’s ability to execute the strategy.

4. People

There is a reason payroll is the single largest business expense: people drive the business forward. Efforts to implement a new strategy require the engagement, not just cooperation, of the people in the organisation.

5. Business Metrics

Underlying all the other components are the customer’s business metrics. Knowing what metrics are most important for the customer organization helps you understand how they measure and track their own value production and how they will track the performance of your solution. S2V requires salespeople to become fluent in the way customers talk about and measure their own success.

The Art of Asking the Next Question

We have frequently had this conversation with new salespeople: “I don’t know what happened. I went on a joint call with Sam (company’s top salesperson) and wrote down every question he asked. But when I tried using them, it did not work; the client ended the meeting early.”

This is because Sam understood the art of the next question; the new salesperson didn’t.

The S2V discovery process is much more than a list of questions. It is, first of all, a demonstration of the salesperson’s intense and compassionate curiosity about the customer and the ability to let customers lead the discovery process, not the salesperson.

Business professionals love to talk about their work. They are excited to participate in a conversation about the issues that keep them up at night. They can become deeply engaged when they feel they are learning something new or exploring new possibilities for producing more value for their customers.

When a salesperson, in conversation with a customer, offers his or her full experience and expertise in service to the customer’s organisation, and allows the discovery process to dig deeply into the concerns of the customer, something special happens. Important information is shared, cooperation and trust strengthen, and new possibilities are created and explored.

Practising the Art and Science of Discovery

In the past, there was a world in which the customer had limited access to product information, and a simple needs-based approach to selling worked fine for both the salesperson and the customer. Today, the customer has already shopped extensively before agreeing to meet with a salesperson. Customers are looking for something more than an explanation of features; they are looking for a new perspective on how best to move their business forward. They are looking for insight and a new perspective on market trends and competitive positioning.

Sales organisations need to develop an approach to selling that adapts to the way their customers want to make purchasing decisions. Customers have also been pretty clear that they expect salespeople to deliver value.

Customers increasingly expect selling organisations to use and sell to value.

This move from a problem-centred approach to a business-centred approach may seem easy, but it requires three things: a mindset change that places the customer’s business ahead of your own, new knowledge by exploring how the customer’s business runs, and new skills to follow the customer’s lead to the next question.

Pour en savoir plus, contactez Wilson Learning au 01 47 51 70 70 or rendez-vous sur notre site Internet at WilsonLearning.com.

Vous pourriez également être intéressé par la lecture
 Approche de la vente
 Gagner le statut de conseiller digne de confiance
 La Vente Conseil (The Counselor Salesperson™)
A propos des Auteurs
Michael Leimbach

Michael Leimbach

Michael Leimbach, Ph.D., est Vice President of Global Research and Design chez Wilson Learning Worldwide. Avec plus de 25 ans d’expérience à son actif, Dr. Leimbach dirige la recherche et la conception des outils de diagnostic, d’apprentissage et d’amélioration de la performance de Wilson Learning. Dr. Leimbach a effectué des travaux de recherche importants dans les domaines de la vente, du leadership et de l’efficacité organisationnelle, et a développé les modèles de retour sur investissement et d’évaluation d’impact. Dr. Leimbach a également agi en tant que consultant auprès de nombreuses organisations clientes internationales, est membre du comité de rédaction de la revue professionnelle ADHR, et occupe un rôle de leadership au sein du comité technique ISO TC232: Standards for Learning Service Providers. Dr. Leimbach est co-auteur de quatre ouvrages, a publié de nombreux articles professionnels et intervient fréquemment lors de conférences nationales et internationales.

Lire la suite de Michael Leimbach

David Yesford

David Yesford

David Yesford est Vice-Président de Wilson Learning Worldwide. Fort de plus de 30 ans d'expérience dans le développement et la mise en oeuvre dans le monde entier de solutions visant à améliorer la performance humaine, M. Yesford apporte à son travail une expertise précieuse, une orientation stratégique et une perspective globale. Il a occupé au sein de Wilson Learning des postes stratégiques dans les domaines clés de la vente et du leadership, ainsi que de l'e-learning et du conseil stratégique.

M. Yesford a contribué à l'écriture de plusieurs livres et a été publié dans diverses revues commerciales à travers le monde. Il intervient régulièrement lors d'événements internationaux sur les sujets de la vente, du leadership, de l'engagement des employés et des clients, de la marque et de la mise en oeuvre de stratégies.

Lire la suite de David Yesford

Abonnez-vous maintenant! Se il vous plaît remplir ce formulaire pour vous inscrire pour recevoir des articles et des documents.

* Les champs obligatoires

Wilson Learning wishes to use your details to send you communications regarding our products, services, and insights into leadership and sales training. Your data will not be shared with any third parties and will only be used by Wilson Learning Worldwide, Inc. and its subsidiaries, agents, and authorised distributors.

 I would like to receive further marketing related email communications from Wilson Learning.
Wilson Learning respects your privacy under the General Data Protection Regulation.

J’accepte Je n’accepte pas

Comme de nombreux sites Web, ce site Web définit et utilise des témoins afin d'améliorer votre expérience d'utilisateur . Vous pouvez lire notre politique ici.

Je donne mon autorisation pour l’utilisation de cookies sur ce site.

Confidentialité | Informations Légales