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Quenching Your Customer’s Thirst for Value

(2019年1月6日)

Sweat poured down his back. He wiped his brow with the back of his hand. Miserable, Joe stopped walking and sat down in the hot sand. He couldn’t even remember how he got here. And he wasn’t sure what to do next. But he needed to do something. He licked his lips. “I’m thirsty,” Joe murmured. “So thirsty.”

“Thirsty, you say?” An older man, his skin tanned from the sun, walked toward Joe. “I’ve got just the thing for you.” He held out a small bottle of water.

“Twenty dollars, please,” the man said.

Joe shook his head. That’s steep for such a small bottle, he thought, but reached into his pocket for $20 anyway. “Wait,” said a young girl with a ponytail. “I’ve got a bigger bottle for eighteen dollars.”

Seemed like a better deal.

As Joe rose, a man in tattered sandals darted in between. “No, no,” he said. “My water is better. It’s from a nearby spring.”

“Don’t fall for that,” a bright voice shouted across the sand. “His spring water is the same as the rest of theirs. And her water,” she said, pointing at the young girl, “is still way overpriced.”

Joe turned to the bright voice. “You sell water too? I’m dying of thirst.”

“I do, but I‘m thinking water is the least of your problems,” she said. “What are you doing out here anyway?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I’m honestly not sure,” he stammered.

“Well,” she continued, “is this where you want to be?”

“No,” he said. He knew that much. He definitely didn’t want to be here.

“Well, then let’s go,” she said. “You’ll be less thirsty if we get out of the desert. I’ll get some water while we talk about where you want to go. I’m Brooke, by the way.” She stuck out her hand.

Joe shook her hand vigorously with what little energy he had left. He knew this was the best idea he’d heard yet. “I can’t thank you enough,” he said, as he pulled out his wallet.

Selling water to someone who is thirsty is simple, right? Not necessarily. In this case, Joe was thirsty, but that was only part of the issue. Had the first three people he encountered taken the time to help Joe analyze his situation, they would have discovered that Joe not only needed water but, more importantly, needed help figuring out why he was there and where to go.

Salespeople often miss the big opportunity because they fail to expand the conversation beyond making the simple sale. They miss additional opportunities to provide strategic value to their customers, helping them determine why they are there and where they need to go.

Many times customers need more than a simple answer to an immediate problem—they need a way out of the desert. They need your full expertise, working together with them to identify and solve problems. They need a collaborative partner to help explore new paths.

Brooke differentiated herself by taking a Selling to Value (S2V) approach. She dug deeper and engaged Joe in a discovery process to uncover what was behind the need for water. This opened up opportunities to truly understand Joe’s unstated needs so she could bring real value to him. As a result, she was able to not only sell the water to quench his thirst but also to continue the dialogue of his underlying goals, offering a solution that created greater value for him, and bigger sales for her.

S2V is about advancing your customer’s business. What if we invested more of our energy in understanding the root of our customers’ problems, the challenges they are facing, where they want to go, the impact they want to make, and the value they are truly seeking?

What is your customer thirsty for right now? Water? Or a way out of the desert?

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作者介绍
Michael Leimbach

Michael Leimbach

Michael Leimbach博士,担任Wilson Learning全球研究和设计副总裁。Leimbach博士拥有超过25年的专业经验,带领团队进行诊断、学习和绩效提升等方面的研究和设计。他曾带领研究销售、领导力和组织有效性;并制定了Wilson Learning的影响力评估和投资回报模型。Leimbach博士曾为多家全球公司担任研究顾问,曾在ADHR专业杂志担任主辑,并曾在ISO技术委员会TC232担任领导角色 — 制定学习服务供应商的标准。他有四本合著书籍并发表了大量的专业文章,也经常在美国和全球会议中发表演讲。

阅读更多, Michael Leimbach

David Yesford

David Yesford

David Yesford担任Wilson Learning全球高级副总裁,在制定和实施人力绩效解决方案领域拥有超过27年的经验。他为客户在战略方向和全球化视角方面带来了宝贵的经验。David曾参与销售及领导、在线学习和战略咨询领域的核心内容设计。David目前也是Wilson Learning全球执行委员会的成员。他曾担任中国和印度的总经理职务。他是多本书的特约作者,包括《双赢销售》,《灵活应变销售》,《社交风格手册》和《销售培训图书2》。David是一个活跃的全球演讲者,并在美国、欧洲、拉丁美洲和亚太地区的商业刊物发表了大量的文章。

阅读更多, David Yesford