In this interview with Julie Thomas, CEO of Value Selling Associates, we discussed the importance of taking a value first approach to selling today, and the importance of proper discovery, communication and quantification of business, organizational and personal value to bridge the value gap. Julie had vauable information to share, and here are just a few examples…
On the need for value selling…
I think that we’re seeing that the need for value selling or understanding by sellers. Having the full understanding of the value they bring to their customers is more important than ever. And we’re seeing it manifest in a couple of ways. You gave a couple of examples there as you talked about that in the delayed purchases. But we are seeing that sales reps – when they are successful – there are almost two sales they have to win. I have to win in my category. I have to be differentiated and they have to select me for Whatever they’re doing. That’s the first sale. But then that second sale is this fight for capital, and you kind of alluded to it with your “Covid Committee”. It’s a fight for capital. So,somebody’s deciding ‘do we do Project A or do we do project B’. They are unrelated, and often times the sales reps do not even have access to those people on the Covid Committee. If they did, those people have no interest in talking to a sales rep.”
What is value discovery?
“Some sales reps believe it’s so hard to get the appointment in the first place, ‘I’ve got to make sure they understand what I do’ and so they do that “show up and throw up”. Meanwhile all they’ve done is annoyed the person and failed to make those connections. So, we talk about the key, and there’s two keys that I think are really important. Number one, discovery has to be a process and not an event. So, I often hear from sales reps that ‘The first thing I’m gonna do is ask you a bunch of questions, then I’m gonna tell you everything I do.’ But discovery is more than that. It’s not just at the beginning of the sales cycle, it’s throughout the sales cycle as you get deeper and deeper into understanding an insight from the prospect. And how do you do that? It’s by asking good relevant questions to drive the conversation. Which is really the foundation of what we teach. What to ask, how to ask, when to ask, and why to ask.”
To learn more about what Julie had to say, listen here! https://open.spotify.com/episode/0MzzdGtFizkVsJowAWrsbp
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