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Selling Value NOT Price...

9/1/2014

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It never ceases to amaze me how many times I hear sales people say they have to be the lowest price in order to win the deal.  When I hear this I cringe, as deep down I know they haven’t sold the value of their product and didn’t present a distinct differentiation from the competition.   

It’s not always price people… when you’ve clearly conveyed value propositions and have client buy-in you can oftentimes charge more… a lot more!

Here’s An Example… and there are many

Recently I was brought in to evaluate and turnaround sales for a company that provides design and printing solutions for all sizes and types of companies. 

I found that while the Company had high quality products that should demand higher than average prices, they were loosing to the competition primarily based on price. 

What I found was their sales team was simply gathering customer requirements and forwarding a pricing quotation via email… going through the motions so to speak.

I recommended modifying the sales process to stress the value of their offering rather than price. 

Now for the change to their sales process…

I simply had their graphics team mock-up photos of the prospective clients facility reflecting the proposed solution.  Why? I wanted prospects to visualize the proposed solution installed at their facility and see the value it would bring. 

When completed the sales team would email a copy to the Artwork Proposal to the prospect, pricing was not included.  Pricing was always reviewed during face-to-face meetings. We also changed language the sales team would use when speaking with the prospect… you guessed it; value points of their solution were stressed.

By simply showing and discussing value before discussing price, sales wins rose 65% and better yet deals were oftentimes priced 2 to 3 times greater than the competition!

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Top 11 Reasons Why Sales Are Lost...

8/15/2013

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I recently read an interesting blog by a highly regarded sales development expert that caused me to pause.  

The writer stated that "when a salesperson fails to land a deal, sale or order which they expected, projected, forecasted and pre-banked, nine times out of ten, you can lay the blame on one of the following ten conditions."  

And, while I tend to agree the writer, one key condition was missing… do you know what it is?

10 conditions referenced in the blog…

1.      The salesperson did not have an effective sales process.
2.      The salesperson did not follow the sales process.
3.      The salesperson was not coached on this opportunity in the context of the sales process.
4.      The salesperson was not held accountable to applying the sales process.
5.      The salesperson did not use a CRM oriented toward a sales process.
6.      The CRM application did not include the sales process.
7.      The CRM application did not require the criteria for each stage of the sales process to be met prior to moving to the next step.
8.      The sales process lacked criteria for each stage.
9.      The steps for the sales process were improperly sequenced.
10.    There was no CRM application.

Here’s the missing condition… and it should be 1st on the list!

1.    The salesperson targeted the wrong person and didn’t reach the decision maker. 

The majority of opportunities are missed because the salesperson targets the wrong person within the organization. 

Salespeople, because they are solution providers, typically call on and develop a deep relationship with the solution owner, but they don’t own the problem, they’re merely helping to solve the problem.

It’s the decision maker who owns the problem and ultimately makes the purchase decision… and too many salespeople aren’t calling on them.

After 25 years of leading and training sales teams I’ve found most salespeople are merely exposed to general sales techniques and strategies… they’re rarely taught how to transition that knowledge in to a highly persuasive message designed to get the attention of the decision maker.

What I teach sales organizations is that secret sauce… 

I teach a perfected technique of combining the salespersons knowledge, social psychology and leverage into highly persuasive communication process.  This technique opens doors to decision makers, bypasses the lower level manager and works with virtually all types of products and services.

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Courage... Do You Have It?

12/26/2012

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Do you have the courage to correct a wrong?  What if the wrong involved your largest client? 

This was the dilemma one of our regional managers faced. 

Seems his boss, our VP of Sales and my direct report, inflated database processing fees to our largest client and the regional manager knew the client was beginning an audit.  He felt there was going to be repercussions and decided to resign rather than address the situation.

When I heard of his resignation I asked to meet.  He told me about the inflated fee's and stated he didn’t want to take the blame for loosing the account.  My response was…

“I don’t care if you resign, but don’t do it until we both visit the client and address this problem head on.  We must do the right thing and if we loose the account so be it… at least we had the moral strength to correct a wrong”.  He said OK and arranged the meeting.

The meeting was tough and deservedly so.  When it was my turn to speak I apologized on behalf of the company.  I told them that, as COO, I had taken corrective action and this would never happen again… then I authorized:
  • $150,000 credit to be used on any of our products or services (this was double the amount they were overcharged)
  • Our new communication product at NO Charge for 6-months, all 7,000 of their sites.  In addition I agreed to personally make the announcement at an upcoming state conference they were chairing
The client was very pleased... and I made the convention announcement.

Lessons Learned…
  1. You need to have courage to do the right thing especially when things are difficult
  2. If you take corrective action and address problems head-on positive things can happen 



This was one of those occasions… we didn’t loose the client and we closed an order that day.  A
fter 6-months of free service we received a license fee order totaling $245K/year for those 7,000 sites.


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    Author

    Bill Kliss has been teaching his perfected technique  of opening doors to reach decision makers for 30-years.  His cutting edge approach has increased sales wins for virtually all types of products and services.  

    In addition, Bill also hosts the Opening Doors Radio & Video Show Series. This is  where Bill provides insight into opening doors to the C-suite by discussing proven selling techniques, and what some businesses are doing to accelerate business growth in today's economy.

    Bill's also a dad who loves the blues and anything at or in the ocean.

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