CHAPTER 14

Delivering Maximum Value

Unfortunately, in the world of sales, the word “value” is in danger of actually losing its value due to overuse. In this part of the book, I’ll help you by framing what value means from a customer’s perspective—and what it means for you, the seller. In addition, I will give you a simple and practical sales planning tool that will enable you to quickly visualize and maximize the value that you can deliver for your customers at each stage of your selling process.

In the context of selling, value is so loosely defined and randomly tossed around that I suspect it has lost much of its meaning for salespeople. In sales, value has two dimensions, and it is important to understand the difference between them.

Sales literature exhorts salespeople to “provide value” to their customers or to “create value” for their customers, as if the two actions are the same. They aren’t. Each is important, and each must be used at various stages in your selling.

Let’s start with the definitions of value for sellers. On the one hand, something has value based on its usefulness. On the other hand, it has value based on its quantifiable worth. Worth is a tangible value. Usefulness is less tangible but still quite important in the sales context.

If you provide value to a prospect, that value is tied to usefulness. For instance, the value you provide in the form of answers to a specific customer question helps them to move forward in their decision making. Or, conversely, you asked perceptive and effective discovery questions that helped you shape a better solution for the customer (as well as build trust by demonstrating your domain expertise). The value that you provided in these instances was useful irrespective of the speed with which it was delivered.

If you create value for customers, the value can be quantified. For example, you created value through your responsiveness at each stage of your selling, which enabled the customer to compress the length of the planned buying cycle by 30 days. Or you created value by showing the customer a different approach to meeting his or her requirements, which could create a critical and sustainable advantage in the customer’s core market. The value that you created was tangible and quantifiable.

Irrespective of which type of value you deliver to your customers, you have to bear in mind that value doesn’t happen by accident. It is the result of deliberate planning and preparation. If you want to consistently achieve a high level of success in sales, you have to plan every interaction with a customer to provide or create the maximum value with the least possible investment of the customer’s time. This is a perfect match with the customer’s desire to make informed decisions quickly and at a low cost.

Delivering maximum value through your selling means that the day of the ad hoc sales call is dead. Say good-bye to winging it. Every sales interaction, large and small, has to be planned for maximum value. It doesn’t matter whether it is an in-person meeting, phone call, video chat, e-mail, text, or Tweet. Every sales interaction needs a value plan.

This puts the burden on salespeople and sales managers alike to ensure that the planning occurs. It doesn’t require a 30-minute meeting to plan an e-mail, but it does require thought and preparation.

Here are two simple questions that you need to answer to guide your planning and preparing for your next customer interaction:

   What is the goal of this call/contact? In other words, what is the exact value that you are going to deliver to the customer? This has to be identified up front, and your sales approach has to be prepared to ensure that you effectively execute your plan and achieve the goal of the call.

   What is the desired outcome of this interaction? What steps do you want customers to take or what decision do you want them to make? Especially in the case of face-to-face interactions (whether virtual or in person), it is good practice to set an expectation that if you deliver the promised value, customers will take an agreed-upon step forward in their buying process.

Without this planning, you run the risk of committing the cardinal sin of selling: wasting the customer’s time. We have already established that your customers don’t have a minute to spare. If customers give you their time, what will they receive in return?

The fact is that every interaction you have with a customer is judged to be either a win or a loss. After the call, customers will ask themselves, “Was this a good use of my time or not?” If you end up with too many checkmarks in the loss column, then you will find that the customer no longer has time for you. She’ll have decided that she cannot earn a positive return on the time invested in you.

Recently, I was in the market to buy a bicycle. I passed a bike store in Manhattan, not too far from where I live, and was struck by a gorgeous bike displayed in the window. It had a unique and appealing geometry. The store had just opened, and I was the only customer. Two sales clerks sat behind the register about 20 feet away. I looked at the bike in the window display. Two minutes passed, and neither clerk approached me. Hmmm. I decided to test them. I turned and walked the length of the store to the back room where more bikes were available. As I passed the register one of the clerks gave me a slight “What’s up?” head nod. That was all. I spent five minutes in the back room, stalling, waiting to see whether someone would come sell to me. Nope. I walked back through the store and out the door, and not a word was spoken. I bought my expensive bike from another store a week later. I would have preferred to buy it from the store I visited because of its convenience but decided I didn’t want to risk wasting more time there.

Another example that should be familiar to everyone: the classic check-in call. Assume that it’s been a couple weeks since you’ve been able to communicate with a good prospect. You’re beginning to get a bit nervous, so you pick up the phone. “Hey, Mr. Prospect. Hi. Yes, this is James from AB Co…. Fine. How are you?… Well, thanks for taking the call. No, I don’t really have anything new. It’s just that it’s been a couple weeks since we last talked…. I know, time flies…. Well, I just wanted to check in….”

Raise your hand if you’ve ever made a check-in call on a customer. C’mon, let’s see a show of hands. If you’re in sales, and you don’t have your hand up, then you’re not being honest with yourself. The fact is that we have all made check-in calls. Our customers gave us their time, and what did we give them in return? Nothing. Nada. Bupkes.

This behavior has to stop.

It is not the objective of your customers to spend time with you. In fact, the opposite is true. They want to accomplish their aims, which is to buy a product or service, while spending as little time with the salesperson as possible.

Salespeople often fall into the trap of believing that doing something—anything—with a prospect is better than doing nothing. For instance, this happens when the prospect has gone radio silent. There are lots of reasons why this could occur, and it is your job to determine why. Oftentimes the customer is waiting on you to supply information to help move to the next stage of the buying process. Find out what the customer needs and respond appropriately with content that has the value at that moment. Rarely is the correct response to bombard the prospect with time-wasting requests and trivial sales interactions.

In fact, nothing is better than something. If you don’t have a plan to maximize the value of a customer interaction, just don’t do it. If you don’t have a specific value plan for a customer phone call, don’t make it. If you don’t have a value plan for an e-mail you are thinking about sending to a prospect, don’t send it. You know the risks involved with wasting your customers’ limited time. So what is the downside of not wasting a customer’s time? None.

By delivering maximum value, you are enabling sales. But I rarely ever hear salespeople specifically state that, as part of their account plans, they are going to provide value or create value for their customers. It’s time for that to change. As I’ve stressed throughout this book, successful selling is a deliberate act. The top salespeople are mindful of the actual value the customer will receive from each sales interaction. Taking the right steps to maximize that value is an effective strategy to enable and amplify your sales success.