If you’re looking to improve your sales process, begin by prioritizing your product’s value. While value-based selling may seem straightforward, it can often get overlooked during the sales process.
Of course, sales teams are tasked with selling products, but it’s important that they don’t forget the value of what they’re selling. Unless a customer is already well-informed about your product, it’s necessary to take the time to explain its value to them.
And if your sales team doesn’t take the value of your product seriously, how can you expect your customers to?
Why Value-Based Selling Works
The benefits of value-based selling are well-known. According to DecisionLink, 92% of buyers want to hear a value proposition in the early stages of a sales cycle.
Further, 31.9% of people feel there is little differentiation between sales reps, with only 23% of people looking to them as a top-three resource to solve their business problems.
These stats tell us that a large proportion of buyers see salespeople as focused purely on the sale—not particularly plugged into the product or the value. This may be a harsh analysis, but it is also an opportunity.
To ensure your sales team is upgrading its sales process and building firmer relationships with prospects, here are four top benefits of value-based selling:
- Builds trust with prospects and customers alike
- Shows them why your product is the best choice
- Demonstrates the product in action
- Shortens the sales cycle
How to Use Value-Based Selling to Highlight Your Product
With this in mind, we’re breaking down how to highlight your product value in your sales processes and make it one of the core fundamentals of how you sell.
1. Conduct competitive research
In a crowded marketplace, your sales reps should know every way your product stands out from the competition. This way its value is given a boost when your customers realize you’re the only place they’ll find these features.
Your prospective customers are also a great resource for competitive research. You can get to grips with the positives and negatives of a rival service and get to dig deeper into the competition.
Ask what other companies and products are missing and you’ll have a good idea of how you can make up for that. It shows your customers you care (not to mention how invested you are in solving their problems).
2. Think through every step of the buyer’s journey
Championing the value of your product can take time. If you promise your potential buyer the perfect product on your first call and try to make a sale, it’s likely to send them running for the hills.
Instead, use your knowledge of them as a customer to customize the next steps and get to know them more and more. But keep it flexible too.
Remember, it’s about the value your prospective customer sees in the product—so they should be the ones to take the reins. Share your thoughts and advice, but make sure they’re the ones who feel they’re uncovering just how valuable your product is.
Plan for where this might take the conversation and keep the value coming. Each conversation and interaction should bring another shining example of the value they’ll find in your product.
Run out of ideas early on, and they might think your product is one-note. Spoil them for choice, and they’ll never look back. Instead, tailoring your sales process to complement your buyer’s journey ensures your buyers have a smooth onboarding process.
3. Eliminate buyer’s fears
Making a purchase decision is scary stuff. From their perspective, there’s a mountain of different choices and investments they’ll be answerable to. Constantly reiterating the sale won’t make this any better.
Try to plug into their anxieties and tick them off one by one. Think of giving free trials or even using your product in the call. At Aircall, we confirm meetings via SMS, while showing off our excellent call quality on the sales calls. Companies like Zoom and Microsoft do the same. It’s a way of showing your prospective customers your value in a holistic way.
4. Focus on educating
Sales teams should think of themselves as educators, not salespeople. Well, maybe educators who make a sale… eventually.
To effectively convey a product’s value—and for the customer to understand it—you have to change your tact from invoicing to teaching them.
Place faith in your product’s value. Further, if you show how its features can address your customer’s wishes or anxieties, they’ll cross over the line themselves, as it’ll be a case of more carrot, less stick.
5. Create a comprehensive list of product benefits
Having a comprehensive list of product benefits can liberate your sales teams. They’ll be able to approach their calls with confidence that wherever the customer’s queries might lead them, they are able to link benefit to concern and further elevate your product in your customers’ minds.
Another effective way to do this is to collect examples of these benefits in action. Value in situ. Customer case studies are an excellent way to show how there’s credence to your sales team’s words, and that your product will work for them because it’s working so brilliantly for others.
Introducing value-based selling into your sales operations will do wonders for your bottom line. And as we’ve explored, it’ll drive customer relationships and bring a more holistic style to your selling.
This is good news for your customers, but it’s also good for your sales reps. And when your sales reps are able to focus on positive conversations that cultivate value, you’ll see them grow more productive and happier in their role.
So our advice is don’t sleep on value-based selling if you want to upgrade your sales processes in more ways than one.
Consider investing in online sales courses to further empower your team in mastering this approach.
