Every sales organization and sales professional must choose between two sales approaches: traditional and modern. The traditional approach positions the company and their product. It doesn't create value for your prospective client. The second approach, the modern approach creates value for decision-makers and their stakeholders.
Your buyers are trying to make a good decision and improve their results. Because they lack the knowledge and experience to be certain about their decision, it is difficult to confidently act. Creating value in the sales conversation is crucial because it helps B2B buyers make informed decisions. If you fail to provide the value, your prospects may seek another salesperson with the information and insight they need.
In this article we will define value creation training, why it’s important to sales success, and some strategies for creating value. We'll also explore how to measure the value you create and provide several examples of what is and isn't value.
What is Value Creation in B2B Sales?
Over decades working as a salesperson and a sales leader, I have observed the evolution of B2B selling and B2B buying. As our external environment changed, buyers needed more help, especially when making an important decision. In four books, I have carefully documented the modern sales approach and how to create value.
- The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need: This book provided a competency model that included business acumen, change management, and leadership.
- The Lost Art of Closing: Winning the 10 Commitments That Drive Sales: This book provides a way to create value by facilitating the buyer's journey.
- Eat Their Lunch: Winning Customers Away from Your Competition: In this book, I introduced Level 4 Value Creation™ to provide strong direction on how to create value in the sales conversation. This approach also shortens longer sales cycles.
- Elite Sales Strategies: A Guide to Being One-Up, Creating Value, and Becoming Truly Consultative: This book helped sales organizations and salespeople provide B2B customers with the assistance they need.
My primary concern is that B2B salespeople are enabled to create value for their prospective clients.
The Definition of Value Creation
We need to be careful when defining value creation. Most sales organizations define value as the results the client experiences after they buy the sales organization's products or services. These same organizations believe eliminating the client's pain points creates value. While these outcomes are important, they are not what we mean when we talk about value creation. We mostly mean the pain points of buying.
The definition of value creation training is the value you create in the sales conversation. A simple way to think about this is that the conversation helps your decision-makers, and their teams understand what they need to know to decide and act. The more valuable your conversation, the more likely you are to win your client's business.
Examples of Successful Value Creation in B2B Sales
Before we explore the sales strategies that create value in the sales conversation, let's look at what success looks like.
Picture this scenario: You enter the office of a potential client and sit opposite your contact. They seem upset because their old strategies are not working anymore and they're losing customers. To confirm your doubts, you ask questions that require more than a yes or no answer. After they reply, you explain there are two reasons they're having a hard time.
This simple example of creating value of how sales reps use value creation in the B2B sales process. If you can imagine having that example conversation, you know how to create value when speaking with a qualified lead. It has more about helping buyers buy than pitching your potential solution.
Let's look at how to create value for customers by exploring a major sale strategy and several sales tactics. Together, they will prevent a transactional selling experience, the kind that provides no value.
Strategies for Value Creation in B2B Sales
The best advice for salespeople is that their strategy should be part of a modern sales methodology. That sales methodology should be built on value creation and creating a strong preference to buy from you.
Strategies for Creating Value in B2B Sales
The major strategy for creating value is information disparity. The short way to describe this is: "I know something you don't know.” Your knowledge and experience allows you to create value for your future clients. You do this by educating your contacts on what they need to know and do to improve their results. Here is a scenario of successfully implementing value creation using information disparity as a briefing:
You walk into your client's conference room and are greeted by five people who make a task force. The task force is responsible for improving some important outcome. After introductions, you update your contacts on what has changed since the last time they bought what you sell.
Your contacts ask a lot of questions, ensuring they understand the implications for their company. What they learned helped them to recognize the changes they will need to make, even if they don't know how best to make those changes.
Here is another example of using information disparity by providing insights about choosing a company to help them make the changes:
Recognizing there is still more value for you to create, you describe the different business models in your industry. You explain that the low-priced providers have great prices before explaining the concessions that come with that model. After describing the other models, you explain your company's model and how it differs from the others. This method is called triangulation strategy.
Your contacts and clients should feel as if they are sitting across from a highly paid consultant. The value you create is what defines you as a salesperson. Those who wish to be a trusted advisor will need to build strong relationships.
Measuring Value Creation in B2B Sales
It is not for you to determine what is value and what isn't. Buyers continually suggest they want a salesperson-free buying experience, so they conduct their own research. Our take on this is that the reason they prefer to research on their own is because they provide no real help. Instead, they go through their sales spiel.
We measure value by how helpful it is to the person making an important decision. The traditional sales approach would have you start a conversation by sharing information that could be easily discovered with a short visit to your company's website. This is information parity, meaning you and your client have the same information. The problem is that value comes from providing information and insights your clients don't have.
To know if you are creating value in your sales process, gauge the interest of your audience. If decision-makers agree to meet with you again, that's a good sign too. But what matters most is if they are ready to move forward with their plans to make changes. If you want to be good at selling, use strategies that help you create value for your customers. Your win rate is the best metric for measuring the value you create.
Start Creating Value
Creating value in B2B sales is critical for success. By understanding the concept of value creation, implementing the sales strategies and sales tactics, and measuring its success, you can provide your customers with a better sales experience and increase their chances of closing a sale. Remember, understanding your customer's needs and preferences is key to creating value and building strong relationships. Go here for help creating value.
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