If you’re in sales, you know that the key to success is understanding your customers and what they value. This is where a values based selling framework comes in. With this selling strategy, you focus on aligning your product or service with the customer’s core values.
To close more deals and increase your sales, a values based selling framework is key. Here’s what you need to know about this selling strategy.
Values Based Selling Strategy
The value-based approach is focused on benefiting customers throughout the entire sales cycle.
Sales reps who take a consultative approach focus on providing value to the customer so that the sales decision is made based on the product’s potential value. By taking this approach, sales reps can guide customers through the sales process and help them make an informed decision that best suits their needs.
The goal of a value-based selling approach is always to put the customer’s needs first. Doing this allows us as sales reps to guide them through the process and ensure that they are making an informed decision that best suits their needs. And hopefully, this will lead to them purchasing your product.
This builds expectations for the positive results that your product or service provides. By instilling a sense of hope in the customer, you are more likely to make a sale.
Instead of pressuring your prospect into buying, focus on giving them value. Sales pitches and high-pressure tactics bombard customers. By providing your potential customer more than they ever imagined, you’ll stand out from the competition and turn them into long-term customers.
As a salesperson, you’re ultimately there to make a sale, but you don’t have to make that your only goal.
Value-based selling is a consultative sales approach that emphasizes conveying a product’s or service’s value.
Advantages of Value-Based Selling Compared to Other Models
The evolution of sales techniques began decades ago when there was a reasonably straightforward way to describe product capabilities in terms of solving specific problems.
This is an old but effective method of selling: you identify the need and then provide a product that can fill it. In a case like this, you would sell a screwdriver to someone who needs to tighten up a screw.
As the complexity of business issues increased, Solution Sellers had to develop more creative solutions. When there are 10 different screwdriver providers, just selling a screwdriver is not enough.
You need to offer a screwdriver tailored to specific situations to stand out among the other sellers. This could mean offering a short-handled model for those in small spaces or a magnetized head for screw storage. By solving a problem, you are more likely to make the sale.
You’re not just selling a product; you’re providing a solution for a problem.
As more and more companies started selling similar products and services, it became necessary for them to provide potential buyers with examples of how other companies had benefited from them.
The sales propositions given to potential buyers were not as personalized as they could have been. This was because the sales propositions did not consider the factors that could be important, such as the industry, size, geography, and use-case variations.
You explain to your previous employer how your company uses your short-handled screwdriver, but you don’t mention researching your customers’ specific needs.
This led to Specific Value Sales methodologies that allowed salespeople to quantify value precisely and customize each proposal. You connected with potential customers and researched their wants and needs.
To successfully sell a product, you need to show your customers how it can add value to your company. For instance, if you’re trying to sell a 6-inch screwdriver, you should demonstrate how it will save your customer 20 minutes, increasing efficiency.
The evolution of sales to value-based, differentiated, and agile customer management completes this transformation.
Value is quantifiable for a project with alternatives, such as competing projects or alternate uses of the available budget.
You compare the cost (and quality) of this particular short-handled screwdriver to other tools on the market.
Comparing your tool and the competition demonstrates how your solution provides more value.
Value-based sales are more effective than either solutions or features because it takes more effort and expertise. While both solutions are features and features are solutions, they don’t require as much expertise as value.
Unfortunately, these sales methods don’t perform well on many essential performance metrics.
A recent research report from International Data Corporation (IDC) found that when cloud-based software companies used “value-selling” techniques, such as focusing on customer pain points, they enjoyed a 70% increase in their closing rate with new customers. This increase was accompanied by an 8% rise in their rate of successful upsells.
That’s quite an increase, especially in an industry that is becoming increasingly more competitive.
Why Shift to Value-Based Selling?
If you’re currently using a traditional, transactional, or product-based sales process, switching to a value-selling approach might seem like a lot of extra work.
After all, reaching out to each potential customer takes a lot of dedication and research.
But out of all the various strategies, the most effective one is the strategy of offering customers a unique value proposition. This focuses on showing the customer what the future will look like if they work with you and the steps they need to take to get there.
A solution-based sale only offers a vision of the future. A feature-based one only provides steps for an uncertain future.
The value-based sales approach takes time and care, but it is a much more persuasive sales pitch to your prospects because it addresses their inherent fear of change.
Value-based sales are a surefire way to build your business. Here’s how you can integrate them into your own sales process.
Conclusion
If you’re looking to increase your sales and close more deals, a values-based selling framework is key. This selling strategy lets you connect with customers deeper and understand what they value most. By aligning your product or service with their core values, you’ll be able to create pitches that resonate and result in more conversions. If you’re serious about boosting your sales numbers, implementing a value-based selling framework should be at the top of your list!
