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Here’s The Key to Adding Value to Every Sales Encounter

We have been discussing how to add value to every sales encounter.  Today we wrap this subject up by covering the last two areas you can add value – Delivering Education & Sharing News, Trigger Events & Insights From Their Industry.

  1. Deliver Insight
  2. Employ Powerful Questions
  3. Help Them Better Understand Their Needs
  4. Help Them See the Path to Success
  5. Share New Ideas
  6. Deliver Education
  7. Share News, Trigger Events, & Insights From Their Industry

Delivering Education

Delivering insight is really about education. If you become a diligent student of best practices in your industry and educate your clients and prospects every time you encounter them, they will value and anticipate every interaction with you. They will be eager to share their new resource (you) with others and that will help you develop new relationships and opportunities.

Consider developing educational sessions either occasionally or on a regular basis. The cost is usually minimal, yet (just as with the other items listed above) the perception of value the customer receives can be huge.

When possible, collect feedback from attendees regarding the value they’ve receive as a result of these educational efforts and use these examples as valuable adjuncts to share in future educational sessions.

Share News, Trigger Events, & Insights From Their Industry

Sharing news, trigger events, and insights from their industry can add value to your meetings so long as your prospects are not already aware of the information. The key, as previously outlined, is that it must be new and unexpected.

By and large, sharing industry news and events falls more towards the weaker end of the spectrum when it comes to adding value to your encounters, but if it’s actually news to them and relevant, it will be seen as valuable.

Become a Domain Expert

In order to consistently provide insight, innovative thinking, and unanticipated solutions put forth the effort to become a top expert in your domain. Where your expertise and facilitation skills intersect, your clients will find great value and, you will find great success.

Wrapping-Up On Adding Value to Every Sales Encounter

By consistently delivering value on each and every encounter, we train our prospects and clients to see us as valuable resources, domain experts, and trusted advisers who can help them achieve the outcomes they desire.

How we sell is a sample of how we solve, and prospects are sampling our value on each and every encounter. They sum up their experiences with us and extrapolate them into what they think their future experiences will be with both us and the companies we represent. This is an extremely strong sales dynamic that can work for you or against you on every interaction.

It is critical that we consistently deliver Unexpected Value on each and every sales encounter. Fortunately, the number of ways to add value to any given sales encounter is virtually limitless. The key is to prepare.  Professionals do not “wing it.”

It starts with thoughtful preparation. We’ve already thought through the first two Magic Pre-call Questions:

  1. Why should this client see me?
  2. What do I want the client to do?

It is the third question, “How can I provide value on this encounter?” that is almost universally ignored in selling today.  Very few salespeople give any thought to the value prospects will receive from meeting with you.  If you aren’t able to articulate what the prospect will gain from your meeting, you can probably assume that the meeting will be a waste of time (not the kind of sample we want to deliver).

Each sales encounter must be inherently valuable.

By thoughtfully preparing in advance, we can share something that this specific prospect will find valuable at this specific time, every single time we meet. Our clients and prospects will find each meeting with us both valuable and enjoyable, and they will look forward to continuing that pattern throughout the sales process and long after the sale is closed.

Closing Tip:  The key to adding value is preparation.  Invest the time to add Unexpected Value to every sales encounter.

Until next time!

James

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