what the owner really wanted was a pickup truck twice as nice as the one his brother owned.
“While money was important, the landowner really valued stuff and, in this case, a brand-new, fully-loaded pickup truck made the difference,” says Cathcart. “Once everyone understood that fact and tailored the offer in those terms, the owner signed the lease.”
Cathcart advises salespeople to continuously be on the lookout for different and new forms of value to offer prospects or customers. “One way is to demonstrate how
your product or service saves money and time or allows a customer a way to deliver more value to his custom- ers,” says Cathcart. “It’s also about what you can do as a vendor to better the customer’s position in the compa- ny, or help him achieve some personal goals, like taking a cruise, retiring early, or sending his kids to college – things that he may realize as a result of what you’re offering.”
IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS According to Cathcart, true value is created when salespeople manage the complete experience the cus- tomer realizes by using their products or services. That doesn’t necessarily mean there has to be one monumen- tal benefit. Maybe it just requires a number of smaller things that, when added together, differentiate what is offered into a “must buy.” “Let’s use computers as an exam- ple. The salesperson gets a prospect to sign off on an order that is not much different from her competi- tion. She can offer additional value by bringing in a technical person to help the customer make the transition from the old system to the new one – something the competition isn’t offer- ing,” says Cathcart. “Or it could be as simple as programming in the user’s name on the screen, so he is greeted when he first turns it on. “Those are things that a salesper- son can to do enhance the value of the relationship at zero or a minimal
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A pessimist is one who sees a disaster in every opportunity. An optimist sees opportunity in every disaster. JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER
cost,” says Cathcart. “Sometimes little things carry a lot of clout and separate you from the competition. To deliver value, salespeople need to ‘up-serve,’ and that means managing the total relationship for more customer satis- faction. When salespeople up-serve they don’t just get a little more of the business – they get it all.”
TIME IS MONEY
Another sales expert has a few ad- ditional ideas.
“Most people buy because they have a problem that needs to be ad- dressed or solved, and it’s the respon- sibility of the salesperson to solve their problems completely,” points out the expert. Time is the only thing in life that nobody can make more of – and it certainly isn’t free. The saving of time is a central theme in his philosophy of how salespeople can create special value for customers. “Creating value is a question of determining exactly what a customer really wants, and that revolves around the way we live today,” he says. “Today, the biggest constraint most people have in their lives is that they don’t have enough time to get done what they need to get done, and that relates to buying products and services.” He uses the purchase of a computer as an example of a time waster. “Our lives are full of brilliant objects – all of which we have to research before we can buy them,” says the expert. “Take computers. A person buys a computer over the Internet or through a catalog thinking that it will save them time involved in the sell-
ing process. The customer searches the Internet, identifies exactly what they want or think they need, places an order, waits for delivery, and gets it. Then they plug it in only to find that it’s not compatible with their old system or software. So they need to upgrade, get on a helpline, or maybe even box it up and send it back. “Time really is of the essence in terms of value – and customers really hate anything, including the sales process, that wastes their time,” he says. “They have a billion things to do and want a salesperson to cut to the chase. If a salesperson can deliver something faster, reduce the time and hassle involved in the sales process, or, by the use of the product or ser- vice, make things more efficient for the customer, they’re going to have a leg up on their competition.”
IS PROCESS THE PROBLEM? Saving time is a big part of the value equation, but there are other components.
“Customers want salespeople to give them what they want, when and where they want it,” he explains. “They also believe that they should have anything they want instantly, which puts pressure on the providers to do what they say they can do.” He points out that, to fulfill those expectations, service or product providers need to evaluate how they’re currently doing business and the effect it has on the sales process and effort. They can’t expect salespeople to go out and sell something that doesn’t provide value to their prospects. “The provider organizations need to spend time rethinking how they
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