SKILL


Value-Added Selling MALCOLM FLESCHNER


Selling value is a lot like trying to hit a moving target. In different industries, with a wide variety of customers and tremendous differences even from one sales opportunity to the next, value can mean almost anything to any customer.


For the professional salesperson, though, selling value means deter- mining the special needs of every individual customer, then working harder than the competition to deliver results beyond expectations. Whether in industries as highly commoditized as commercial lumber or as specialized as highly customized


robotics, value-added selling is more critical than ever. To prove it, Selling Power spoke to the sales manager of a lumber company in Oakland, FL, and a sales executive who sells custom automated machinery out of Edgewood, MD.


The manager says that, in his indus- try – where customers are spread thin


and need products delivered yes- terday (if not sooner) – buyers value responsiveness almost more than anything else.


“My plywood is the same as the other 10 guys’ plywood,” he explains. “What we can offer that is different is follow-up. Ninety percent of the time when my people lose sales, it’s because they haven’t followed up promptly or properly. A customer will call and say, ‘I need a quote on 1,000 sheets of drywall,’ and the rep promises to call back in 10 minutes with a quote. But then it’s four hours or two days later when they make the return call. By then, the issue that was hot has grown cold, and the buyer has called someone else.”


SELLING POWER OCTOBER 2016 | 9 © 2016 SELLING POWER. CALL 1-800-752-7355 FOR REPRINT PERMISSION.


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the Difference Between Value & Benefits


Teach Reps


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