How to Sell Using Value (Math Professors Need Not Apply)

How to Sell Using Value (Math Professors Need Not Apply):

In sales your focus should be on your customers needs. Be there for your clients and manage your contacts and deals using a simple CRM like Base.

Whether you are a numbers geek (ahem) or someone that treats numbers like a caged lion (best fed from a distance and not disturbed) you know that your former Math Professor couldn’t sell water in the desert.

Why not? I’m sure the Professor could explain in excruciating detail all the benefits of water, the optimal ratio of water molecules, and even the most common intake rate. Ugh. Even I would be tempted to keep walking, there has to be water somewhere else around here!

When it comes to discussing our own product or service it’s easy to go overboard, sharing every detail about our awesomeness. Like Math Professors, we get caught up in communicating everything about our amazing creation… and forget where the focus belongs. On our customers. The value, or Return on Investment, can be a powerful part of your sales message. But only if you communicate it clearly, concisely and in concrete terms.

Using Value to Supercharge Your Sales with 3 Easy Steps

Step 1: Start with WIFM

What’s in it for me?

That is the single biggest complaint students have about math, what good is it for me? Why would two trains be traveling towards each other on the same track, and wouldn’t someone try to stop them? Did everyone’s cell phone die? Isn’t there an app for that?

What exactly does your product or service do for your clients? Write it down in one sentence.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Your Client will save time
• Your Customer will save money
• Your Customer will sell more

Step 2: Now for the Numbers

You must quantify your benefits.

If you don’t quantify your benefits you’ve got the sales equivalent of a math student thinking how dumb those two train conductors are, or the author of the class textbook.

Here are a few quick and easy way to quantify the benefits:

Your Client Will Save Time

• How much time will your client, or their staff, save in a day or a week? 30 minutes? 2 hours?
• Be sure your estimate is realistic, even 30 minutes a week adds up. Have either case studies or your actual track record ready if they ask.
• How much is an hour of your client’s time worth? If you aren’t sure – ask!
• Example: Your service will save an average client one hour per week. Your client’s time is worth $75 an hour. Total annual savings to your client is 52 Weeks * 1 Hour * $75 = $3,900 in savings!

Your Customer Will Save Money

• How much money can your client expect to save? Is it a one time savings, or an ongoing savings? Is it based on employee count? Time? Products sold?
• Again, realism is key. A prospect will sense if you are exaggerating, and if they become a client they will certainly find out! Even $100 a week adds up over time.
• Example: Your service will save your client $50 a year for every customer they have. Your prospect currently has 475 customers. Total annual savings to your client is $50 *475 = $23,750 in savings!

Your Customer Will Make More Sales

• How many additional sales can your customer expect to make using your products or services? One additional sale per week? 5 per week? 20?
• Again, realism is key. A prospect will sense if you are exaggerating, and if they become a client they will certainly find out! Even 5 additional sales a week adds up.
• How much revenue on average is generated by a new sale? If you aren’t sure – ask!
• Example: Your service will create an additional 3 sales per week for your client. Each sale brings in an average of $170 in revenue. Total increase in revenues for your client is 52 Weeks * 3 Sales Per Week * $170 = $26,520 in new revenue!

Step 3: Give the Answer in English

If it’s in Greek, and they’re not Greek you’ve got a problem.

I’m blushing a bit as I write this part. I confess that I can be guilty of falling into Financese when speaking with a potential coaching client. My big sin in sales is throwing around the term ROI.

Now Return on Investment (ROI) can be a great tool in selling, but only if you explain it without sounding condescending. At all costs you must avoid sentences that start with “It’s obvious that…” Nothing grates a prospect more than being told it should be obvious why they need something or how it will benefit them. Throw in a good dose of arrogance and you might as well end the meeting right now.

At its simplest ROI can be described as return you get for every dollar invested. The return is the number we calculated in Step 2.

The cost is simply what you charge for the service you are selling. If I buy a service for $100, and it earns me $110 then the ROI is: (110 – 100)/100 or 10%.

In sales speak you can say:

• For every dollar you give me, I’ll save you $1.10.
• For every dollar you give me it will bring in $1.10 in new revenue
• For every dollar you spend with my company you will earn a 10% return

Final Thoughts

Have you quantified the value to your clients? Are you effectively communicating that value? If you aren’t sure, ask a casual business acquaintance to do a bit of role playing. Don’t get defensive if you find out you too suffer from Professoritis.