GET FOCUSED. GET CONTROL. GET GROWING.
	Monthly Business e-Tips	Vol 2 Issue 6

Selling Your Value

The value you offer your customers is the benefit they can expect from doing business with you. Value is the measurement of both qualitative and quantitative results customers receive from purchasing your products and services. It shows how their purchase improves their business or life and what additional advantage they get by doing business specifically with you.

That sounds easy enough, doesn't it? Well, it can be difficult to know just how your customers are benefiting from using your products or services. The best way to discover your key value is to document customers' experiences.

Here are samples of qualitative benefits that can be identified through answering the questions below. Use the ones that apply to you.

• Does what you sell make your customers more productive? If so, use your customers' words to document specific ways they are getting more done.
• What type of experience do your customers get from doing business with you? Are you approachable and responsive? Do you provide answers in a timely manner?
• Are buyers less concerned with their original problem after purchasing from you? How did others in their company also benefit from the purchase?
• Are customers reaching goals faster and easier because of your products or services?
• Are your customers more competitive because of what you offer them?

Once you get answers to these questions, you can look at the quantitative results. How much more money is being made or saved by using your offerings? Are there other advantages such as an improvement in employee retention or saving money in recruiting and training costs?

The most direct means to gather and use this type of information is to:

• Document the situation before and after customers implement your solution.
• Use customers' figures to determine the financial results. The amounts need to be honest, believable and supported with facts.
• Ask for testimonials, including quantitative benefits, and get permission to publish them.
• Build success stories or case studies around clients' initial issues, the solutions you offer and the results.
• Look for patterns and predictable outcomes. These also need to be backed up by a reasonable percentage of your customers.
• Utilize the key information in marketing materials.

Talk less to prospects about what you do and how you do it. In most selling situations, your process does not sell, rather the value and the results of your products/services do. Make sure your value is strong and resonates with your prospects and customers. Use it consistently and keep it updated. It works!