I had one of those fun situations today that I have to share.  I have a fairly good "advisor" status with a Divisional CIO at a Fortune 500 company that is one of my customers.  Today, one of the other high-level IT Managers (Global ... Manager) put me in a position of helping him do something against the Divisional CIO's wishes.  What this Manager was asking for is something that IS my job to provide, but he was asking for it in order to delay a deal that he is against.  The project is a small one and getting ...<< MORE >>

A good friend of mine sent me one of those Sales Thoughts emails today that reminded me of one of my favorite "truths" of selling: If you really want to teach someone to sell, take them to a strip club for a night.  There is no faster way to part with 10 times the money you intended to spend than by going to a strip club.  Why? because the best sales people in the world are strippers. This post has been around for a long time, but every time I read it, I remember just how true it ...<< MORE >>

You have just spent the last 6 months trying to land that million dollar account and now the prospect (or current customer) is making demands for a mere 5% (of your margin) concession.  Wow, just 5% to get a Million Dollar Customer!  Is it worth it or not?  Just what is this deal and this customer worth to you?  Whether the customer is worth10 Dollars or 10 Million Dollars, you need to know how much a customer is worth to you in order to determine the value of their business.  So how do you figure it out? There ...<< MORE >>

You are meeting with a new prospect at the C-Level. You said enough in the cold-call to get the meeting or were fortunate enough to get a referral that got you in the door. Congratulations! You now have 5 minutes to convey the value you bring to the table. If you have not differentiated yourself in the first 5 minutes, you are done. The C-Level will start to (knowingly or unknowingly) find reasons to dislike, distrust and dismiss you. So what do you do with that first 5 minutes that will convey the value ...<< MORE >>

Why do you think your customers buy from YOU?  Do you have the guts to ask them?

You can not get better at bringing value to your customers and prospects until you understand the value that you bring to those who buy from you now.

Take your top 10 customers and ask them:

    1. Why did they buy from you originally?  (What made you different from every other rep they spoke with?)

    2. Was there anything they would have liked you to do differently?

    3. Why are they STILL buying from you?

    4. What can you be doing to bring more value to them?

After you have spoken with all 10, you should have a better idea of what you did and could be doing to bring value to future prospects.

Now if you really have the guts, go and ask the same questions of the prospects that you did not close.  Learn why your competitor won and keeps their business.  How did they convey more value to the prospect than you did?

The point of learning all of this is to get better at providing more value to the people who can make you money. 

What is it that I mean by "value-based" sales and why was it important enough to give this blog it's name? 

It is about the sales methodology that separates the top 10% of sales people from the rest of the herd.  It is about changing your mindset from selling a widget to that of selling the value that YOU bring to the customer.  Your widget becomes just another tool that you can use to help bring that value. 

Your prospect doesn't truly care if you have the best widget in the world and for the lowest price.  They care about THEMSELVES and what you can do to help them; in other words, the VALUE you can be to them.  The sooner you accept this fact and change your style, the sooner you will move towards that top 10%.

Welcome to the Value-Based Sales Blog!

This is a place to discuss what I consider to be the hardest job in the business world, the job of technical (or any complex) sales.  I say discuss because I do not claim to be the world's best at what I do.  I have learned a lot of lessons in 15 years of doing this, but I know that I still have a lot to learn.  Please comment on posts if you think I am right or wrong.

I will post a new thought or "lesson learned" every day.  Most of these have come from the school of hard knocks, but some will come from the lessons of others.  I avidly read blogs and listen to podcasts produced by others like me.  Sometimes an idea or message is too good not to revisit.  When possible I will link or Trackback to their posts so you can get exposure to their works as well.

I hope you enjoy and get benefit from this blog.  If so, share your thoughts here and invite your friends to share as well.

Chris Birdwell