FRI MAY 19 2023

Value Selling - Why Sales Teams Should Adopt Value Selling?

by Gayatri Ivaturi

Value selling or Value-based selling means prioritizing buyers' needs at every sales cycle stage. By doing so, your sales reps can establish themselves as trusted advisors who cut through the market's noise and assist buyers in finding the optimal solution. This article outlines how to integrate value selling or value-based selling into your daily sales operations to hit sales targets without making buyers feel ‘sold to.’

What is Value Selling?

Value selling is a sales approach prioritizes the buyer's needs and emphasizes delivering value in every interaction. It is also referred to as value-based selling or value-added selling.

With value selling, sales reps strive to establish themselves as trusted advisors to the buyer, providing guidance and advice beyond just the products they offer. By actively listening to the buyer's needs and tailoring their pitch accordingly, reps can highlight the specific value that their product can bring to the buyer. Unlike traditional solution selling, value selling focuses less on promoting product features and more on addressing the buyer's unique pain points.

Through this approach, sales reps can establish a stronger connection with the buyer, building trust and loyalty. Additionally, value selling can increase customer satisfaction and retention rates, as buyers are likelier to feel that their needs are being heard and addressed. Value selling is a powerful way to differentiate your sales approach and drive long-term success.

Difference between Value Selling and Solution Selling

Value and solution selling recognize that buyers seek to solve a particular problem. However, the distinction between the two approaches lies in how sales reps assist them in finding a solution. Solution selling concentrates on promoting the product's features, while value selling addresses the buyer's specific needs. In simpler terms, solution sellers are more inclined to advocate for their product, while value sellers are more inclined to support their buyers.

Value sellers prioritize the buyer's needs and preferences, focusing on the value their product can bring to the buyer. This approach requires an in-depth understanding of the buyer's requirements and pain points and the ability to personalize the pitch to address them effectively. On the other hand, solution sellers tend to emphasize the product's features, specifications, and capabilities, emphasizing how it can solve the buyer's problem. However, this approach may not effectively address the buyer's unique needs and may result in missed opportunities to establish a deeper connection with them.

Ultimately, the difference between value selling and solution selling comes from the sales rep's priorities. Value sellers focus on the buyer's needs, while solution sellers prioritize the product's features.

Why should sellers adopt Value-Based Selling?

There are numerous compelling reasons why 87% of high-growth companies have adopted value-based selling. 

1. Prioritizes the buyer's needs:

Buyers expect sellers to prioritize their needs, but only a tiny fraction (23%) believe that sellers consistently do so. Adopting a value-based selling approach, which places the buyer's needs on point in the sales process, can help your reps bridge this gap and establish themselves as trusted advisors.

2. Builds long-term relationships:

Establishing a trusted relationship between the buyer and the seller is crucial to fostering loyalty and encouraging repeat business. Value selling is an effective way to build trust, as it demonstrates a genuine commitment to addressing the buyer's needs and delivering value. This trust can translate into longer-term relationships and increased referrals to your sales team.

3. Drives more sales:

By prioritizing the buyer's needs and delivering value in every interaction, sales reps can position themselves as a go-to resource for buyers when they are ready to purchase. This can lead to more closed deals and increased revenue over time. In essence, value selling shifts the focus from making a sale to building a long-term relationship with the buyer, which can result in significant benefits for your business.

Role of Conversational Intelligence in Value Selling

Conversational intelligence plays a crucial role in value selling by enhancing the effectiveness of sales conversations and improving overall customer engagement. It involves understanding and interpreting verbal and non-verbal cues, asking relevant questions, actively listening, and responding appropriately.

1. Enhancing sales conversations:Conversational intelligence improves the effectiveness of sales discussions by enabling salespeople to understand and interpret verbal and non-verbal cues, ask relevant questions, actively listen, and respond appropriately. This helps them uncover customer needs and pain points more effectively.

2. Building rapport and trust: Conversational intelligence skills allow sales professionals to establish rapport and trust with customers. By adapting their communication style to customer preferences and understanding emotional cues, they can create a deeper connection and understanding of the customer's unique situation.

3. Tailoring value propositions: Conversational intelligence helps salespeople tailor their messaging and value propositions to resonate with the customer's specific interests and pain points. By actively listening and understanding the nuances of the conversation, they can address customer concerns and demonstrate how their product or service delivers measurable value.

4. Identifying opportunities: By leveraging conversational intelligence, salespeople can identify hidden opportunities during sales conversations. Through open-ended questions and attentive listening, they can uncover additional needs and align their offering to provide customized solutions that address the customer's unique requirements. This increases the chances of closing deals and building long-lasting customer relationships.

Conclusion

Merely being a great salesperson may not suffice when your team attempts to secure significant deals with high-profile customers. Selling skills can only take your team so far. They must also serve as consultants and adopt a value-based selling approach to succeed.

Above all, the sales teams or indivivuduals should have strong understanding and command to communicate a product's or service's value to the customer and emphasize the benefits and outcomes that the customer can expect from the product rather than its features.

To know more, book a custom demo with Aviso AI.