Selling Intangible Value

Are you an entrepreneur, executive, small business owner?  

You have a great product or service, but prospective clients keep saying your prices are too high.  

You're inclined to drop your price or provide a deep discount.

DON'T!!!!

Pricing wars happen with commodities.  Are you selling a commodity?

Before considering a price drop, examine four strategies to unlock the intangible value of your terrific solution!

Strategy #1:  Get in the Head of Your Client

Your prospects are moving away from something and moving towards something better.  They want to move painlessly, with little risk and with joy in the journey.  

What are your clients most worried about?  Link your value to mitigating their Big Risk and you win.

What does your client hope happens when they get to that future better place?  That's what's motivating them to act.  Call this their Big Why.  Link your value to their Big Why and you win.

Strategically linking Big Risks and Big Whys to your solution skyrockets your Perceived Value!

Get in the head of your client so deeply that the Perceived Value of your solution is so high your price does not register as pain.

Strategy #2.  Generate Three Memorable Value Statements

Sounds easy, but this is where the hard work begins.  List all the reasons why people should buy your product or service.  Research this type of client and identify lots of Big Risks and Big Whys.   Boiling down all those bits of information into 3 pithy points that EXACTLY serve your clients' needs is tough, strategic work.

Create a big list and whittle it down.  

When you've got a short list, review it with someone:  an industry expert, selling expert, colleagues or significant other.  Anyone who can provide a sanity check.  One small edit can make a HUGE difference!

Strategy #3.  Surprise them with a Story

People like to be surprised.  They love to retell stories to their colleagues, friends and family.  You see this every day with retweets and reposts.

How can you make the Buying Experience of your solution 10X more memorable?  

Here's an example of my story from selling work to Mattel, the toy company.

We were one of 5 consultants pitching work to Mattel.  All 5 competitors in one day.  We had the 3^rd slot, right after lunch.  Halfway through boring presentations.  Lunch coma.  A million other places they would rather be than listening to another presentation full of a gazillion consultant slides.  

When the clients came into the room, they already looked exhausted.  

Before they arrived, I put 5 of my Matchbox cars from when I was a kid in front of my placemat.  Yes, I am a packrat!   One client saw my little cars and trucks.  His eyes lit up.  He bee-lined over and asked about my vintage cars.  I told him I liked the TV van best because it had little plastic TVs you could put in the back of the truck.  

He picked up the toy truck and commented how the original box looked well-worn.  Delighted, he told me he had run the Matchbox plant back in the 90's.  The facilitator stopped our energized conversation to start our session.  

Before we even started, three major objectives were met!

✓   Demonstrate value of the clients' product.  Check

✓   Establish rapport.  Check

✓   Deliver a story to share.  Check

Make the story relevant and memorable!  Be authentic with yourself and with your client.

Strategy #4.  Sell Confidence 

Clients buy confidence in your solution and in you.  Demonstrate confidence by showing how your solution EXACTLY fits their needs!  They love it when they see you've done the research and you really know them.  And remember, the transaction doesn't end when they BUY.  It ends when they GAIN VALUE by putting your solution in ACTION.  

Confidence is an intangible that every client values more than price.  They breathe easier today because they know you will be with them tomorrow.

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I've taught Authentic Selling to entrepreneurs, small business owners and executives all over the world.  Almost every time, I get a question about losing sales due to price.  I tell them to examine three root causes of losing sales before they look at price:  

A)   You don't have CONFIDENCE in the value of your product

B)   Your SOLUTION does NOT fit their need 

C)   The PERCEIVED VALUE of your solution does not significantly exceed your price 

And then I tell them to follow four strategies to accelerate their clients' buying decisions:

Strategy #1:  Get in the Head of Your Prospective Client

Strategy #2.  Generate Three Memorable Value Statements

Strategy #3.  Surprise them with a Story

Strategy #4.  Sell Confidence 

At the end of my Authentic Selling course, I left participants with one of my favorite guiding principles:  

How You Sell is a Sample of How You Serve.

Serve well and you will win in the marketplace!