“Value is a mystery…We do not define value. Our customers define value. Our job as a business, and as a sales team is to solve the value mystery,” explains Mike Wilkinson, Co-founder and Director of Axia Value Solutions and co-author of the popular book, Value-Based Pricing. In his recent webinar, “Delivering Value Pricing Through B2B Sales Teams,” Mike explained how to solve the value mystery by overcoming the 7 challenges of value.
Challenge 1: Understanding just what value is
If you’re unable to understand what your company’s value is amongst your colleagues, how will you be able to communicate your value to your customers? Putting yourself in the shoes of your customer will help in understanding just what your value is.
Challenge 2: Recognizing that value and value perceptions are constantly changing
Once you’ve discovered what your value is, you must recognize that value and value perceptions are constantly changing. In our ever-changing markets, a customer’s value perception today may drastically change tomorrow. It’s necessary to constantly reevaluate what your value is, for the answer is unstable.
Challenge 3: Identifying people who care about value
Even though some customers’ value perception is always evolving, some never think value in the first place. Identifying people who care about value is the third challenge. It’s impossible to sell value to people who don’t care about it. You should aim to talk to the people in the customer’s business who will benefit the most from the value you deliver. Value is worth, and worth is money, and money is time. Don’t waste your money talking value with someone who isn’t worth your time.
Challenge 4: Differentiating in ways that matter
After establishing the people you need to be talking to, it’s imperative to be able to differentiate your value in ways that matter. Differentiation isn’t just being different from your competitors. It is being different in ways that your customer values.
Challenge 5: Communicating your value
Communicating those differences is a challenge in and of itself. If you don’t have a value proposition already, make one. Relating your value proposition effectively to your customer is a direct line to your customer’s purchase.
Challenge 6: Capturing your value through price
That purchase can’t be complete without a purchase price. There’s really not a lot of point in going through one to five if you don’t then share in some of the value that you deliver. Value pricing is not about over-charging. Value pricing is about negotiating an equitable share of the additional value that you can deliver over and above alternative solutions. Capturing your value through price ties it all together.
Challenge 7: Delivering the value you promised
Challenges one through six provide a value promise. Challenge seven is delivering the value you promised. Putting value measures in place that both you and your customer understand will help you to stay on track with providing the value you guaranteed.
Want to get more insights from the “Delivering Value Pricing Through B2B Sales Teams?” Watch the on-demand webinar to see how B2B pricing and sales teams can work together by understanding value from the customer’s perspective to effectively price and communicate the value of products.
About Mike Wilkinson
Mike Wilkinson has over 25 years of world-wide training and consultancy experience and was the 2013 Training Journal award winner for best sales programming.
Mike is the co-author of The Challenge of Value and Value Based Pricing(McGraw Hill 2012), and has written many articles on managing major sales and value. He is a Fellow at the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management, and a member of the Professional Speakers Association and the Global Speakers Federation.
Axia Value Solutions helps businesses and individuals maximize their sales effectiveness through both an enhancement of their sales skills and the development and adoption of robust sales processes. Axia’s primary focus is on developing a value centered approach that enables clients to understand the real value that their products and services deliver to customers, by differentiating, communicating and pricing their solutions more effectively.
