This week, we are going to explore one of the most important factors in why any business buys your service and what you need to do to close the Value Gap. Let’s get to it.
When faced with a decision to buy something, every buyer makes a choice.
And it is a simple one.
Is the product or service I am looking to buy worth the money that the other person or company is charging?
To make this decision, the buyer will consider a number of factors. Here are five of the most important aspects below.
1. What they can physically afford.
Everyone has limits on the money and resources they can access or borrow. We might all want to buy a private jet to take us around the world, but if we don’t have, or can’t borrow, the £50m+ needed to buy or lease the plane, then we can’t buy it. Reality.
2. What they are prepared to spend.
Everyone has their own limits on what they feel comfortable shelling out for a specific item. Whilst some may feel investing over $32m in a giant spider sculpture is good value, others wouldn’t spend that as long as they had breath in their lungs. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
3. The extent of the pain and problem they have.
A bottle of water would normally sell for £1 to £2, but if you were walking through a desert without water and needed some to survive, would you spend £20,000 to stay alive? I bet you would. Life with no money is better than money with no life.
4. Their confidence that the solution can solve their current position.
I may be intrigued by a £5,000 tablet that allows me to eat what I want and still lose weight each week, but if I don’t have confidence that it will work and do what it says it will, then I’m not buying.
We covered building belief a few weeks ago. Here is the link if you missed it.
5. The emotional feeling that the end outcome will give them.
Can you put a price on seeing your beloved sports club win a trophy live for the first time in your life, even when the ticket costs thousands of pounds? Many would say, “You bet.” They will always look back and say, “I was there, and that feeling was priceless.”
These (and other factors) contribute to what is known as the “Value Gap”.
The Value Gap is the distance between the buyer’s current position and their desired end position.
If the gap is too large, the buyer stays where they are and the seller loses out.
Sellers will often hear phrases such as:
“I can’t justify spending that amount.”
“We simply don’t have those funds available right now.”
“I like it, but I just don’t like it enough.”
“I just can’t see how it will work for us.”
It’s painful when that happens. All that built-up emotion and energy for the sale just gets lost. But it can AND SHOULD have been avoided.
Your job as a seller is to bridge the gap.
You do that through insight, information and evidence.
But how do you know what they think? And what they really value?
You have to focus on ‘bridging the gap’, but it’s not that easy, I can hear you saying.
You want to understand what the buyer DOES VALUE and how you can take them on a journey they BELIEVE in.
But how??
How can you find out what the buyer REALLY values and what they think to those 5 key points?
By getting inside their mind. By understanding them. By getting to know what makes them tick.
And how do you do that?
By becoming an expert in asking the right questions in the right way at the right time. When you do this, the layers of the onion start to peel away.
If the buyer lets you inside their world or through the layers of their onion,
AND
The buyer truly believes that you are there to help them rather than take advantage of them, then your sales world opens up.
Your Sales Super Power becomes real.
If you want to build the Sales SuperPower, then understand there are levels of questions, and that different questions will need to be used in different scenarios.
First contact outreach
First call
First meeting
Networking meeting
Second call
Demo
Dealing with objections
Closing, etc.
You need ALL of them in your toolbox. Each situation will require a different set of questions.
You must ask questions in the right way, with the right tone and approach to wear the SuperPower cape, though.
We get inside their mind by asking questions, by learning something new about them and their situation.
What concerns them and what excites them?
What worries them and what gives them comfort?
What starts their engines, and what stops them from starting?
The Sales SuperPower comes from listening and asking the right questions.
When we become an EXPERT in asking the right questions, at the right time, in the right way, you can cross the Value GAP in the mind of the buyer, and when you do that, you win business!
Does this cover a challenging sales or business situation you have had?
If not, then what sales question or area would you like me to cover in a future newsletter?
Let me know. I read all replies, even if I don’t have time to reply to them all.
Thanks, as ever, for being part of my community.
Have a brilliant sales week ahead, and remember, Eat or be Eaten.
