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Prospect value identification is an integrated process of perceived and actual
value delivered based on your offering and your customer's perception of that
offering at various stages of your sales cycle. There are five steps of prospect
identification that take place during your sales cycle and they include:
- The Vendor's Perceived Value
This is a vendor presented value and is based on how you see your value and
how you communicate its status to your prospects or existing customers
during the pre-sales cycle through your firm's marketing communication
and sales step process.
- The Customer or Prospect Transitional Value
This value happens in tandem during the discovery process where the prospect
matches or rejects your perceived value (vendor's perceived value) with
their perception of your value. This is a value conversion step during
the sales cycle.
- The Prospect's Perceived Value of Your Offering
This value happens when your prospect or your customer finalizes their perception
of your value relative to your competition and makes an assumption (correctly
or incorrectly) of the value of your product or service relative
to price, the business results it produces and the alternative options
they have for purchase or non-purchase.
- The Prospect's Actual Value
This is the alignment by the prospect or customer during their post-sale
decision process to determine if the perceived value communicated by you
in the pre-sale matches their perception of your actual value in the post-sale.
- The Value Gap
This is the measurement or gap between the vendor's perceived value believed
during the pre-sale steps and the prospect's actual value calculated after
the first sale.
Prospect value identification by its very nature is a layered, intricate process
that must be aligned with your sales and marketing communication as an integrated
approach. Prospect value observation starts at the beginning of your sales
cycle and your position is often determined based on your entry point into
the organization.
Enter into a prospect's organizational chart below the title of Vice President
at the beginning of your sales cycle and you are entering into the commodity
zone of buying. Prospects below the title of VP generally make business decisions based
on your offering's features, functions or price.
When you sell management at the Vice President level and above, they buy
based on their perceptions of your business offering's value.
This is a variable option that you can manipulate if you can sell correctly.
Vice Presidents and Above
buy based on their impression of your business value.
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Commodity Zone
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Directors and Below
buy based on your features, functions and price.
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Often there is a gap between what
firms believe in themselves and what their prospects actually experience.
It is not what you sell, but how your prospect positions the
value of your offerings against the alternative buying options they have that
must be managed.
To sell more, sell above the commodity line, manage the prospect's perception
of your business value, and control the value gap between their perception
of your value and your perception.
What the customer demands is last year's model, cheaper. To find
out what the customer needs, you have to understand what the customer is
doing as well as he understands it. Then you build what he needs and you
educate him to the fact that he needs it. Nicholas
Dewolf, Founder Teradyne Corp
Writers Resource Box
| Paul DiModica is the author of the best-selling
books: Value Forward Selling, Value Forward Marketing, and Sales Management Power Strategies.
He is founder of Value Forward Group and addresses
thousands of executives each year on the subjects
of sales, marketing and strategy, including
executives and staff of Wells Fargo, Lanier Corporate, Adobe, IBM, Tyco/American Dynamics, Navitaire and many others. His content-rich
workshops and strategy sessions on leadership, sales, management
and marketing bring about immediate changes
and long-term results. For more information, visit http://www.valueforward.com |
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