The best way to increase your average selling price (and earn more commission) is to use a value selling methodology. Value selling is a proven approach to avoid or minimize price discounting and increase upselling and cross-selling, which all contribute to a higher selling price.
After working with thousands of sellers around the globe for 20+ years, I've discovered that few sales reps conduct business value conversations with their buyers. This is despite the reality that value selling improves margins, close rates, and customer satisfaction better than any other sales strategy.
Presentation is everything, from food and fashion to thought leadership and value propositions. There’s a lot riding on how well your team articulates the customer’s problem and presents the value of your solution. When it’s done clearly, persuasively, and with a sense of urgency, buyers will take action quickly and decisively in your favor.
In B2B sales, complementary tools and dynamics work together to make or break a sale. So which of them ultimately closed the deal? Was it the glowing reference or great rapport with the sales rep? Chances are it was the vendor’s discovery-based sales process that yielded a targeted solution that delighted the buyer.
When you get right down to it, B2B deals are driven by the buyers’ desire to lower costs or grow sales. Even if they tell you they want to “mitigate risks” or “achieve compliance,” buyers still expect to achieve their desired outcome along with a positive impact to their bottom line.
Previous posts in our series on value pricing have examined its risks, rewards, and mechanics, all with the goal of maximizing earnings for your company. Let’s expand on this foundation with practical tips and methods for considering the impact and likely market response to your pricing decisions.
One of our earliest blog posts titled Why Value Based Selling is So Successful is still one of our most popular posts. It opens by defining value-based selling as an approach “built on quantifying the impact the service makes on the customer’s financial performance,” based on a reference from Sequeira Consulting’s website.
Our series on value pricing continues with a detailed look at how to set prices that benefit both you and your customers. Now that you understand the risks of other pricing models and how value pricing leverages the value your offering creates for customers to maximize earnings for your company, let’s look at one way to actually calculate the optimal price and the data you would need to populate the formula.
Every now and then, it's worth rereading the now-classic business book, “The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation." The authors make it clear that value selling can help every sales rep perform like a Challenger by adopting the attributes in the profile of this likely sales leader.
What’s your strategy for determining the optimal price for your B2B offering? If you check Wikipedia, the obvious source of all that’s true in the known universe, you’ll find 26 different pricing models or strategies. In this first of a series focused on value pricing, let’s take a closer look at how you can set prices that benefit both you and your customers.
