If selling on value is the way to defeat selling on price then what can we do to provide more value to increase our sales results?
Answer: Focus on the business category you are in, not the product you sell.
For example, if you sell photocopiers then you are in the product category of ‘copying devices’ and the business category of ‘business productivity’.
And if you sell a photocopier, then that is a one off sale.
However if you also sell the ink, the paper, the presentation folders, the binders, storage devices (digital/offline), the servicing, the webinars on document design, and the report on ’21 ways to make your documents sell better’ you have gone from a one line invoice, to a nine line invoice that has multiplied your sales revenue and your customer’s perception of your business’s value.
So here are a few questions to get you started on your road to category selling.
Question 1: What products/services could you add to new or current customers that would compliment the business category they are in, and would further establish your value and increase your sales revenue?
Question 2: What other pains are your customers facing that is related to the business category you serve? For example, a customer may buy photocopiers from you, but the IT support to get their computers transmitting to your photocopier or other devices may be a problem you could help with.
Then these two questions lead on to another obvious one:
“What if I don’t have access to other products or services to compliment mine?” And “What’s in it for me?”
If you want to expand your offering to your clients but don’t want to invest in any new products or services then contact a supplier who can supply the products/services that your customer needs and negotiate a commission for the sale.
Normally other sales-focused businesses will be generous as they realise that the first sale is the cost of a lead, and that leads on to yielding a much bigger lifetime value.
