IttBiz wrote a post about her trip to England–and paying too much $$$ for a sandwich, surmising that it cost too much because it had adjectives describing it. Here is post.
She’s on to something–not about sandwiches but about how we describe our value. In our sales training practice, I find that your value and the describing thereof, is tricky.
If you sound too proud of what you do, people will just discount it (“Well, of course he would say that. He’s selling it.”
If you don’t give it any ooomph, it sounds like you really don’t care.
My Rule
A great sales strategy is this: describe it with claims only when you can back up with facts.
If your clients have realized an average of 12% cost savings (better to put an amount in, rather than percents), then have at it. As long as you can back it up, it’s fair game.
If your clients have increased revenue an average of 22%, then convert that to dollars and put it out there. But again, you’d better be able to back it up.
DISCLAIMER #1. There is another side to this and that is the disclaimer. In many businesses that sell solutions, it takes more than buying the solution to get a great ROI. So, you must tell people upfront, that these are “averages” only. If they want to be at the high end of that scale, you can work with them to help them get it.
DISCLAIMER #2. If you bring enormous value that, on the surface, sounds too good to be true, be careful.
Results. Not Claims.
People are looking for results today. Not just for a better widget. The question they’re asking is, “How will buying this widget improve my life, financially and otherwise?”
So when you go to communicate your value, be careful about using a bunch of worn-out adjectives to describe you. It might just put you back in the ‘commodity dungeon’ where everyone sounds the same and competes on price only. You don’t really want to be there, do you?
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