In The Three Value Conversations, Erik Peterson, Tim Riesterer, Conrad Smith, and Cheryl Geoffrion present an alternative sales technique. Instead of pushing their products or services, salespeople should have value conversations with their prospects to engage them more effectively. They must do their research, understand their buyers’ business needs, and present solutions that speak to the buyers’ values and interests. For the conversations to be successful, salespeople must differentiate themselves from the competition, justify their solutions, and emphasize the value for themselves and their customers.
According to the authors:
- Most selling takes place during conversations. While these conversations need to appear casual, in actuality they take careful planning and research.
- Salespeople must be able to help their customers establish a buying vision by getting customers to do something different.
- Disrupting the status quo, or showing a buyer that the pain of living with the present situation will be greater than the pain of making a change, is key to a successful value conversation.
- Discovering buyers’ unconsidered needs–that is, helping buyers identify things they did not already know about their business situations–will enable salespeople to differentiate themselves from the competition.
- Customers are concerned about business needs; they want to have conversations about solutions to situations caused by external factors and business initiatives.
- Salespeople must do their research, using available annual reports and earnings statements, to discover trends in prospects’ businesses.
- Salespeople must be confident enough to achieve pivotal agreements throughout the selling process while conveying the true value of what they have to offer.
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