More Insights On Adding Value

We asked our Linked In discussion groups to help us on our journey to defining "Add Value".  The results came from more than a dozen sales professionals from all over the globe.  Here's a high level summary that distills out the main concepts:

1. Adding Value revolves around uniqueness, whether it is knowledge, experience, insight, perspective or perception that the sales person or team brings.  
2. The customer is changed by that uniqueness; customer are left in "a better place" by virtue of their interaction and relationship with the sales professional or team.
3. There are many ways to make that kind of impact--assuring implementation will work as planned, providing access to experts, disseminating news from the business community, connecting people together, etc.  
4. Fundamental to all of the above is a clear understanding of the customer's business and empathy for the customer's situation.

Agree?  Add? Have we captured the essence?  Next time, we'll present some research we've done that measures the extent to which customers experience value in the sales process.  

What Do Customers Want Now? Trends From The Hive

Our Linked In group members had some answers to our question about what customer want now in this emerging market.

Brian Casto from Group19 says on the group Best Sales Practices, "Many customers and prospects I speak with now are looking for benefits with deferred costs or shared costs. They are encouraging service providers to take more risk and get paid based on a percent of future savings, percent of new future revenue, or similar."  He goes on to say, "A company offering a distinctive unique value proposition clearly will continue to have an advantage, perhaps gaining share in a shrinking market."  

Over on Sales Labs, Steve Gielda from Sales Momentum sums it up.  "The more successful you can make your customer in this down economy the more successful you will be. Begin demonstrating how your product helps solve their REAL concerns as opposed to just why your product is better than the competition."

These comments and the results from our most recent C-Lens Index Scan of customers reflect a clear sign that customers want 1) help and 2) ideas from the sales process.  Order-taking and efficient delivery of products and services are expected; creativity and knowledge are need.

Are we on the right track here?

What Do Customers Want? C-Lens Index Data Tells Us The Answers

Ahhh.  That old question.  “The customer rarely buys what the company thinks it is selling to them.”  Peter Drucker.  Yes, Peter, but what do they buy?


After looking at what high performing sales people and high performing companies actually do in the sales process, the conclusion is pretty clear.  The sales process creates value for customers both in the buying process and in the relationship that follows.  Whether the customer is buying socks, legal services or airplanes, the same principle holds:  If the customer gains a sense of certainty and confidence from the relationship, then that is value-added.  The customer gets more than widgets, much more.


We're going to focus on that process.  Even better, we're going to share data we collect using the C-Lens Index Sales Process Improvement platform.  Yes, real data from customers describing what is important to them when they buy.  Measurement and data from the Voice of the Customer can point the way.  


But before we get too far into the story, let's wonder out loud.  What do you think customers want from the sales process in this "unusual" market of early 2010? Thoughts?