As a sales person, I believe it is important to construct value in the sales process, instead of hoping that my customer finds it by themselves as they browse my and my competitors’ products. With value-based selling, my product does not merely exist amongst a list. It stands out from the crowd as I demonstrate an understanding of my product and my buyers with value communication strategy at the forefront of my communication goals, creating and delivering value through my marketing.

Table Of Contents

How do you Show Value in Sales?
How do you Show Product Value to Customers?
What is Value Communication Strategy?
How do you create and communicate value?
Can a Marketer Create and Deliver Value Through Marketing?

How do you Show Value in Sales?

Showing value in sales is more than just presenting the good or service you want your customers to buy; showing value is the information, insights, and actions that are brought to the buyer that they cannot find out on their own. When I use value-based selling as a principle, I try to be as knowledgeable as possible on the subject of my own product, and what buyers want, think, and feel. Here are some tips:

I inform myself about the industry and trends impacting buyers.
I try to understand the “pain-points”: What do customers find the most irritating about the problem I am selling?
I ask open-ended questions, such as “Why?”, “What’s your opinion on this?” and “What led to this decision?”. This facilitates dialogue, which is key for our understanding of what the customer wants, and how I can best deliver.
I ensure I know as much as possible about my company’s services. If I need to ask another person about our services, I write a note to ensure I am prepared for the next time the subject arises.

How do you Show Product Value to Customers?

To understand how to show product value to customers, you need to understand that value, in of itself, is an abstract concept. Price is what you pay, value is what you believe you got from it.

Showing product value, then, is about enabling your customer to get the most out of your product. Since value is abstract, a customer’s perception of the value of your product is the value of your product.

Now that we have explained the true nature of value, the method of showing it becomes easier to see, and the paradigm of value-based selling becomes more clear.

Communication and fostering a relationship is the first step to showing value. If your customer can see not just the product, but the faces behind it, they will value it more. A frequent gripe about customer support is how long it takes to “talk to a human”. Make sure the buyer knows that they are not only talking to a human, but also a human that cares, and is taking their wants, needs, and desires seriously.

Assigning quantifications is also an excellent way to show product value. Set up milestones. Give customers data and number-driven feedback. I find that most people value something more if they can quantify how much of something they are getting.

What is Value Communication Strategy?

As I mentioned before, communication and quantification is a key component to showing value. Value communication strategy, then, becomes a vital part of your value-based selling.

Value communication strategy is communicating in monetary terms, what benefits your product has that sets it apart from similar products. You can either emphasize the “positive” value, which is what your product can do that none other on the market can, or the “negative”, which is what your product can do less expensively (usually in the monetary sense, but time and frustration, depending on the buyer, are also “expenses”) than other products. Whichever way you choose, you will be selling more value to your customers than other products. Or, in other words, you have made effective use of value-based selling.

How do you create and communicate value?

Creating and communicating value is about knowing your buyer. Here are ways of how to do so in an increasingly busy, crowded, and competitive market:

Know your buyer personas. Buyer personas are representative mockups of the people buying your products. They include demographic data such as age and gender, their personality traits, their goals (that are relevant to your product), as well as their frustrations that can either be solved by your product, or are preventing them from seeing the value in your product in the first place.
Assess and target your customers’ needs. This should be evident in your buyer personas, but be more aggressive in your understanding of your customers’ needs than all other information. Customers’ needs are the most critical thing to understand when selling a product, I believe all else is secondary.
Create unique value propositions. You want something short, memorable, and definite. Vague catchphrases are to be avoided.
Ensure your team is communicating your unique value proposition. Make sure your unique value proposition is everywhere: blogs, marketing, social media, mail campaigns. Ensure it is somewhere on everywhere.

Can a Marketer Create and Deliver Value Through Marketing?

I believe that too many marketers think too narrowly in value-based selling. Many see their primary job as promotion, to sell a product after it is created, instead of shaping it into something of value for the buyer.

Marketing companies that excel are ones that help create and deliver value through marketing and value-based selling strategies. Leading marketers see the current place of marketing to be less about promotion, but creating value by defining and satisfying target customers instead of attempting a wide mass appeal.

When a product is shaped to the benefit of specific customers instead of a broader audience, especially with a marketer’s help in understanding the current market, the product becomes better under the principles of value-based selling.