While talking with my friend Peter Long, he brought up an interesting concept. Buyers typically start looking for a solution to a problem with an expectation of a result they want to achieve. However, there is often more value the buyer will receive beyond their initial expectations. A good salesperson can sell this additional value
Let’s call this discovered value. Discovered value is any additional value the buyer may receive but didn’t expect when they started looking for a solution to their original problem. In other words, they “discovered” more than they were expecting.
How does discovered value fit into a sales process?
Step one is to know what value opportunities you may be able to deliver. Hopefully, you have documented all of the key places where buyers may get value from your products. One way to do this is through Value Tables, where you list the problems, results, and value of solutions you offer. In this case, a solution could be an entire product or a product feature.
Once you’ve identified the value opportunities, it’s time to have a value conversation with your buyer. Your buyer comes to you with a specific problem and asks if you can solve it. Your response should be something like, “absolutely, we solve that problem, but can I ask you a few questions?” Then, you start searching for other problems or results that the buyer type may want. Maybe you say, “some of our customers want to solve this problem, does that interest you?”
The key is asking about and listening for problems you can solve that are beyond what the buyer originally asked for. Ideally, you are looking for all the problems buyers know they have.
Then, when you quantify the value of solving each problem, you will have identified much more value, or “discovered value”, beyond what the buyer originally expected. If you do this for your buyer, your buyer will trust you more and is more likely to buy from you. And because the discovered value is usually a very large number, the buyer is less likely to need a deep discount for you to win the deal. WooHoo!
The key is to know all of the places where your buyer can expect to receive value, and find out if your buyer cares. Focus on this and you will build up the customer’s perceived value of your product, making it more likely you will win more deals at higher prices.
Now, go make an impact!
