Sales

How to Survive in Today’s Sales World by Adding Value from Minute 1

October 22, 2014

Want to stay relevant in today’s rapidly evolving sales world? Sales trainer John Barrows explains why winning more deals now comes down to learning how to give before you get.

 
It’s a tough world out there for the average sales rep. According to sales trainer John Barrows, the future looks bleak. Of course, the key word in that sentence is “average” and Barrows acknowledges that highly driven, exceptional salespeople are going to do just fine. The reason? Because they’re adaptive, and they recognize one thing: To truly engage prospects, just pitching your solution doesn’t cut it. Not anymore. These days, it’s all about adding value.
“You have to remember, the prospects we’re reaching out to, on average, they get 200-300 emails a day. They probably 10-20 voicemails a day from sales reps like us trying to sell them something,” says Barrows, who provides sales training and consulting to tech companies like Salesforce.com and Box. “When prospecting, you need to think about adding value from the minute you engage with somebody.”

“The number one most valuable thing I have is my time, so if you’re going to reach out to me and ask for my time I have to sit there and think, ‘what value is in it for me?’”

John Barrows, sales trainer and coach

Is your prospect going to walk away from the call knowing something new or with a different perspective that they couldn’t have gotten otherwise? If not, you’re just adding to the noise and they can and should avoid you.

What Not to Do

  • Avoid the phrase: “We’re the leading provider of…” “It’s amazing to me how often sales reps start off their pitch this way,” Barrows says. “It drives me out of my mind. Apparently everyone on the planet is a leading provider of something.” The truth is, while you may care about that, your prospects don’t. What they do care about is themselves, and what you have is a matter of seconds to confirm that what you’re talking about directly relates to them. You can always provide them with a more detailed background later.
  • Don’t ask the prospect to tell you things you should already know: One of the worst examples of this is asking the prospect to, “Tell me about your business.” “That’s one of the worst questions you can ask anybody in this day and age,” Barrows says. Information is available everywhere. Do your homework and ask informed, clarifying questions about their business, instead.
  • Avoid vague questions like, “What keeps you up at night?” Your prospect’s likely reaction: Bills. Personal matters. Why am I talking to you again?

3 Keys for Adding Value to Sales Calls

  • Do your homework: With all the information available at your fingertips, there’s absolutely no excuse not to come to a call fully locked and loaded. Dive into a company’s website, comb through their news and press releases, even their mission statement. What are some initiatives they’re working on right now that your solution could possibly offer value to?
  • Bring helpful information to the table: Educate yourself before the call. Educate them during the call. Doing your homework is obviously a prerequisite, but it’s equally important to take that a step forward and actually translating it into value during the call. What is one thing you can tell them that will help them do their job or change the way they think about a problem? To really make this work you also need to stop going through the motions and actually listen to what prospects are saying to uncover their real priorities, Barrows advises. Once you discover not just the company’s priorities, but also the buyer’s personal priorities then you can start identifying ways your solution can help address them.
  • Tell a great story about getting great results: Another powerful way to grab a prospect’s attention and provide them with something useful is to describe a result you’ve been able to achieve for another client in their industry. The more specific and impressive the results you can cite, the better. “The best marketing materials we have are our case studies,” Barrows says. “A tip I always suggest is to choose a different case study every week and learn about it in depth. Learn how to tell the story.” Not only will that give you a clear and succinct way of explaining how your product can help them, it also gives the prospect a memorable nugget they can hold onto and use when discussing the solution in-house.

Upcoming Webinar: How to Win Deals by Adding Value Throughout the Sales Cycle

Join us for a free webinar on October 27th at 2pm ET

Barrows will be presenting actionable tips on how to win more deals by learning:

  • How to stand out in a sea of salespeople
  • Where to add value in the buyer journey
  • Tactics for adding value at every turn

Register now

Photo by: pvz.it

Owner

<strong>John Barrows</strong> is the owner of <a href="https://jbarrows.com/">J.Barrows LLC</a>, a providers of customized sales training and consulting services to major corporations like Salesforce.com, Box.com, Linkedin, SAP, and many others around the world. Prior to starting J.Barrows, John was the Director of Sales and Training at Basho Strategies and co-founder of Kensei Partners.