Raise the Customer’s Perceptions of Value to Close More Sales

The More Sales People Know About What Affects Their Prospects Perceptions Of Value, The Better The Choices They Make To Close The Sale

Closing the sale comes down to the choices salespeople make. As they go through their sales process, they make choices about what they do next based on what they know about the customer, what they think they need to know and what they feel will help close the sale.

Sometimes, those choices are based on false assumptions, not listening carefully enough, not asking enough questions, not interpreting what they hear correctly and not being curious enough about the customer. They might feel more comfortable talking about what they know… their offer and its benefits… than actually finding out all that the customer thinks and feels. To boost sales growth, you have to get deep inside the customer’s mind.

28 Years of Research Shows That Even The Best Salespeople Can Close More Sales

Our research traveling with salespeople and interviewing prospects shows that even the best trained, most experienced, quota-busting top producers lose sales they could have closed because they didn’t address all the issues affecting the customer’s perceptions of value.  These discoveries have unraveled the mystery of how customers’ actually figure out their perceptions of value and what causes it to rise and fall. Only needs, wants and benefits that customers rank high in importance will raise their perceptions of value. Anything they rank moderate to low in importance will not affect their decision to buy.

When salespeople grasp this deeper understanding about customer value, they seek out more information from customers and interpret it more accurately. That causes them to make better decisions about what they do next to move the sale forward. This results in salespeople closing more sales.

Salespeople Close More Sales When They Focus on the Customer’s Perceptions of Value

A salesperson’s choices have more affect on whether they close the sale than their process, steps and techniques. When those choices are based on why people buy and how customers figure out their perceptions of value, salespeople make choices that help customers discover a high enough value to say yes more often.

These are conscious choices salespeople make that grow out of a deeper understanding about what actually affects the customer’s decision to buy. Closing the sale requires in-depth knowledge about the customers needs and wants, what they consider important and unimportant, what they would highly value and everything affecting them. To close the sale, salespeople have to figure out how to use all that information to influence the customer’s perceptions of value.

To do that, they have to make sure they have collected all the information and not missed anything. And most miss something as our research shows.  Further, once they have the information, they have to interpret it accurately which even the best fall short at sometimes.  To make the best choices, a salesperson has to accurately interpret the information they have gathered from the customer. This is something every salesperson in the world can improve at.

Closing the sale is about raising the customer’s perceptions of value as high as possible. That’s why they buy. The more a salesperson knows about what is going on inside the customer’s mind, the more likely they are to collect more information, avoid assumptions, interpret that information accurately and make choices that will raise the customer’s perception of value. Whatever they don’t know about the customer can and will sabotage the sale.

Salespeople Know Less About Customers Than They Think They Know

Our research shows that, on average, experienced and trained salespeople know about 75% of the available information that could influence the customer’s purchase decision. Yet, they are often unaware that their knowledge of the customer is 25% less than it could be. Even top producers often fail to unearth 5% to 10% of the critical information available. How can we get salespeople to consistently seek out more information that can help them close the sale?

What salespeople need is a guidance system that leads them to seek out more information from the customer, determine when the information is sufficient to move the sale forward and accurately interpret that information to close the sale. By learning why people buy, how they figure out their perceptions of value, and what causes that value to rise and fall,  salespeople become motivated to seek out more information and accurately interpret it so they can close more sales.

How A Perceived Value Guidance System Helps Salespeople Close The Sale

When salespeople seek out the maximum possible information from the customer through the lens of perceived value, they do the following:

• Listen better
• Interpret what they hear better
• Avoid costly assumptions
• Become more curious about what the customer thinks
• Develop deeper relationships with more people

This leads salespeople to do the following five things that will cause more customers to say yes more often at profitable prices.

1. Increase the number of needs and wants uncovered
2. Raise how important the customer ranks each need and want
3. Present solutions that more closely align with the customer
4. Raise how important the customer ranks each benefit
5. Increase the perceived value of what is offered

When salespeople do all five to the max, they close more sales, increase their win rates, penetrate deeper into existing accounts, retain more customers, and increase referrals to new prospects. They boost their sales growth.

“Closing the sale is about raising the customer’s perceptions of value as high as possible. That starts by understanding what is and isn’t important to the customer so the salesperson can help the customer raise their rankings of importance. When salespeople focus on importance instead of just needs, wants and benefits, they collect more information, interpret it more accurately and make better decisions to move the sale forward. “ Don Shapiro, President, First Concepts Consultants, Inc.

Questions?

Schedule a phone conversation with Don Shapiro, President of First Concepts Consultants, to answer your questions and explore how this discussion could help your organization.

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Learn about Don Shapiro’s energetic, fun and interactive speeches, workshops and training on leadership, leadership development, teamwork, change, improving cultures, value, sales and service.

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Further Reading

White Paper: Why People Buy

Learn some of the conclusions from Don Shapiro’s three decades of research into why people buy and what affects their purchase decisions based on his observing hundreds of salespeople and having over 3000 salespeople call on him.

Customer Value…The Ultimate Path To The Best Strategies, Products And Services

Defines what customer value is and how it can help any company to increase its sales, margins and market share. When a business becomes truly customer driven then customer value unifies everything it does.