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In Liberation Management,
Tom Peters reinforces the concepts you are using to develop your competitive advantage
with key customers. His ideas support what Stovall Grainger & Modleski continues to hear concerning
many of your potential customers.
The purpose of this article is to refresh some of those concepts we
discussed during your Building Competitive ImmunityÔ Workshop and to underscore the application of these concepts to strategic
selling.
Product costs and budget constraints are common issues. And in the
complex market, cost is certainly a major concern. This is especially true when a customer
perceives there is no other differentiating factor between competitive products.
What makes the situation even more complex is that buyers who simply
made decisions based upon their evaluations are now being forced to justify product
selections to others with differing buying criteria. It may be easier for the customer to
remain with the status quo instead of fighting for change.
Certainly, customer-buying criteria must be uncovered if you are to be
successful. And what is missing so often from sales processes is the ability to attach
real customer value to the additional services you provide beyond your product.
This is what "value-added" is all about.
Tom Peters says that it is impossible to increase sales significantly
without an effective value-added strategy. This being the case, how do you determine what
the customer considers to be of real value? In the past this has meant offering the
customer various training and educational workshops, speakers or product promotional
pieces. In the mind of the customer, these are services everyone provides and, in the
customer’s perspective, such services are really directed only at positioning your
product for greater use.
Based on interviews with customers in complex institutional accounts,
the problem appears to be a focus on adding value to your product’s use and not
directing value-added programs and services to the customer’s business needs.
Phase III strategic, consultative sales professionals realize that
connecting one’s value-added benefits to the customer’s business goals is what
adding value is all about. To have this perspective you must move from selling purely from
the feature and benefit perspective to solving problems on both the clinical and business
side of the customer’s organization. |
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This level of
product differentiation requires sales professionals to build relationships and
credibility at multiple levels in the customer organization and inside their own
organizations. Phase III sales professionals say that they spend a significant amount
of time selling their ideas within their own companies.
As Peters says, "Realize that ‘Lone Ranger’ selling is
dead." Clearly articulating a well-conceived strategy will get you the notice and the
support you need for closing the sale. And teamwork and open communications will help you
and your organization to move to higher-levels of sales success.
What does all of this mean? You must be willing to change.
The symbiotic relationships that help to define Phase III sales
professionals are summed up by the following:
- Embrace Change
- Integrate your product and service solutions into your customer’s business
- Provide information on how you are positively impacting your customer’s business
- Develop your credibility within your own organization and build your sales team
- Be Strategic
- Realize that a Team (or "working group") approach will be critical as sales
solutions become more complex
- Develop and communicate your sales strategies to other members of your sales team
- Keep lines of communication open
- Examine new information and take calculated risks
- Understand the needs of your internal customers
- Remember that Change is constant; don’t be afraid to recreate yourself.
Value-added is a term that is overused in today’s
healthcare marketplace. Customers perceive that if their needs are not fully understood,
then how can value be added to the supplier’s offering. A true strategist is focused
with his/her offerings and as Musashi said,"does nothing that is of no use." |
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