Value-Centred Sales

 Brussels: Mar 12th 2010

 

Force 1: Times have changed. Customers are far more hesitant than in the past. There is more competition than ever.

 

Force II: Many professionals have a distinct distaste for selling. They want to talk to clients as professionals, not as salespeople.

 

These two forces combine to produce the following type of dialogue. (Can you spot how each example triggers hesitation?)

“Yea, we can do that…”

“OK… let's analyse what you have done about this so far…”

“Yes, that's a problem that we are very familiar with. Let me tell you how we solved it at XYZ Ltd…”

“We are specialists in x and y and z…”

For the Spring 2010 workshops, we bring together two vital skills that accelerate career-development as much as they accelerate the pipeline:

• value-centred confidence (or inner conversation) that, coupled with…
• the competence of value-centred dialogue (or external conversation)…

…that together allows us to get results in the marketplace.

 

Sales and Confidence are twin-aspects of value. We are confident when we are clear about our value to others. We make sales when (among other things) others are confident of how we can be of value to them. Many professionals report that sales and confidence grow together… or get hurt at the same time.

 

As our careers progress, the ability to influence others becomes more important than knowledge or technical know-how. The ability to convince others is itself a product of two dimensions:

• Competence: the skills at opening up the value-conversation, opening doors to key decision-makers, exploring budgets and approaches, negotiating fees, overcoming objections and securing the deal.
  
  
• and
  
  
• Confidence: the credibility to lead the discussion, to ask broader and deeper questions, to refrain from diving-in with answers, to stay focused even during setbacks and above all, to ask for the decision and to double-close the sale.

Benefits:

 

Those who master a value-centred approach often discover that a lot of barriers simply disappear. As a result, they find that they are able to initiate conversations that they would not have imagined, often with senior decision-makers with whom they may previously had difficulty relating.

 

By having a structure to work to, their confidence grows, both from the actions they take and the results they achieve. Cross-selling opportunities materialise where beforehand they drew a blank. This also brings a sense of confidence for the future which is particularly valuable in the current economy.

 

Contents:

1. Introduction to the value-centred approach.
2. Powerful opening questions.
3. Honey-traps in conversation - alerts to avoid falling into them.
4. How to find out who is the real decision-maker, validating this.
5. Bridging from context to solution
6. Uncovering the key buying-factors v. relying on “benefits”.
7. Writing proposals with the client v. for the client.
8. Introduction to pricing and negotiation (more on this in June workshop).
9. Dealing with objections and hesitation.
10. Double-closing the sale.
11. Dealing with the internal saboteurs and “mother-hens”.
12. Essential support-processes and systems.
13. Cross-selling opportunities in early delivery.
14. Involving colleagues and motivating others who are sales-shy.
15. Dealing with procurement.

Booking:

 

If you are a member of “The Outstanding Professional” programme, this workshop is included at no cost. Please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it indicating whether you wish to attend in London or in Brussels.

 

Early-bird registration closes on Dec 10th, fee is £375 + VAT, which includes lunch.