How to Add Value to Your Sales Offering

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We often discuss the importance of adding value as well as how to sell and build value.  Last week I was asked if I could provide an example of what added value could be.

Example:  The Landscape Construction Company

Scenario:  They spend weeks digging up your property, moving earth, building walls, installing plant material, cleaning up, and finishing with mulch and sod.  When they have completed the project, it looks great but the customer must hire a company to clean the residual dirt from the windows and power wash the house and deck.  

Solution: The Landscape Construction company can add value by partnering with a company that provides those two services and paying them (relatively small amount in comparision to the landscape project) to do the related clean up.

Building Value: When their salespeople meet with prospects, they can ask about prior work the customer had performed, how much of a mess was left behind, how much post construction cleaning was required and how they felt about it.

Selling it: In order to differentiate themselves in a competitive situation, the company can simply use “The Hidden Ball Trick” from my book, Baseline Selling, and ask, “When the other companies offered to clean your windows and power wash your house and deck when they were finished, how did you respond?”

Most companies are able to identify the value they add, but fall short of being able to properly create a need for that added value and use that value to differentiate themselves.