January 2004                         Published by North American Building Material Distribution Association

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A Different Definition of Value Add
By Joe C. Ellers :

The marketing necessity For the past few years, the distribution community has talked about value-added approaches to business. These have generally been defined as kitting or assembly although there are other definitions. While these are very important aspects of value-add, there is another value-add that is often not considered: the sales process, itself. Many salespeople do not view their function as being valuable to the customer. They believe that the value comes through the products they sell (and the services they offer). In today’s world, however, salespeople that wait for their organization to add the may not even get a chance to sell. The first question that each salesperson needs to consider is, "How will I differentiate myself from all other salespeople that call on this customer?" Ideally, the answer to this question will be some form of additional value to the customer. Salespeople still believe that they have to bring gifts to differentiate themselves. One old-timer still leaves pieces of candy each person he calls on. Others still rely solely on personal relationships. Relationship selling will always have a place in, but it is less valuable (and less effective) than it was even a few years ago--and will continue to become less valuable in future. Think about it, in the old days, if a person liked you, they could give you the order. Today, there are many levels of review, and a lot of decisions are made by committee. When you are under careful scrutiny to justify each and every purchase, is less of a factor than real value. Challenge of a professional salesperson today is to define what you will do to be value-add to your customers. Some strategies that are being successfully used are to: Know the customer better than your competitors Make certain that the customer approves all presentations in advance Set professional appointments (and keep them) Follow-up when you say you will (always) Learn the customer’s goals and make all proposed solutions conform to what they care about Bring in technical experts to solve specific problems Take time to learn how their internal systems work and do not propose things that will require the customer to go through major gyrations. What other things can you do--without anyone’s permission--that will help the customer understand that spending time with you will be valuable? Many salespeople today complain about not being able to get appointments and about having appointments cancelled. The reason for this is simple--most salespeople do not add value on their calls. How many times have you presented a product to someone and had them tell you that they were not the right person or that they were not interested? Every one of these calls made it just a little bit harder for you (and every other salesperson) to make the next appointment. Your challenge is to make your sales approach so valuable that your customers will always want to see you. You do this by adding value on each and every sales call--and every time that you try to set up an appointment. Make a list of what your customers value and give them more of it--starting right now. Joe Ellers has worked with over 900 companies around the world representing thousands of sales managers, sales professionals, executives and CEO's. He regularly speaks for trade and professional associations including, NEDA, EASA, FPDA, CEN, SEN, UAB, ASAE, ESDC, CFS, and others. He is a dynamic speaker, an effective consultant & trainer, and is a lifetime salesman himself. He brings ands-on experience to the table. Consulting Associates Palmetto Associates PO Box 1201 Clemson, SC 29633 Ph: 864-654-3997 Fax: 864-654-8527 Email: info@joeellers.com