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The Role of Value in Sales with Donald Kelly

The Role of Value in Sales with Donald Kelly – 053

July 7, 2015 by Kirk Bowman Leave a Comment

Donald Kelly is the host of The Sales Evangelist podcast and an award-winning speaker. His podcast has been mentioned in Entrepreneur Magazine, The Huffington Post and on Yahoo Finance. He's a sales trainer and mentor, and a self-admitted addict to staycations. Kirk was a guest on Episode 32 of The Sales Evangelist.

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Getting Started in Sales

  • What is the most important thing you can share about pricing?
    • Price is the reward for the value that people see.
    • People can be afraid of having a conversation about money.
    • Price is a demonstration of appreciation of perceived value.
    • Discussing price can be challenging to salespeople because they think the price is going to drive the customer away.
    • All customers know they have to pay for what they are going buy.
    • The fear is head trash, which limits the ability to talk about price.
    • If you do not have confidence in your product and service, you will be afraid to discuss price.
  • How did you discover your passion for sales as a profession?
    • When Donald was a kid, his dad had the entrepreneurial spirit and was successful.
    • Donald started selling cookies in the front yard or mangos he had picked.
    • When he came into professional selling, post-college, he had to learn how to sell in the B2B world.
    • Once he realized there was a process to follow, he decided to share it via The Sales Evangelist.
    • If you have the desire, he can teach you to sell.
    • The entrepreneurial spirit can be hereditary.
  • What is the most important thing to succeed in sales?
    • Episode 133 discussed the one thing necessary to succeed: having measurable goals.
    • The idea of the episode is to quantify your performance.
    • You need to be able to measure what you are doing by being methodical.
    • Key indicators is an important way to measure your performance.
    • Once a salesperson gets a taste of commission, they can sometimes get complacent.
    • Fundamentals of a sales process:
      • Understand your key indicators.
      • Generate interest.
      • The meat of the process is being able to ask appropriate questions of the customer to understand their problems and challenges.
      • You have to present the information with options.
      • Close the deal.
      • Exchange the value.
    • When you ask the appropriate questions, you might learn that the customer is not a fit.

Selling Value by Asking Questions

  • What are some of your favorite questions to ask in the sales process?
    • Why is this an important thing now?
    • What have you done to remedy this situation before?
    • What is your process like when you have made purchases like this before?
    • If you do not do something, what will be the effect on the organization?
    • Getting to the truth can sometimes be five layers down – keep asking why.
    • The goal is to get to the right decision for the specific customer.
    • You have to be able to probe, and make it feel like a comfortable, natural conversation.
    • Jeb Blount's book, People Buy You, is about selling on a human level.
  • Do you recommend always selling on value?
    • Value is in every sale.
    • Your product might make it harder or easier.
    • If you believe you are selling a commodity, you will act like you are.
    • If you think you are a premium, you will act like you have value to offer.
    • If you are confident in your value, it is important to articulate that.
    • Commodity thinking results in profit from volume only.
    • You can ask the customer what they think about your price. Then listen and learn what they believe about you.
    • When your customer comes to a conclusion on their own, rather than you telling them, it helps close the sale.
    • Ask your customer to give you their perception so that you can tailor your questions to them.
    • Every customer is unique and should be treated that way.
    • Practice, so that the questions become natural to you.

The Impact of Options in Sales

  • What is your experience offering options to customers?
    • People like to have options.
    • When the customer comes to an opt-in web page, they are familiar with three types of options.
    • A person who would buy Donald's lowest package still needs to get the same tools as the highest package.
    • With the options Donald offers, the amount of time that they spend with him is the main difference.
    • Do not make your customers feel stupid or that you are trying to trick them into something.
    • In more complex B2B sales, options are not always used.
    • You have to stay within the realm of what you offer when you provide options.
    • People like to choose.
    • Do not offer an option that is worthless to the customer or you.
    • How to Avoid Contract Hell was an episode about a software deal that was worth over $200K. The complexity of the negotiations required creativity to offer different options.
  • Which guest on your show did you learn the most from?
    • Kirk offered a lot of advice on Episode 32..
    • Justin Su'a (Episode 7) and Ralph Quintero (Episode 2) are about mindset and getting the habit of success.
    • Donald is the emcee for Podcast Movement and is bringing a suitcase full of costumes for his introductions.
  • What is one of your best stories about creating value for a customer?
    • A chiropractor's office in Miami did not have an IT staff.
    • Donald worked with a managed IT service.
    • The value for the doctor was to be able to provide service to his customers without distraction.
    • Donald explained how he could solve the IT issues remotely.
    • It felt good that he helped a doctor be able to heal others.

About Donald Kelly

  • Website: TheSalesEvangelist.com
  • Twitter: @DonaldCKelly

Filed Under: Creative, Episodes Tagged With: Sales, Self-confidence, Value conversation

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