Selling Value: Start with These 29 Questions

Sales professionals frequently talk about “selling value,” but few know how to focus the conversation on issues that impact value for the buyer. That’s unfortunate because the best way to offset pricing pressure is by identifying, quantifying, and presenting value.

Selling value begins with a deep understanding of your customer’s business and how your solution positively impacts it. This can be hard work, but it’s worth it. The creativity and effort you put into analyzing your customer’s business prepare you for the next step: quantifying the tangible and intangible benefits your solution will bring.

As a first step, consider these 29 questions to help you identify value-selling opportunities with your customer.

Ask yourself, "How does this solution help…"

Revenue Generators

1. Attract new customers?
2. Increase revenue per customer?
3. Raise average sales price?
4. Improve customer retention or renewal rates?
5. Increase market share?
6. Raise customer satisfaction?
7. Improve quality or image?
8. Improve the customer experience?
9. Improve margins?
10. Increase ROI?
11. Improve productivity?
12. Streamline processes?
13. Accelerate ramp-up time?
14. Improve uptime and reduce downtime?
15. Improve reporting and compliance?

Pain Eliminators

1. Lower the cost of acquiring new customers?
2. Lower customer service expense?
3. Reduce total cost of ownership?
4. Lower expense?
5. Reduce security threats?
6. Save labor?
7. Reduce time to market?
8. Improve accuracy?
9. Reduce integration issues?
10. Decrease production times?
11. Reduce errors?
12. Reduce customer returns?
13. Lower shipping costs?
14. Reduce deployment time?

Note that as the customer considers these questions, they will better understand how each area of their business can benefit, which increases the overall value of your solution – that’s truly selling value.

You may also enjoy these articles on Value-Based Selling

• Asking High IMPACT Questions to Help Buyers Find Value
• Sales Performance Indicators: Unit vs Value Win Rate
• Four Types of Value Added Benefits and How to Quantify Them