Russell Ward is CEO of Silent Edge – a specialist in sales training, motivation and much else. Here he writes about the Sales Value Proposition, a tool to look out for to help you sell your services more effectively.
According to Google, there are approximately 37,700,000 dog grooming services in the world. Now, if you’re one of this number, you might need to start thinking about how to differentiate yourself. Your first response might be something along the lines of, “well, I’m a world-class dog groomer, my canine clients walk away squeaky-clean”, or “I am the best doggy hairstylist around, just look at this Schnauzer’s quiff”.
However, perhaps the most important aspect of business differentiation is to always emphasise more than just your products or services. Any enthusiastic business owner, marketer or salesperson could probably talk confidently about their company’s offering and what makes it wonderful. However, if you truly want to attract client interest you need to do more than merely present generic information about your company. You need to look at how your offering provides a client-focussed, case-specific solution.
When you’re competing against 37,699,999 other businesses, a one-size-fits-all approach simply won’t do. In order to win that client you need to focus on their needs, determine their priorities and come up with a means of addressing their specific requirements. This is where the Sales Value Proposition (SVP) comes in. An SVP is a clearly differentiated statement of the benefits a particular client gets from choosing your products or services over those of others. With this in mind, it needs to be both client-focussed and an expression of value. Value is the key word here, because an SVP emphasises the worth of your offering, not merely the offering itself.
Sales Value Propositions offer a more intelligent approach to business differentiation. They can be helpful to almost anyone in your business, from the marketing team, to the sales managers and people, to the CEO. With an SVP, you can strengthen your brand image and USPs, you can distinguish yourself from your competitors, and you can attract clients and close deals based on your helpful and relevant solution. With an SVP you don’t have to try and ram a square peg into a round hole. Instead, you can ensure that you slot neatly in with the client’s needs as their perfect match.
So, dog groomers of the world take heart. There is a time-saving, cost-effective, revenue-boosting way that you can win business. It may require some training to get it right, but whatever your company does, it’s all about communicating value and focussing on the client’s needs. So there you have it, a key business insight you can’t afford to ignore, and it’s as simple as SVP.