Studies show the best salespeople do one thing that their less successful colleagues have yet to figure out:

They perform a value diagnosis — while others simply rely on adding value to customer interactions.

What makes a value diagnosis different from value-added selling?

• It’s always focused on the customer. Diagnosis is about the symptoms the customer is experiencing and the solutions that best address those symptoms. If you’re diagnosing properly, you aren’t talking about your company, your solutions or yourself.
• It’s about the observable symptoms of problems and the parameters of solutions, not blame. Diagnosis maintains and protects the customer’s self-esteem.
• It engages the customer as a collaborative partner. Instead of a one-sided presentation, you and your customer are taking a journey of discovery and reaching conclusions together.
• It promotes ownership. When buyers and salespeople collaborate to solve problems and develop solutions together it leads to long-term relationships.
• It differentiates you from your competition. When every salesperson is presenting value, the salesperson who takes an advisory-based approach to identify and confirm value will stand out from the pack.

The best salespeople operate like skilled physicians with diagnostic maps in their minds. Similar to the way an anatomical map shows how all the organs in a human body work together, a diagnostic map enables sales professionals to see how a customer’s operation functions and where inefficiencies may lie.

Tags: adding value, skill, value added, value diagnosis