Lower Prices! Sell Value!

From Peddler to Partnership, the Yin and Yang struggle that all salespeople go through

It’s a journey as salespeople that we all make.  From peddling on price to positioning as a partnership.  Trust me when I say, none of us want to sell on price.  We all want to sell on value.  We all want our customers to think of us and our products as unique and worth more than our competitor’s.  We all want to be a trusted advisor versus a product peddler.  The Yin and Yang between salesperson and management goes on every day in business.  The sales team or Yin says “We need to drop our prices”.  The company leadership or Yang says, “Our sales team needs to sell on value”.   As a salesperson and sales manager, I have personally been on both sides of that struggle.  As a sales trainer and coach, I hear this debate going on in almost every company.  It’s like the Lite Beer commercials from years ago.  Instead of “Great Taste! Less Filling!”, the chant is “Lower Prices, Sell Value!

Let’s take a look at what actually happens on farm when our salesperson calls on a prospect or customer to sell them.  How is it that we arm our sales team with all the high value material and training, only to be disappointed as they report back that prices are too high?  While there could be many reasons for the struggle between value and price, the following story is one instance where a salesperson can misunderstand how important the entrenched competitor’s value really is.  And many customers will put you into that peddler category until you prove yourself over time.

I was brand new in my territory and like all good salespeople, I put together a list of prospects.  I was having success at connecting and getting appointments with most, except for one.  However, this one prospect was important.  They were the largest account in the market and very influential in the industry.  I simply could not get through for an appointment.  After about 6 months of trying, I found out why.  It seems another salesman from my company with my same first name had called on this prospect several years earlier.  I’ll call him the “other Greg”.  This other Greg went out to call on this large prospect and showed him how he could save him 50 cents/ton on his feed.  When the prospect didn’t buy, the other Greg couldn’t understand and became let’s say, obnoxious or rude or insistent.  What the other Greg didn’t understand was the impact of what he was asking this producer to do.  The producer had done business with his current feed supplier for over 20 years.  That relationship was a true partnership.  That supplier was deeply involved in the prospect’s business, it went far beyond a vendor relationship and he was a trusted advisor and friend to the producer.  Then along comes the other Greg and wants the producer to switch his business for 50 cents/ton.  It wasn’t going to happen.  At least not on a large part of the producer’s business.  And it really wasn’t going to happen after the other Greg became obnoxious.

After the other Greg was thrown off the farm, no one from our company went back to call on the prospect for several years.  Then I came along.  You can imagine my calls to the prospect went unanswered as “Greg” from my company was on the no call list with this prospect.  After discovering the problem and finally getting an appointment, we set off on the journey from peddler to partnership.  In the end, we did provide a lot of value and were viewed as a trusted partner.

My journey with this prospect started with me in the Peddler Pool.  The group of vendors that want to do business with the customer, but aren’t given a chance.  This is where you start out on day one with a prospect.  Farmers and producers are called on by a small army of salespeople and they all want to sell on value.  To keep life simple, producers typically have a primary supplier and then lump everyone else in the Peddler Pool.  They’ll call you when they need you.  This producer was happy with his current supplier, but always open to listen.  Once he listened, he gave me a try.  Once he tried it on a small portion, he trusted me with one of his farm locations and the journey went from there.

Reflecting back, I realized there was a risk for this producer.  The risk that I was embellishing my products or services and wouldn’t deliver on them.  The risk that my products wouldn’t perform and he would have losses.  The risk that there would be extra work or confusion on his farm from having multiple vendors.  The risk that his current supplier would view the relationship differently and not provide the level of support he currently received.  Finally, the risk to his personal relationship with his current supplier who he regarded as a friend.  This producer was smart and had been in business for a while.  He took the change slow.  Or slower than what I wanted to go as a hard-charging salesperson.  But, I learned a lot through this process about developing the relationship over time.

As you go out in your territory and you call on your prospects, understand this journey that you are on.  Today’s producer has many sales people calling on them.  Not just the ones they buy from but all the ones that want to sell him.  Be a little understanding when they don’t pull out their wallet when you first try to sell them on value.  Understand that it’s going to take some time to go from peddler to partner.  Continue to sell on value throughout this process.  Customers and prospects will eventually see it.

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