Value conversations
Do you want more customers? Engage them in a value conversation!
Every morning, entrepreneurs, professionals and salespeople prepares themselves to begin conversations with customers (and potential customers). However, what are the essential elements that can turn a simple conversation into a “value conversation”?
Above all, why is it important and what are the side effects in creating value during the conversations with customers? In this article, you will discover the essential elements of a conversation which is filled with meaning and value for you and your clients, which has the side effect to make you win more clients and contracts.
So, what is a conversation?
Before going in depth into the topic I think is important and essential to define the general concept of conversation. As I said before, each of us makes daily conversations with customers in order to effectively sell both products or services.
However, are these really conversations or … monologues?
It ‘important to define this because, in most cases, those that apparently are conversations with customers, are actually nothing but monologues that the company seeks to engage with its customers in the hope that these, for one reason or another, buy something.
A conversation is such only if it is two-way .
The key point is that unlike a conversation, to be such, must be a two-way process. It is a moment in which both parts, the seller and the potential buyer share a moment of openness and truth:
* The first, the seller is focused (or it should be) on how to solve problems and frustrations of his potential buyer.
* The second part, the buyer, is centered on the fact that this solution may or may not be the best for him. For this he needs information, specific reasons, explanations and argumentations in order to understand whether this particular product or service is suited for solving his problems and getting the final satisfaction.
Planet enterprise and Planet customer .. Do we need a third planet?
To make this communication process occur, it is necessary that the interaction between the two parties is objective and has the character of a dialogue. In practice, too often happens that both parties are so focused on themselves to be mutually alien to each other, as if they were in distant and incommunicable planets.
Planet Enterprise
The planet business speaks of products, services, processes and characteristics and features. It often emphasizes some benefits in comparison to others. Perhaps someone differentiates their offerings from competitors, but what is important is that words and meanings come exclusively from the ” company world”.
Planet Customer
Planet Client on the opposite, implies a global view and a language completely different from the “planet business”. It is a language made of questions, doubts and fears about how to choose what is the best solution for a given problem. This is a planet where, often the company itself is afraid to take root, is a sort of hostile territory, unknown, full of danger ….
Welcome to the third planet, the planet of conversation
Good news! We can create a conversation that is full of value for both ourselves and our clients … without moving the corporate headquarters .. on Mars! Using resources that you already own you can create the conditions for opening a communication that can attract new customers .. like a magnet! You just need to add a “touch of value” to the conversations that you already have.
So far, we have spoken only of the first element of the value conversation: the one relative to the act of communicating with the customer.
Now we can dig into the concept of value!
In daily life, we have various types of conversation. Those that occur with our loved ones and those we have with acquaintances. We also keep casual conversations with strangers in order to kill time, or simply to alleviate the discomfort of staying silent. Conversations about this and that. Finally, we also have sales conversations with our customers. We also seek to ensure that our conversations are “persuasive.”
So how the value conversation can be different ?
Ahem .. the conversation conducted in this way is when the enterprise uses the element of “value in a very precise way. In fact, there are two essential facets of how to use the value in the marketing conversation:
1) Giving value
2) Demonstrating value
These two concepts, so linked with each other to the point of being interconnected, are two key points that when used properly, can radically transform the quality and effectiveness of your conversations with your customers.
Let’s start with the first element: Giving value
Why waste time in giving value? I want to sell!
This is the most common objection that emerges when one is faced with this concept. In fact, in most case people who want to offer or sell a particular product or service, focus their attention on value only when they are near to the economic transaction.
The problem occurs when the product or service is particularly expensive or complex. It’s paradoxical, but in these cases, the process of giving value and demonstrating it to the customer, are essential conditions for getting to the sale.
In an attempt to make the purchase, many focus on getting something from the client. What happens if you try to do the opposite?
In reality, focus on giving, and then “giving value” may involve a radical change of perspective view of the conversation with the customer. In this view, the position is reversed. Rather than being considered as simply means involved in the transfer of goods or services by providing value to the customer in advance, Our position will be substantially modified: We become persons, they can trust. And this for a reason:
The object of value!
Both professionals and entrepreneurs can easily create value in the early stages of the buying cycle of their customers. They can do this, simply by using strategically a small part of the body of knowledge acquired in their professional practice.
It’s easy, because it is relatively easy to use information, or rather, quality accurate information strategically in order to create perceived value to the customer.
This process is relatively simple for those involved in professional services. However, even those that deal with more tangible assets, may also derive a benefit from this approach: creating value in the conversation.
So, what kind of information can we create to give value to the customer?
This list could be really long. I write a small list as an example:
* Information on the importance of solving certain problems by buying certain products-services.
* Information on the importance of not delaying the solution of certain problems.
* Comparative data showing that a solution is better than another in order to solve a particular problem.
* Information on how to use certain products
* Information showing that the most common solution for a given problem is not the best, maybe in a long term perspective
and so on.
Using information accurately and in a strategic way we can actually create perceived value in the eyes of customers. This especially true if our clients are trying to get information in a field of were getting information is difficult or uncomfortable.
We can also create value for our customers simply by telling them what informations are really important. Not all the informations have the same value for our customers. Sometimes the wrong information may lead your customers to incorrect decisions about their purchase decisions.
Now let’s go to the second essential element of the value conversation: “demonstrating the value”
The demonstration phase of the conversation is another major element in the process of creating a meaningful conversation with your customers. If you can combine the phase of “delivery of value” by showing that you are able to produce or generate value for your client, these two elements can support each other to become a major pillar of your marketing conversation.
Demonstrating the value is the essential element of the marketing conversation. Customers buy because they are convinced that the value offered by your product or service is superior to that offered by your competitors.
So why dwell on the “showing value concept” if this is already implicit? This is not merely a verbal distinction. The fact is that simply the act of giving the right information to the customer, acts as a demonstration of value during the conversation.
This is because the customer perceives the relationship and yourself as a person to be trusted, reliable and credible. When we give value to the customer we are already demonstrating the value that we could create for him.
At another level, at the early stages of the buying conversation with the client, being able to demonstrate the value means to prove that the solution we can provide is important to them, and it responds to his expectations and solves their problem.
In reality, between value creation and demonstration, there is no clear separation. The two events are mutually supportive, and both contribute to build that kind of confidence to the customer that becomes essential for complex purchases.
The demonstration of value, when combined with the concept that what you are able to produce for your client is unique in comparison to that offered by competitors, can become the key factor that allows you to be chosen over another.
Precisely, in this context, the value can and should be demonstrated. Again, we see the concept from two perspectives. The first is to demonstrate that you’re a “person of value.” For example, giving the right information to the customer allows you to acquire perceived value in his eyes.
The second is that the customer should be able to perceive that the solution proposed is “valuable” for him.
These are two sides of the value conversation: before the client will be aware of the value of a solution, it is likely that he has to be sure of the value of those who propose the solution.
As you noticed, the value conversation takes place not only during contacts “in person” with your customer.
I feel compelled to further clarify this point. A marketing dialogue can’t only happen when you’re in person with your customer or prospect.
You can easily start a dialogue with your customers even when you’re not physically present. Your marketing materials and communications must actually serve as an intermediary, like a bridge to guide your client to a “real” conversation that happens when you face him.
If your marketing is already built on the dialogue form of conversation, and then does not follow the shape of the classic monologue communicative “followed by many companies, you will discover by the results, that the second part of the communication, what will happen in the presence of your client will be very simple. This is because your efforts to advance the conversation, have produced more confidence. The client in some way …. already knows you.
Not bad … Right?
To resume.
Focusing on the value creation and demonstration during the conversation with the customer can become a really successful element of your marketing communication. Both phases, the creation and demonstration of the value and the exploration of opportunities can become a key element in your marketing strategy, especially if the services offered to customers are particularly complex.
Finally, here are the three “D” of the value conversation:
* Decide what value is important for your customers (guessing is not allowed).
* Demonstrate that value engaging your prospects in an open conversation.
* Determine the effectiveness of your conversation by observing how your customers interact with you in the various stages of their buying cycle.