Book Summary Preview : Value-Added Selling

The Big Idea
“Value-added” is an exhaustive view and approach to selling which focuses on the total value of a product and not merely its price. It includes everything that goes into a product, including organizational efficiency, after-sales services and other inputs and processes, which most companies consider to be outside the realm and definition of value, but is in fact essential to what makes a product valuable for customers in the long run.

The Value-Added Selling Philosophy
The Value-Added Organization
What makes an organization “great”? The obvious answers are: the quality of its products is high, its service is excellent, and its employees performer outstandingly. Put another way, organizations are great because they deliver a “valuable total experience” to their customers. How these companies deliver such an experience is the idea behind the “value-added” organization and why it works. Your organization can be value-added if you properly assess the way you interface with customers, the way your company competes, the way you approach your career, and the way you interact with your peers, all with the end of delivering products and services that are of great value to your clients.

Kinds of competitors
There are three kinds of competitors. The “equalizers” is one, people who want to be as good as everyone else in their industries. These competitors close the gap between themselves and the competition by having a “me-too” attitude. If one competitor offers an innovation in the industry, the equalizer will copy this. Another kind of competitor is the “differentiator.” These competitors represent the next higher lever in the competition: they want to be better than the rest of the pack, seeking ways to expand the gap between them and everyone else in the industry. Finally, we have the highest-level competitors: the “value-added peak” competitors. These organizations (and people) rarely focus on the gap between themselves and the competition. What they concentrate on is bridging the gap between their own potential and reality. They expect the best from themselves, which enables them to maximize the value they bring to their customers. They know what the value-added way of life is all about: doing more of that which adds value to their lives and less of that which adds little or no value. Value-added peak competitors benchmark their accomplishments against their own company’s potential, not against the rest of the market. They defeat competitors by serving customers better.

How you approach your career
Whether you’re the CEO, the vice president of sales, a mid-level manager or a customer service rep, your performance affects your company in more ways than you thought possible. Value-added peak competitor employees seek ways to add value because that’s the way they live their lives. They strive for goals and use their own capabilities and potentials as benchmarks of their progress, not those of other people’s.

How you interact with your peers
Everyone in an organization has a customer – internal and/or external. External customers are those traditional customers outside your company who pay for your goods and services. Internal customers are other employees in your company whom you serve and whose work is affected by your work. It is important to understand that you can only serve your external customers well to the degree in which you serve your internal customers. Also, everything you do to serve internal customers has an outward, rippling effect on your external customers. Customer satisfaction mirror employee satisfaction. Satisfied workers create satisfied customers. As such, it is easy to glean that value-added organizations pride themselves in teamwork. They know that a team is only as strong as its weakest member. . . . . . . . . . . . .