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One of the most important things to look over from year to year is not revenue goals, sales plans or staffing. It’s making sure your team is communicating the highest value specific to your product or service. During this time of making goals for the new year, it can be hard to focus on something as specific as what your sales reps are communicating in their sales conversations. But what’s ultimately going to make you more revenue is more sales- and to get more sales you need successful sales reps who communicate value in their conversations.

When talking with other sales professionals, I hear that it can be challenging to get prospects to move past the expanded conversation part of the sales process. This is typically when there’s a discussion about price.

Let’s look at what’s behind this from a human behavior standpoint. Whenever you sell a product or service to a prospect, you are directly asking them to change what they are doing today. Human beings for the most part are more comfortable with the status quo. We don’t like change because it represents something that is unknown to us. We also don’t like change because it requires time and effort to do something different.

If people are so resistant to change, how do you communicate high enough value to gain a sale? We’ve created a simple formula to explain how it works.

The Value (V) over the Ask (A) has to be greater than 1. The larger the number, the greater the likelihood of a sale.

The Value (V) has to be greater than the Ask (A) as you move from one stage of the sales process to the next. Are you communicating high value in the expanded conversation stage or are you asking for too much to move to the next stage? This is where many reps find themselves getting stuck.

When you get to the end of the sales process, the Value (V) that you are holding out to the prospect has to be greater than the Ask (A). Most people think that the Ask is the price of the solution. While that’s true, another big part of the Ask is the change that has to happen inside their business. Sometimes the change aspect is more difficult to overcome than the price. Stop and think for a moment, what does it take for your product or solution to be implemented in the world of your prospect?

When looking at the conversion rates in your sales process, find the stage where most deals get stuck and apply this formula to that stage. It may not be a diagnostic, but there are other things you can use: Paid Proof of Concept (POC), assessments, road maps or a small step they can take to have an experience with you and your business.

These all represent ways to decrease the ask, but what about the Value (V) part of the equation? Are you communicating high value at each stage of the sales process? This is where we’ve helped out clients over the past 10 years by giving them a framework for communicating high perceived value to their prospects in every conversation, demo or proposal.

We are now offering a way in which prospects can tangibly see the value of your product or service by using a business case tool. This tool highlights the value and benefits of your product while also providing the financial justification in the form of an ROI. It can be used to prospect, accelerate sales and ensure high client retention.

If you’d like some help in increasing your revenue by moving more deals through your sales process, reach out and let’s find a few minutes to chat on the phone. You can email me at dkurkjian@mastermessaging.com.

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We understand it can be difficult to know where to start when trying to communicate value in every sales conversation. That’s why we’ve created an E-book on communicating value that you can download here.