Value Creation Interactions: Bridging the Gap

Warning: This is only for people who want to create value, not just sales people!

Do you find your customers are polite and show interest in you when you first meet them, but moving forward nothing productive ever transpires?  Do customers give you less and less of their time as you attempt to give them more of your time?  Do customers share less with you and appear close-minded the more you try and sell them? Do your good intentions to drum up sales for your company end up falling short of closing a deal?

It’s human nature to want to share ideas and connect with people.  We’re hard wired to connect, bond and share experiences.  With that said, the key to maintaining successful connections and subsequent sales success are built on the foundation of “value”.  Each day we’re given 24 hours to live and invest.  Whether we realize it or not, we make hundreds of choices as to how we will invest those 24 hours.  Many of these choices are made in autopilot based on a value proposition.  We will choose where we invest our time based on a risk/benefit ratio of value.   In other words, my time is finite enroute to my goals. 

When I am clear on my goals and the direction I am heading, the more discerning I am with my time investments.  Value can be created in many different ways.  The key to building value is to ensure that the interactions between your customer and yourself have to benefit the customer by either supporting them or bringing them closer to their goals.

When you’re frustrated and wondering why it seems to be such an elusive quest to connect with a customer and close a deal, ask yourself “what value am I creating in this relationship?”  Value can be derived in many different ways including:

• Understanding what is truly important to the customer and what their goals are;
• Demonstrating and acknowledging the importance and value that you derive from the relationship;
• Delivering a product, service or experience that clearly improves the customer’s situation and moves them closer to their goals;
• Delivering an experience that improves the environment in which the customer is travelling enroute to their goals through:
• providing kind, encouraging and supportive words (improving their environment);
• removing barriers or roadblocks; and/or
• valuing their time.

It is quite easy to sit back and talk about delivering value; however, if it were that easy we wouldn’t be discussing it right now.  So let’s go back to our previous discussions on mindfulness and self-awareness.  It is significantly easier to deliver value when your bucket is full.  A combination of consciously tending to yourself, your health (mental, physical, and spiritual), and your bucket as a whole and being mindful of your actions and words are the key to delivering value in all your interactions.

When your bucket is full, the manner in which you interact, interpret and understand a customer’s needs better equips you with the tools in which you can deliver value to them and to yourself.

Ready to set yourself up for success in creating value in every interaction? Ready to bridge the gap? Contact Project Shine now!