Every decade or so, another new term floats to the top of the business world. In sales, value creation has been front and center. Sales experts to sales training firms now educate salespeople on how they can create value.
The undisclosed problem with value creation resides in this 3 letter word – EGO.
When salespeople believe they create value, they are putting themselves and their egos before the buyer. All of a sudden they know better than the buyer based upon their own experiences with other buyers. In some cases this may be true.
Sales Coaching Tip: Even the most uneducated buyer can smell EGO a mile away.
When we look at the true meaning of the word create, it means to bring something into existence that did not exist before. Value is unique to each buyer. Therefore value already resides within the buyer and cannot be created.
Possibly people confuse value creation with value connection and value rediscovery.
Value Connection
Through active listening, the salesperson learns what the buyer values. Then the salesperson can craft his or her solution to ensure it connects to those value drivers.
Value Rediscovery
When salespeople rediscover an un-articulated value (this used to be called latent needs in sales), they can bring this to the attention of the buyer. Possibly in the past other salespeople had failed to discover this value and it resided quietly in the buyer’s subconscious until it was rediscovered.
Ego is a sales killer. No one likes to be sold as the old expression goes.
When salespeople believe in value creation, their egos prevent them from active listening to asking different questions. Ego becomes a fallback behavior and potentially turns off more buyers than turns them on.
People buy from people they know and trust. Ego prevents that exchange of knowledge and trust from happening.
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