A well-known computer manufacturer, no longer in business, insisted upon training their entire sales force on "Systems and Options" for configuring customized systems for their prospects. The manual was over 300 pages, and the accompanying pricing manual (another 200 pages) were together intended to provide EVERYTHING needed to correctly configure and price a complete system customized to the prospect. To ensure that every system was correctly configured and priced, this company built an entire group of sales operations specialists to review and correct the pricing done "in the field." This administrative group occupied an entire building and the total number of those employed to correct the "field" outnumbered the entire sales force.

This company didn't understand what they were selling, and as a result were swallowed up by one of their competitors (who DID understand what they were selling).

How do you define value? For most people, this is a simple equation. If you are willing to trade money or time for something, then it has value to you. If you are willing to trade more money, or more time, it has a lot more value to you. For instance, most people would agree that a Mercedes 600-SL Convertible has more value than a Honda Civic, and the price for each would agree.

Your job in sales is to clearly and simply convince your customer that the value your product delivers far exceeds what the customer is willing to pay for it. If you can successfully convey that message, you will certainly make the sale. If you deliver a "good value" you will probably make the sale. However, if you deliver a GREAT value, the customer will recognize a bargain and will absolutely positively buy every time. Who has ever turned down a great bargain?

It is important to recognize that "irresistible" is defined by the prospective customer. What you find irresistible may not be the same as for the buyer, and that is a vital distinction. You may think that the most important quality of your product is your fast delivery, low price, or excellent customer support. The customer, however, may think differently. He may be entirely concerned about job security, and possibly is worried that if he makes a bad decision, he could lose his job. Maybe he/she doesn't really care what it costs, or how fast it is delivered, so long as it works 24 x 7 and never fails! To that customer, in that situation, an irresistible value would be a performance guarantee and a solid record of stability and uptime.

To sell your product or service (or to sell yourself as a "product"), you need to carefully consider how to create irresistibility, because that will guarantee a sale. To accomplish this, I recommend conducting a Features/Benefits/Value (FBV)exercise. This brainstorming session, generally conducted with your sales and marketing organization, helps to determine with precision the Features of your Product (what it is), the Benefits you provide (what it will do) and the Value to your customer (what it means). You will often be surprised to discover that many of your employees don't really understand the value of your products/services, and almost invariably will not be able to articulate the value in a concise fashion.

To find out more about FBV and how to use it for your benefit, I suggest you read Chapter 4 of my recently released book " Precision Selling."

Once you have a solid understanding of the value(s) your product delivers, you will then be able to build these values into an irresistible message for your prospective buyers. By the way, if you can't figure out how to make your product offering irresistible, you need more work.!

You only have a few short seconds to capture the attention of most prospective buyers, whether over the phone, the internet, or in person, and you will not be successful unless your offer has something truly special and unique. To your Success!

As I studied their performance, I discovered something both unique and valuable: the very best salespeople, men and women at the top of their craft, all exhibited similar behaviors. No matter what company they worked for, they were always successful. It didn't seem to matter what territory, customer, quota, or management team they were dealing with, they just knew how to get the job done! And I constantly wondered why? What strategies had they adopted to ensure success. What were their secrets?

This unique book reveals many of those secrets, and it will show you how to become amazingly efficient in your approach to sales and management. The strategies revealed in this book will change the way you sell and manage. From the very first page, you'll discover techniques which will transform and revitalize your sales processes. Your perspective on sales, customers, and communication will change for the better. You'll become more efficient, more effective, and more productive. In short, you'll learn to achieve maximum results with Precision Selling.