Value is perhaps the most illusive word in sales.

Everyone will tell you how important it is. Very few can tell you what it is. I’ve already gone on ad nauseam about my distaste for the words “added value.”

I recommend you leave them out of your sales lexicon forever. “Added value” has an evil twin: “value add.” Neither of which can be defined in terms of what the customer actually benefits or profits from.

Added value is usually some minor service or hard-to-define extra that the customer already expects or takes for granted. Things like same-day shipping, online ordering, parts in stock or 24-hour service – those are not VALUE; those are a GIVEN. They are NOT incentive to buy. They’re just part of your business offering.

In order for you to understand the word “value” as it relates to your ability to make a sale, put the word “perceived” in front of it. If you think it’s valuable, but your customer doesn’t perceive it as valuable, it ain’t value.

Your customers are looking to increase THEIR sales, THEIR customer loyalty, THEIR employee loyalty, THEIR morale and THEIR profits, and to have no problems.

Are those the values you bring to the table? No? Why not? Those are the value elements that any customer would consider worthy of the word. Your little add-on services are more of a bonus than a value.

And don’t just bring them one time; consistency is the key. My secret for delivering weekly value to my customers is this column. And through my weekly e-mail magazine, Sales Caffeine, on top of that – two weekly value messages.

Is value missing from your MISSION? Most companies have a meaningless mission statement that was created by the marketing department. It’s all about being number one, exceeding customer expectations and building shareholder value. Barf.

What’s your real mission? Is it different from your mission statement?

Where’s the value to the customer? Isn’t that the real mission?

What you need is a value proposition that fully explains how you help others, how they win, how you serve in terms of the customer, how that leads to loyal customers and referrals, AND a mission statement that matches it.

A value proposition states what you do in terms of how a customer benefits. For example, you might say, “We provide a four-hour service response.” A “value proposition” way of stating the same thing is, “When equipment is broken or needs repair, production stops. That’s why we instituted a four-hour or less service response. That way there is minimal loss of productivity and job profitability.”

Same words, stated in terms of how the customer wins.

Value is important to prospective customers for three reasons:

1. It differentiates you from the competition.

2. It gives customers understandable reasons to purchase.

3. It gives customers peace of mind they need to move forward. To buy. Value is crucial to existing customers because:

1. It builds a real relationship.

2. It makes reorders automatic.

3. It eliminates competition. Most competitors thrive on “saving a customer money.” NOTE: Customers don’t want to save money as much as they want to make more profits.

At the end of any sales transaction, a “perception of value” plays its heaviest role. If the customer perceives a difference in you, the sale is yours. If not, the sale goes to the person with the lowest price.

Lowest price always means lowest profit. The more you put value in terms of how they win, the more it will be perceived as real value.

If you’re interested in putting value in your sales process, go to www.gitomer.com, register if you’re a first-time visitor, and enter the word VALUE in the GitBit box.

Jeffrey Gitomer can be reached by phone at (704) 333-1112 or by e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com.  © 2007 Jeffrey H. Gitomer