Mr. Victor Antonio just spoke at my graduation “celebration” for the University of Phoenix in Nashville. I always want to thank someone for a job well done. He was so awesome!

All of us graduates were laughing so hard, and come to find out- my family was all super impressed as well. They all commented on HOW great and funny the speaker was! I just wanted to relay this information – I am sure you hear it a lot.

Also, I want to extend my thanks for making my big day even that much BETTER! Thanks again & God bless.

Stephanie Bates

On behalf of NSN Atlanta, I would like to thank you for speaking at our first Sales Impact Awards Ceremony last night.

Your presentation was exceptional and thoroughly enjoyed by all.  It was just the right mix of  inspiration, information and LMAO humor!

Thank you so much for allowing us the pleasure of your services.  We are so looking  forward to seeing you in Baltimore!

Best Regards,

Cheryl Coleman, Vice President of Events

In this video sales trainer and expert Victor Antonio discuss the underlying cost of selling your product using the iceberg analogy. Total switching cost is the total cost to switch from one vendor to buy from you. As the total cost of switching goes up, the probability of a sale goes down

This video is a follow to my article on Value Leakage.  After watching the video, I recommend you click here to read the article.

In this training video I walk you through how pricing discounts can hurt your company’s profitability and force you the salesperson to sell more.

The example cited was obtained from Tom Reilly’s 1989 book Value Added Selling Techniques. A great read; I highly recommend it.

In selling, you can create value or you can create unique value. In this video I lay out a simple formula for differentiating between value and unique value.  Let me know what you think!

 
REMINDER:  Download ANY 12 of my books for free (no email reqd) at: http://www.VictorAntonio.com/products

Competing to be unique, and not just the best. In this video I’ll highlight why it’s not wise to compete to be the best, but why it’s better to compete to be unique.  You’ll also be (re)introduced to the phrase “ competitive convergence “; a phrase made popular by business strategist Michael Porter in the 1980s.

Download and enjoy!  No email required,…just click the bookcover and get ready for some sales nuggets!

DOWNLOAD FREE

Sometimes an author presents a concept that is so shocking (i.e., a paradigm wrecker) that it takes a while to get over the shock and socialize it.  Well that’s what happened when I was reading Jeff Thull’s book, Mastering the Complex Sale.  The book itself is about how to win the complex sale using a specific analysis-methodology in order to be more effective at selling your product’s value.

But that wasn’t the shocking part.  Towards the end of the book, Thull introduces the concept of the Value Leakage Bucket.  And in his explanation, he makes, in my opinion, a shocking revelation with regard to value degradation that quite honestly caused me to have the reread the section twice if not three times.

But before I share with you Thull’s assertion, allow me to paraphrase how he views the Value Chain of a product being brought to market.   (Note: As you read the following, keep in mind that I do not do Thull full justice and I suggest you get the book; worth every penny)

Here’s my “Victor-ization” of Thull’s assertion.

Step 1: Product is conceptualized by Product Management (PM), or the like, based on direct feedback from clients.  At this point in the process, the product being conceptualized is perfectly aligned with the needs of the client.  We can figuratively say that the Value Bucket is filled with 100% value.

Step 2: The Engineering Design Team (EDT) then begins to work on designing the product but realizes that certain compromises or trade-offs have to be made with the physical (e.g., size, aesthetics, layout) and the functional (features and capabilities) aspects of the product in order for it to be produced.  Value Bucket = 70%[1]

Step 3: Manufacturing reviews the new product design and communicates back to PM and the EDT that in order to make the product cost effective, certain changes (i.e., compromises) have to be made on the materials and components.  Value Bucket = 40%

Step 4: Marketing now has to craft a message, a strong value proposition, to sell this new product that is NOT completely aligned with what clients want.   Which means that the marketing collateral will center around ‘me too’ features thereby making the product harder to differentiate from the competitors.  The result is marketing collaterals with weak value propositions.   Value Bucket = 20%

Step 5: Sales now takes the product and the product collateral developed by marketing and tries to sell a product whose value is now about 20% of what the client’s want and/or need.

Wow!  That is a startling revelation.  Salespeople are only equipped with 20% of the intended product’s value when selling.  If true, emphasis on the if, then it’s no wonder salespeople have a hard time articulating a value proposition that DIFFERS from their closest competitors.

Said another way, Thull asserts that by the time salespeople gets their hands on the new product, its value once 100% aligned with the client’s needs, is now at 20% of its impact value which essentially equates to having a “me too” product like your competitors.  And, because the product is now comparable to a competitor’s product, the client sees no reason in paying a premium for the new product.  Translation: No difference in value equals price discount in the client’s eyes.

So blaming salespeople, for not selling more, may seem a gross miscarriage of management justice.   Salespeople are maligned when new product sales fall short of expectations, but the real blame should be spread across the entire product value chain, not just sales.  But could it be, according to Thull, that oftentimes salespeople are given products they can’t sell because there are no ‘real’ differences between their own and the competitor’s product?

When the value, the differentiators, have been reasoned out and whittled down to standard features, the product is condemned to the realm of commoditization.  Which leads to price concessions by the seller, which leads to lower margins, which leads to less R&D money for new products development, which leads to less tolerance for new product features, which leads to more watered-down products that salespeople can’t sell without price concessions.  The seller and the company have now entered the downward spiral of commoditization.

New Sales Term: Based on this premise, when a product has been reduced to 20% of its real value and the salespeople are expected to sell it, we should say that the salesperson is a victim of Thull’s Rule!

Yes, I made that up!  Jeff you can thank me later

If you’ve wondered how I develop my videos and/or my material for my book, here’s a glimpse at what I do.  We all have our ‘method of madness’ when it comes to creating or developing new material; here’s mine.

When it comes to conceptualizing an idea and figuring out how it applies to the buying process, I usually put it up on my home office whiteboard and leave it there for a few days.

Occasionally I’ll look at it, make some changes and walk away again.  This can go on for a week or two until I feel the idea has cooked long enough.  Next step…video time!