Sales organizations often look at the competition as the enemy that must be beaten! With this mindset, as a sales manager you and your salespeople are often put in a position where you fight the competition on the customer’s front lawn, in full view. You need to shift the rules of the game from competing against the competition to competing on behalf of the customer by recognizing and delivering value. Value that is defined by the customer, not by a list of features and benefits.

In this session, we will explore an approach to understanding value to the customer and how specific moves and strategies affect the customer and disable the competition including:

• How to look at a current sales opportunity based on your understanding of what the customer values
• How to create a value map that plots your position relative to both the customer’s perception of value and the competition
• How to identify three strategies to develop your next moves while anticipating the competition’s and the customer’s next moves

      

Michael Leimbach, Ph.D., is Vice President of Global Research and Development for Wilson Learning Corporation. With more than 40 years in the field, Dr. Leimbach has developed Wilson Learning’s diagnostic, learning, and performance improvement capabilities and has managed major research studies in sales, leadership, and organizational effectiveness. He also developed Wilson Learning’s impact evaluation capability and return on investment models. Dr. Leimbach has served as a research consultant for a wide variety of global client organizations, is Editor-in-Chief for a major professional journal, and has served on the ISO Technical Committee on Quality Standards for Learning Service Providers. Dr. Leimbach has coauthored four books, published more than 100 professional articles, and is a frequent speaker at national and global conferences.

David Yesford is President of Wilson Learning Corporation. With more than 39 years of experience developing and implementing human performance improvement solutions around the world, Mr. Yesford brings valuable experience, strategic direction, and global perspective to his work. Over the years, he has held strategic roles in Wilson Learning Worldwide’s core content areas of sales and leadership, as well as e-learning and strategic consulting. Mr. Yesford is the contributing author of several books including Win-Win Selling, Versatile Selling, The Social Styles Handbook, and The Sales Training Book 2. He has also been published in numerous business publications throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America, and Asia Pacific. Mr. Yesford frequently speaks at international engagements, focusing on issues such as sales and sales strategy, leadership, employee and customer engagement, brand, and strategy implementation.