The 5 Rules of Megavalue Selling Help Differentiate Your Offerings

The 5 Rules of Megavalue Selling: How to Communicate Customer Value and Differentiate From Competitors was written for the modern sales professional who can’t rely on slick sales presentations or pricing discounts to get the sale. In a world where customers (and competitors) have access to more options than ever, these old-school tactics won’t work. There is always a competitor that will beat you on price or features. The one thing that will distinguish your business is value. The 5 Rules of Megavalue Selling shows readers how they can maximize their value so they can get the sale.

What is The 5 Rules of Megavalue Selling About?

The 5 Rules of Megavalue Selling was written to help sales professionals shift their orientation from features to client value.

Sales professionals have been taught that clients focus on features. As a result, businesses have focused on elaborate sales presentations and slick advertisements that detail how their products’ features are better, faster or cheaper. While this tactic can still work, it’s working less and less. Why? The marketplace is getting more crowded. There are more competitors than ever. These competitors are able to duplicate your services and products at an incredible rate.

The customer has changed too. Customers take a more proactive role in the selling process. They can research your business and competitors within seconds. This gives customers a lot of leverage.

This leaves businesses only one key asset to win their customer’s money, value.

The 5 Rules of Megavalue Selling helps readers understand how they can maximize that value through five simple principles. These principles are shared through the fictional story of Mary Minor, a sales professional who is facing a crisis. Mary was a sales superstar until she transitioned into a new industry. Because of her declining performance, Mary was given an ultimatum: Do better or lose your job in 60 days. Mary Minor turns to her father, a veteran sales professional, for help. Mary’s father responds with a book (“The Book of Reminders”) containing his collected wisdom. Mary uses the book and her father’s instructions to turn her career around. From that point, she becomes unstoppable, ending up in a role better than she could have imagined.

Author Mark Holmes is a sales trainer, sales coach and President of Consultant Board, Inc. with expertise in B2B sales. Holmes has worked in several positions at the executive level in several roles but ultimately decided to start his own sales consulting and training company. From that point, he has never looked back.

What Was Best About The 5 Rules of Megavalue Selling?

The 5 Rules of Megavalue Selling revolves around a central concept to which sales professionals pay lip service but fail to follow through on. That concept is “value”. Sales professionals assume that customers will see the value of their products or services if they simply demonstrate it. Try again! The 5 Rules of Megavalue Selling uses a simple story to dismantle these assumptions. In its place, the book offers a simple, but powerful, set of core principles to help sales professionals.

What Could Have Been Done Differently?

The 5 Rules of Megavalue Selling is great at outlining the principles behind a values-focused sales approach. It presents a relatable and engaging story. The story, however, only focuses on one of Mary Minor’s sales victories. Mary Minor was required to get sales from three companies. The book only talks about the first company. Did she encounter any new problems in her career? The book ends on a “happily ever after” note, but it also leaves out some details about the struggles Mary faced on the road to final success.

Why Read The 5 Rules of Megavalue Selling?

The 5 Rules of Megavalue Selling is especially recommended for B2B sales professionals but the overall principles apply to any person or business needing to sell a product, idea or anything else. The book features a story of a B2B salesperson but the principles are broad enough to cover every sales situation.

Even though readers might suspect how the fictional story of Mary Minor will end, the book is still an engaging read because of the lessons. Mary Minor becomes a different salesperson because of the lessons she learns. And readers in turn learn from her experience. These lessons are very simple (i.e. “Ask your customers questions”) but feature a slight nuance based on the author’s expertise. Holmes shares the kinds of questions a sales professional should ask and then demonstrates how the process would look through the fictional story of Mary Minor.

This article, "The 5 Rules of Megavalue Selling Help Differentiate Your Offerings" was first published on Small Business Trends