Match Your Skills and Abilities With the Needs and Wants of Others

Once you’ve identified how to add value, and begun the process, you still have to sell people on what you bring to the table. The key to being an effective salesperson for your added value is to think of everyone as your customer: Your boss, team leader, coworkers, subordinates, suppliers, and vendors, as well as your traditional customers.

Here are seven steps for selling your added value to any decision maker with confidence.

Confidence doesn't have to be forced. Turn it into a simple process you can stick to.

Source: Pexels/Emmy E.

1. Define the value for yourself

Until you define for yourself the value you are capable of adding in any situation, it will be impossible to sell that value to anyone else. All you have to do is match your skills and abilities with someone else’s needs and wants.

However, many needs and wants are dormant. Dormant needs remain below the surface until you make your customer aware of them. In such a case, discover the need. Then, figure out how to apply your skills and abilities to define the problem, or create the service or product which solves it.

2. Create an effective sales message

To develop an effective sales message, you must understand your audience. Aim your message at the right decision-makers: people who have the power to buy the value you are selling, make a deal, and become “paying” customers.

If you have direct access to people in your audience (for instance, those you already work with), take some time to ask them questions. Find out if they perceive the same need you have identified. See if they have already taken any steps to address it, or if they plan to do so. Ask how they might envision the project, timeframe, and budget. Do they think your skills and abilities might fit the need? Would they be open to a proposal?

In the end, the most effective sales message will be:

• Summed up in one sentence
• Elaborated in the form of a proposal
• Answer the questions who, what, where, when, why, and how
• Play off what your audience already believes, and take them one step further

3. Deliver the message

The best combination for message delivery is professional, interesting, and useful. Write a clear, concise cover letter, that highlights the one-sentence summary of your message along with a brief proposal. If you can, also demonstrate your ability to add value by including a relevant sample of your work.

Then, follow up and solicit feedback on your proposal so you can determine whether this decision-maker is a live possibility or a dead end.

4. Close the deal

There are five steps to closing any deal:

1. Move the conversation to specific terms: time, place, and money.
2. Know in advance your own desired terms (what you will ask for) and your own bottom line (without which you are willing to walk away).
3. Ask your customer at the start, “What are your ideal terms? What’s your bottom line?”
4. State your case, then take the time to pause and really listen to the response.
5. Ask your customer, “What do you need from me to close this deal?” Then, again, listen carefully. If their bottom line is less than yours, you have nothing to lose because you are prepared to walk away. If their bottom line is more than yours, go ahead and accept those terms. You’ve just closed the deal.

5. Keep your promises

Reputation is everything. Never sell something you can’t deliver. Once you sell it, you better deliver. Otherwise, you’ll never have hope of proving your value again.

6. Get paid

Of course, you want to be fairly compensated for the value you add. But remember, there is always more than money to be gained. If you’re not in a position to earn monetary compensation for extra added value, consider these non-financial, self-building rewards:

• New marketable skills
• Relationships with people who can help you or further your career
• Greater responsibility or increased creative freedom
• More control over your own schedule

Sometimes, all you might be able to take away are the tangible results of your hard work—proof of your ability to add value. Don’t discount this. Those results can be used as leverage in later deals, whether with your current employer or a new prospect.

7. Offer follow-up service

Follow-up service can do two things: help you build an ongoing relationship and provide a quality check on whatever value you are selling. It may also help you win repeat, referral, and word-of-mouth business, as well as testimonials and letters of reference.

Reach out to your customers when the project is complete and do a quality check by soliciting their feedback. Were they satisfied with the results? Were everyone’s expectations met? What could you have done to serve them better? What was the best thing about working together?

These questions will remind your customer of the great job you did and reinforce the positive impression you’ve made. On the other hand, if you discover during your quality check that your customer was not satisfied, do whatever you have to do to make things right. Whatever the results, the most important thing is to use that feedback to improve your future performance.