How To Leverage Up the Value Ladder | Sales Strategy
The value ladder is a way of looking at the value clients receive from our services. Services at the bottom of the ladder are commodities. Commodities are bought and sold by the pound, at the lowest possible price. You will have many competitors at the bottom of the ladder. As you begin to move up this imaginary ladder, client’s price resistance will diminish.
The Top of the Ladder
Moving to the top of the ladder, clients view our services that have an impact on their organization with almost no price resistance. Operating at the top of the value ladder requires you to use leverage in your services delivery. In order to achieve leverage and climb the value ladder, here are some keys to help you be more successful:
Select projects that will have a high degree of success. For ex- ample, last year, in working with a partner group to jump- start the firm’s growth, we had a choice to work with two partners who needed a lot of intense help or two who were leaders. Since this was a newer client, I chose the two leaders because I knew their early success would encourage others that they too could succeed.
Focus on working yourself out of a job. When you focus your services on making your client self-sufficient, you empower their employees to perform the commodity-level work, while you focus at the top of the value ladder. You must work with your client to overcome the myth that only experts can do the job and you must help the client’s personnel to be more effective with their time.
Coach your clients to see the value of you working at the top of the value ladder. Explaining the value ladder concept to your clients will help you communicate the power of this formula.
Work personally with senior management and in groups with others. Senior management has the most influence within the organization for advancing your services or project. Rather than work individually with lower-level personnel, you should structure group meetings and workshops to help them progress.
Train others within the organization to do your job when you aren’t present. We work with many marketing directors and coordinators to keep the momentum of our work progressing when we aren’t present. These directors carry on our work after we are gone, and they are able to multiply the client’s return on their consulting investment.
Conclusion
Working at the top of the value ladder is a good way to improve your client’s profits and your profits from the services you pro- vide. Moving up the ladder will require you to think and act differently.
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