Value over Sales: What Defines a True Sales Professional with Mark Cox

Mark Cox has been fortunate enough to have sold, structured, and negotiated some of the largest single-sale transactions in North America (including a billion-dollar transaction with a top-10 U.S. bank). He founded In the Funnel (ITF) with the mission of dramatically improving the performance and professionalism of business to business sales teams. He accomplished this via (1) Public Sales Workshops for salespeople and sales managers and (2) Sales Enablement Consulting. During this episode, Mark discusses how it is crucial for salespeople to focus on selling value instead of price. The company would benefit from this move economically, ensuring long-term profitability.   Why you have to check out today's podcast: Learn how your capability to communicate as a salesperson contributes to your customer’s desired business outcome Uncover top 3 business leader's desired outcomes for each sales transaction to help you lead the sales conversation with value rather than pitch Learn the 'common sense revolution' every salesperson needs to achieve top-tier results   "Don't give a price until you understand the impact of the solution on the customer." - Mark Cox   Topics Covered: 01:19 - The economic impact of selling on value versus on price 02:39 - Talking about the crisis in professional sales 05:44 - Understanding the customers' problems and the desired outcome they want to achieve 09:00 - What should transpire in a value conversation 14:28 - Breaking the wall that often goes up in an encounter with the salesperson 16:41 - Talking value in terms of communication not so much in financial exchange 19:37 - Overcoming fear in outbound demand generation 21:50 - Professional sales compared to performance art and a professional sport 23:38 - How to capture that value proposition in twenty minutes 25:05 - Pricing advice that gives a great impact on one's business 25:49 - Understanding 'solution selling'   Key Takeaways: "Let's get a little away from trying to persuade and control and trick and do all of these crazy things. Why don't we just actually help buyers buy, help them make great decisions, help them get to a better future? And the more they believe we're sincere and authentic in our desire to do that, the better off we're going to do." - Mark Cox "The near version of a salesperson to trick somebody into doing something, nobody wants to get persuaded to do anything." - Mark Cox "People don't buy software; they actually buy what it does for them. The one thing I will kind of call out that I'd love to see a little more up today in professional sales, we're trying to help. The big job though is, we do really need to understand that customer we're reaching out to." - Mark Cox "This is why we identify this ideal customer profile really, what are they going through? What are they trying to do? And so instead of selling my product when I'm talking to a client or prospect, the first couple of conversations are: just let me understand you and your business and your environment and what you're trying to achieve. "- Mark Cox "The whole sort of system right now in professional sales is a little bit broken. And that's where we're coming at it with just saying, let's just have this common-sense revolution here. Let's start to sell the way somebody actually wants to buy and start to sell the way you want to buy. And also go at this whole thing so you can be proud of what you do for a living." - Mark Cox   People / Resources Mentioned: Philip Squire: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipsquire/?originalSubdomain=uk Levi's: https://www.levistrauss.com/   Connect with Mark Cox: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markandrewcox/ Email: [email protected]   Connect with Mark Stiving:  Email: [email protected] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/