Jack Dalycause people to go out of their way and/or pay a premium to do
business with you? The key word in that s entence is perception and
perception becomes critical on first-time sales.
The first time people buy from y ou they can’t buy real value—you
can only buy real value on second and subsequent purchases. The first
time is a matter of a leap of faith—“I perceive doing business with this
salesperson [or company] will render me thes e benefits.” So a
professional entreprene urial salesperson will be well served if he or she
takes the time to work on how they’re going to create perceived value.
An example of a company that has done incredibly well here in this
ar ea of perceived value is Tiffany’s and their little blue box. Put that
little blue box under a Christmas tree and your significant other,
without even opening it up, already has fond feelings about you. That is
called perceived value.
Harley Davidson has created perceived value by making an
environment where people will literally wait months for their bike to be
delivered and they’ll pay a premium to go and g et that bike; it is all
about perceived value.
Steve Jobs at Apple created perceived value in those products such a
way that people would line up for blocks in the rain to make a purchase
of something that no one had ever seen before and no one had ever
used. That is all about perceived value.
Companies are not alone in having perceived value—individual
salespeople have perceived value. It’s witnessed by the fact that some
people will wait to meet a salesperson because they’ve done business
with that person, even though someone else is more readily available to
meet with them. So perceived value will start to differentiate you from
the competition.
The second part of differentiation is creating a touch system. A
proactive touch system is one whereby you use a variety of methods—
personal visits, phone calls, e-mails, voice mails, snail mail, or social
media. Reach out to your prospects, clients, and customers using a
variety of different ways, with a variety of different things. These th ings
could include information about you, your company, and information
th at could help the people on your list in their business fr om a
specific industry standpoint, in their business from a general