7 Min Marketing With Pam Didner

I was reading a great sales book by Erik Peterson, Three Value Conversations: how to create and elevate and capture customer value at every stage of the long lead sale. Ok, the subtitle is very long. Just remember the name of the book is Three Value Conversations. One thing that struck me is the idea of finding the unexpected needs of your customers. Erik noted that sales reps are trained and conditioned to be problem-solver for their customers. That's good, but he argues that sales are solving the problems that customers already know. Because it's addressing known problems, buyers control the conversations. In a way, sales reps are putting themselves in what he calls the "Commodity Box." Peterson suggested turning that conversation around. To do that, sales reps need to change their roles. It's not about solving a known problem, but rather the value-add comes from finding a problem not understood by the customer. So be a problem finder, not just a problem solver. Buyers don't know what they don't know. Here