Steve Laborda is a CEO of Valuebizbooster, Consultant, Coach, Author and Speaker. He is a practitioner in B2B sales and marketing, focusing on improving profitability, how to capture value, and developing the competencies of the commercial people through customer orientation and commercial excellence.

In this episode, Steve delves into the intricate blend of art and science involved in the sales process. He emphasizes the importance of incorporating intangibles alongside hard facts, highlighting that both are essential for success and reaching a deal. Furthermore, he underscores the collaborative efforts of individuals within the company, working cohesively as a team to uphold a value-based approach throughout the entire sales process.

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Find out the three essential components to value selling in which without each one no decision is reached
• Discover how value-based selling works in the whole sales process within the company
• Uncover the effective use of the ROI calculator as a value driver

"Don't forget to work with sales when you do your pricing." 

- Steve Laborda

Topics Covered:

01:00 - How he got into pricing

01:30 - The many roles he played

02:41 - Pointing out the 'art' in value, pricing, and selling

04:16 - The intangible benefit other than the emotional, and cognitive aspect of value selling

06:24 - How was his experience different from any other salesperson who's good at building relationships

9:47 - Examples illustrating the three components of the sales process of relationship building, the science part, and the intangibles

11:38 Defining cross-functional value selling

15:04 - Why companies often fail at value-based pricing

17:55 - Calling it a value calculator and not the ROI calculator

20:10 - Why a collaborative way of using the value calculator instead of leaving it to the customer alone

23:36 - Reasons customers likely buy from you

25:35 - Pricing a highly volatile product in the chemical industry

29:23 - Steve's best pricing advice

Key Takeaways:

"Yes, you need to do value quantifications, but you need to be able also to be emotional and to read body language and to read the skills that people have in front of you." - Steve Laborda

"You need to have sales, marketing, pricing, the technical people, if it's a technical context, to have all those people together to develop that value-based approach so that everybody is behind it..." - Steve Laborda

"The value calculator is there for me to give confidence to the salesperson about the price that you can defend to the customer." - Steve Laborda

Connect with Steve Laborda:

• LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevelaborda/

Connect with Mark Stiving:   

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/
• Email: mark@impactpricing.com