Trends in the Market Place: Changes in the supply chain are happening at an ever-faster pace. If companies and their personnel cannot keep up with what their customers are looking for, it could put them at a competitive disadvantage.

Understanding Supply Chain Costs: There is a lot of talk about total cost, value added and other names for the cost of doing business within the channel. Understanding what these costs are and how they impact a supplier's ability to sell and keep key accounts is critical in today's market.

Segmenting Accounts: Not all customers are created equal. Suppliers need to segment customer based on the dollar impact they can affect and the customer's willingness to work with them if they want to understand how to more effectively sell their accounts.

The Customer's Investment Strategy with Suppliers: If customers are to buy on a total cost basis, and not just on price, they need to understand the pay back. Is it worth it pay more and if so, how much?

Approx run times: 94 min
Workbook pages: 30

The Need to Show Your Value in Dollars: With so many suppliers claiming to be able to reduce costs, those that can often have a difficult time distinguishing themselves. But supplier that can show their impact in dollars can achieve greater sales success.

Determining the Impact Your Value Has: Documenting the value you add starts off with understanding where you impact your customer's costs. But because each opportunity impacts different costs, the development of a methodology is critical in order to minimize the time required to document your value.

Where to Get The Numbers: One of the hardest issues in documenting the value a supplier adds, is finding the numbers to use. While there are numerous places to get this data, there are four aspects for gathering data that can provide direction and make the documentation process much easier.

Measuring Its Worth to Your Customers: The most critical aspect to showing your value to your customers, is to demonstrate your worth in dollars. By using the standardized worksheets that come with this training, companies can develop the means to show the impact they have on their customer’s profits quickly and effectively.

Supplier Selection Issues: Understanding how and on what your customer evaluates you makes it easier to sell them on what you can do for them.

Total Cost Selling Points: The value you add is only one point to sell on. There are four others, that when combined, can help you to create a true distinction. Both for penetrating and retaining key accounts.

Identifying the Opportunities: While we provide a list with over 65 ideas on how suppliers are reducing their customer's total cost, the real issue is what you can do. By combining these opportunities with what you can do, you start the process of developing a unique selling proposition.

Turning the Opportunities into a Unique Selling Proposition: Simply having or even providing opportunities to your customer is not enough. You need to create a proposal that shows the customer how to minimize their total cost and their risks at the same time.

Approx run times: 91 min
Workbook pages: 38

Identifying Who You Impact: Documenting the value you provide is a good start. But you must also identify who you impact with your value if you want to sell that account effectively. Because most people do not buy on total cost unless it positively impacts their position in the company.

Profiling Their Needs: In addition to documenting the dollar impact your value adds, it is important to identify how this value also helps them to accomplish their goals and key performance indicators. Understanding their needs can also help you to determine what services and product features to offer them in order to win the account.

Developing a Sales Cycle Plan: Every sales person has a "process" or cycle they sell by. It is the method people have learned, either formally or informally, to follow. But this cycle may need to be refined because of who you are now selling to.

Planning the Sales Call: Spending a few minutes prior to meeting with the customer to layout the main points to cover and questions to ask, can dramatically improve the outcome of the sales call.

Approx run times: 96 min
Workbook pages: 37

Steps to Effective Account Penetration and Retention: Managing the sales process is different from the selling process it self. Particularly involving key accounts. Companies that can tie the selling process into the account management process seamlessly can achieve a competitive advantage.

Key Account Support Structure: More and more companies are finding that they need to treat their key accounts differently. This often requires more expertise than a single person can provide. As such, it is critical to determine the type of support needed in order to penetrate and retain these accounts.

Balancing Account Profitability with the Value Added: Almost every value added service that a supplier adds costs them money to do so. Suppliers must learn how to balance the desire to win the account with what it is going to costs them to do so.

Pricing Strategies: There are a number of pricing strategies that suppliers are utilizing in order to improve their profit position and get paid for the value they add. Each of which has it's own costs and benefits.

Approx run times: 99 min
Workbook pages: 28

Pulling the Pieces Together: Understanding how all of the sections in this video set can be pulled together is critical in order to create that unique selling presentation.

Presentation Development: If you put yourself in your customer's place and think about what they want to hear, there are 5 key steps to building an effective presentation.

Example Presentation: Walking through the development of a presentation step-by-step can help a company to evaluate their presentation, and make improvements that will help them win more accounts.

Sample Slides: Sometimes it helps to see how other companies are presenting their strengths and assets in order to find an effective way to show your own.

Approx run times: 99 min
Workbook pages: 37