you. Remember, the Value Ladder will help you stay in control.
The Ladder was built for a total consultative approach. Clients want to know how your beliefs align to what they value. Author Mack Hanan (Consultative Selling and Competing on Value) stated, "You have to know your value before you can sell your value."
Although the Value Ladder is taught in a linear fashion, your final answers are best developed when you tighten up previous steps after you learn a new one. As a youngster, when my father taught me to change a tire, he showed me how to tighten the lug nuts slowly to support the wheel and then go back and make sure each lug nut was on tight enough. The same principal applies to the Ladder. You work on your Unique Value Proposition, then come back and tighten your "background" screws a little more. Then, after you work on your business beliefs, come back and tighten your UVP and background screws. Repeat the process as you continue your climb.
The Value Ladder steps should be memorized. Just as a good actress or actor memorizes his or her lines, you can play the role at levels you might not have imagined. Athletes and other star performers get their routines down so well that we might be wowed by their performances, but never fully appreciate the time and effort that go into the quest for excellence. Allow your clients to have the same experience.
Internalize your responses. You must get your answers down so well it will seem like you're preparing for the biggest test of your life. Invest your time. How much time do you suppose those top performers invest to truly become world-class? How much more time will it take before you can improve your ability to stand out in the crowd?
Personalize your responses. You should have one set of answers for all seven Value Ladder questions, but learning how to make them come alive for various people in various scenarios is a real art and science. Learn to communicate fully through your Ladder questions.
There are many ways to apply the Value Ladder in your practice. We'll talk about them all in upcoming columns, but today we'll start with the most basic. First, let's look at the four-step process for learning. You need to understand the fundamentals of this process before you can truly apply the applications in the real world. They are:
You have to acquire a new skill.
You have to practice it.
You have to transfer it.