Needs Satisfaction Selling VS Value Added Selling
by Jopie Jusuf

Mr. Andy is an office equipment sales officer. One day, comes a prospective buyer who wants to buy a brankas for his personal usage at home. "Why do you need the brankas?", asks Mr. Andy applying the first rule of Needs Satisfaction Selling's technique which is "find out what the customer needs". "I think I need a brankas to secure my jewelery", reply the customer. "Oh....I see....safety box  is a perfect choice. I have a lot of types that may fit your preference", said Mr. Andy and then he starts to introduce each type to the customer.

Question: "is Mr. Andy a good sales officer?". The answer is yes because he is selling things that is best fulfilled the customer need, and that's what Needs Satisfaction Selling (NSS) tells us. You should figure out the needs of the customer before offering product to satisfy it.

There's another story. Mr. Lomar is also an office equipment sales officer who sell the same product range as Mr. Andy does. There's also a customer who wants to buy a brankas for his personal usage at home. Like Mr. Andy, Mr. Lomar also asks the customer why does he look for brankas. The answer is also the same, as a place to save and secure his jewelery. "Oh.....I see....safety box   is, of course, a good choice, but I have a suggestion....please sit down", reply Mr. Lomar while inviting the customer to take the seat. "Now imagine this. Let's say talk about  things you prefer not to happen. There are robbers or thieves come to your house. What is the first thing they are looking for? The safety box, of course, because everybody knows that it  is the place where people put valuable things like jewelery and money in. They will force you to open it. The safety box may protect  the things in it againts fire, but they're unable to give you the security againts robbery".

"You may be right.....", the customer starts to think.

"It's better for you to use Safe Deposit Box to secure the jewelery. It gives you more security and cheaper than own it yourself. If I were you, instead of buying safety box, I'll allocate the money to buy other products, such as a fire proof filling cabinet to protect my documents. By the way, where do you put your documents?"

"In the drawer of my desk"

"That's not safe. It will not protect the documents againts fire"

"You are right......."

You know the end of the story? The customer buy a fire proof filling cabinet which is in term of money, is cheaper than safety box.

Now, if you are the customer, which sales officer you like to deal with? Mr. Andy or Mr. Lomar? I believe most of us will choose Mr. Lomar. Why? Because Mr. Lomar is practising what's so called Value Added Selling (VAS). Mr. Lomar is not just selling, he adds value is his selling.

Tom Reilly in his book Value Added Sales Management (1993) explains that there are several aspects should be met to make VAS takes place. The first is the timing. The right time is the first phase of buying decision making process becuase you will have chances to assist customer to draw  the solution specification they are looking for, and this is the time to add values. Once the decision is made, it is very difficult to change it or add any value in it anymore.

The second is long term focus. VAS is like painting a beautiful picture. You do it patiently, step by step, and continue until the picture is completed. So does VAS, you teach the customer to think about a long term benefit. In Mr. Lomar case, it may that happen the customer doesn't buy anything in short term (he might not sell the filling cabinet), but in the long term, Mr. Lomar may have a loyal customer who gain the benefit of his advices.

The third is to define the value in customer's term. This is an usual thing. You should think and speak from the eyes of customer, then you'll understand their needs and will be able to add relevant values.

Thus, what is the real benefit of VAS? By assisting the customer to solve their problem, by adding values to the solution (in above case, is to give more security and to safe more money), you (as a sales officer) may make the hardest thing in selling easier...the price negotiation. VAS people invest substantial value up-front to harvest the beneficial pricing structure at the end of the process.

So.....Needs Satisfaction Selling (NSS) or Value Added Selling (VAS)? NSS is good...but VAS is better.

(this article had been published in Bali Info, May 1995. Bali Info is Bank Bali's internal magazine)