Do you sell to a discretionary spend or a necessity spend?  The two are not the same and they need a different approach to make the sale.

A discretionary spend only happens because the buyer prioritizes spending money, on what you offer, ahead of any other possible uses for the dollar value of your solution.

A necessity spend has to be made, but in this scenario the buyer is trying to prioritise WHO they will spend the money with.

In the discretionary spend, you have to first convince the buyer that the spend is worth it and then that they should buy it from you.

In the necessity spend, you have to convince the buyer that YOU are worth it.

Let’s say you sell some kind of coaching service and that you offer a solution at a $15,000 price point.  As a discretionary spend, you have to convince the buyer that the $15,000 investment in your solution is more important than anything else they might spend the $15,000 on … like a wonderful family holiday, or a new car, or perhaps even additional tutoring for their child.

This is all about selling the context.

When you sell a necessity spend it’s really about selling comparative value.  In short, you have to convince them that your value is better than any other solution they can access.

In most complex sales, both these things must be addressed – framing the context and expressing the deep value of your solution.

There are two important questions behind these two aspects of the sales conversation:

Context: “How important is this to you …?

Value:  “What are the most important things you’re looking for in …?

Sometimes the sales conversation is really very simple.

I’d love to know what questions you use to frame the context and value of what you do?