My wife and I subscribe to Consumer Reports and recently I was leafing through the pages when I came across an interesting article outlining the best and worst values among cars. They calculated the cost of ownership over a five-year period taking into account factors like cost of acquisition, reliability, maintenance cost, fuel efficiency, depreciation, etc. Turns out the Honda Fit is THE best value on the market at a cost-per-mile of 44 cents. That's pretty impressive considering a Mercedes S550 costs $1.70 a mile to own and the vehicle I drive, the Acura RDX, costs 84 cents a mile to own, nearly twice the cost of the Honda Fit.
So, why doesn't everyone own a Honda Fit? On a cost-per-mile basis, it's clearly the least expensive vehicle to own and operate. The reality is people most often don't choose the lowest priced car because myriad other vehicles satisfy other objective and subjective needs within their lives affecting their value perception. And, so it is with the products and services you sell.
It's your job to uncover the needs truly unique to your particular prospect and to understand the subjective personal wins that might help drive their choice. Are you doing that? Well enough? What could you commit to this year to get better at that? It would be a good investment on your part.
Jim Hopes is CEO at The Center for Sales Strategy.
