In the technology industry, as well as some others, the customers you sell to can be more or less divided up into two different types, customers that only want to buy the cheapest solution to their problem, and those who will pay out more, if they feel they have received value that cannot be found in other products outside of what is inherent in the solution.

Most businesses have not yet recognised the opportunity that these customers offer, nor have they decoded exactly how to create value beyond their products and services. Recent studies have identified specific skills that can be employed to become a value creator.

The key to value creation is providing insight rather than information. Insight helps the customer plan for the future — not just solve today's problems. To provide insight requires that companies tap into their own expertise.

Companies that sell technology sometimes simply use information on their product as their main selling points, however companies that use this kind of selling strategy are really nothing more than human web pages as customers can find all of the information about the products online, or if they cant they should be able to.

There are two ways for a technology salesperson to create value for a customer. These value drivers are as follows:

-Inform them of a problem that they had not recognised before. Demonstrate your knowledge of their market and their industry by pointing out problems which they weren't aware of before. If you can help to point out an unforeseen problem through carefully planned questions, you can bring enormous value as well as following it up of course, with the solution to said problem.

-Offering a solution that the customer has not anticipated can add a huge amount of value to your selling process as your expertise will have helped the customer implement a solution to future problems that they may not have seen coming, therefore the product you're recommending seems more valuable.

The prerequisites for an unanticipated solution are as follows:

-They are aware of their need and urgency to find a solution

-The customer has some general idea of a solution to the problem

-They know what they want the outcome to be

If a potential customer is in one of these situations then you are in a key position to help them see a better solution that they previously hadn't anticipated.