How to Learn Selling Value from an Airport Visit

Despite arriving at the airport 2 ½ hours before my international flight, I was still waiting in line to check my bags and get a boarding pass just 30 minutes before scheduled take-off.  I was told that it was too late to check and pay ($100) for my extra bag because we were inside the 30-minute mark.  I explained that I wasn’t too late, but they were too inefficient and slow.  After all, I had been there for a very long time.

The counter agent did not have any desire to help me and I was getting upset. My wallet and credit card were both out to pay for the extra piece of luggage, but she could not take payment because of the poor timing.  She finally agreed to check the bags and as you probably guessed, I didn’t see my luggage again for 3 days. I didn’t see my wallet and credit cards again – ever – having left them behind in my rush to reach the gate.

That scenario is a great example of value selling.  I know.  You’re thinking, “That’s value selling?  Are you some kind of crazy person?”

I’m not crazy.

Everyone has had an experience like that – an experience where their expectations were not met – where their emotional reaction could have been anything from rage, to disappointment, to sad, to vengeful.

In modern selling, the way we sell value is to draw out those experiences from a prospect until they feel the original emotion from their experience.  If it’s a current problem, it can be even simpler to get your prospect to share and become emotional.  The value that you provide lies in your ability to coax the consequences and emotions – the entire story – and provide the solution that not only makes the problem disappear, but the emotions too.

Most sellers believe that value selling is only about quantification and justification.  While those competencies (math and flowcharting) are very important, it’s easier to quantify and justify when you have already extracted the problem, consequences and emotions.

For example, as a result of my long wait, poor service, disrespectful treatment, and anger, I had no money, no identification, no clean clothes, and experienced a complete sense of helplessness for 3 days.  The consequence was that I had to spend countless hours on the phone cancelling credit cards, getting a replacement drivers license, updating dozens of web subscriptions that were being billed to one of my cards, and a complete disruption of my life.  If I had to calculate the lost time, aggravation, stress, along with the embarrassment of having to borrow money from people, I would place that cost at about $15,000.

If you were selling to me, I would find tremendous value in a high-priced turnkey VIP travel experience for any amount up to $5,000 over and above what I paid for that ticket to make sure that I never again experienced a scenario like that.  Best price or lowest price would have zero appeal.

That is how you provide an ideal solution.  That is how you get people to pay premium pricing.  That is the modern version of value selling.