Consider the Value Added Selling Model, figure 7. 3, on page 145 of your text. Contrast the use of the model if you were selling electronics at Best Buy to walk in customers versus high cost customized medical devices to a hospital network. Next think back to the Strategic/Consultative Selling Model introduced in chapter 2 (figure 2.3). How would your use of the model differ in these two sales situations.

Most high-performing salespeople have adopted sales strategies that emphasize value-added selling. Salespeople can add value to their product with one or more intangibles: with improved insights and knowledge of customer needs, products benefits, and competitive offerings; stronger relationship and partnership building; better use of sales technologies; more dependable product deliveries; better service after the sale; and innovations that truly improve the product's value in the eyes of the customer. In today's highly competitive marketplace, these value-added benefits give the salesperson a unique niche and a competitive edge. Salespeople who don't make selling and delivering high-value solutions a high priority will consistently lose sales to competitors.25 To understand fully the importance of the value-added concept in selling, and how to apply it in a variety of selling situations, it helps to visualize every product as being four-dimensional. The Value Added Product-Selling Model is made up of four possible products: the generic product, the expected product, the value-added product, and the potential product (Figure 7.30).26 Figure 7.3 The Value Added Product Selling Model Potential product Value-added product Expected product Product (generic) (Customer's perceptions) 145 (Salesperson's knowledge) (Mutually discovered possibilities)