Crown, the Cortina and the Value Proposition

My first sales job was with an American company called Crown Lift Trucks. I remember the feeling of elation when I got the job, for it was without doubt the best job in the world. I was going to be paid £4,000 a year basic wage (£6,000, if I hit target) and I was getting a Mark 3 Ford Cortina as well. Who could ever want for more?

During my induction course at Crown’s UK offices in Wokingham, I remember being taught the features and benefits of the product range, the maintenance contract options, the service packages and the benefits of buying from Crown. I still remember them to an almost disturbing level of detail.

I could tell you about the benefits of the adjustable fork width of the MT90, especially if you handle a mixture of U.S and European pallets. I could wax lyrical about the superiority of its S.C.R (Silicon Control Rectifier) versus contact control motors found on competing machines. I could happily take thirty minutes of your time to present the SC130 Counter Balance, with its tight turning circle (three wheels is the trick), its full free lift triple mast and how cushion rubber tires will suit your application better than polyurethane.

I can remember the lead times from point of order, the quality of the Crown support offerings, the history of the Crown organisation and how to work out if your company qualified for a regional development grant. I am sure all of these things have changed, but I remember them all fondly whenever I see one of Crown’s pallet trucks outside a building or one of their service vehicles on the road.

I learned all of this through a mixture of training, on the job experience and self-study. Though I did not know it at the time, what I developed was a “value proposition”. It meant that I sold the all of the benefits of why the customer should place their order with Crown and not with the plethora of other companies who could provide a similar product. It did not mean that I won every deal, far from it.

However, it meant that I had more to talk about than just the price, it meant I had a decent level of knowledge to handle questions and objections and it made potential benefits to the customer easier to spot.

At a push, I think I could stand up at a flip chart (no power-point in those days) and make a fist of presenting it all again. Then again, I could probably do the same for Pace, Telewest and Virgin Media, (though they should be easier because they’re not as long ago as Crown).

A lot of things have changed since then, customer knowledge is higher, products and services are more alike and the ability to differentiate what you have to offer versus your competitors has become more difficult.

So the benefit of building and understanding a value proposition of your organisation, the products and its service capability have probably become even more of an ingredient to success than it was then.

If you have your value proposition in place and deliver it consistently, you will make more of an impact than your competitors and you’ll win more business. If you haven’t, then you may be left wondering why someone with a higher price always seems to beating you to the deal.

As for it being the best job in the world, it was fantastic. After a few years though, like most ambitious young people I wanted to move onto bigger things.

Mind you, nothing ever came close to being as good as that Cortina.