With the sharpness of the downturn in the economy, trying to sell pretty much anything has become significantly more difficult. The technology industry is currently one of the most difficult industries in which to generate sales.

One of the main reasons for this is that information is so readily available through the Internet that the prospects of today are far more sophisticated buyers than those of a few years ago. Quite often, buyers will know just as much about a solution as the person selling it.

As a result of this, sales pitches in which a salesman lists the functions of a solution, of which the buyer will most likely already be aware, will not move the sales process forward, in fact, if anything it will move it backwards as buyers do not want to hear information that they already know.

Another reason that technology is becoming more and more difficult to sell is that there are many skilled developers and programmers constantly making new solutions and more commonly, replicating other solutions and tweaking them to make them their own.

Because of this, solutions from different companies are looking more and more alike to potential buyers, and so the sales process moves further down a path of price based competition.

Is it possible though, to create enough value for customers so that they steer away from price? Of course, what customers are looking for is to get the most they possibly can for their money, and so could a salesperson create that kind of value for a customer in the sales process, and even make them willing to pay a premium?

One thing is certain, if you are like most technology companies, reeling off sales pitches day in, day out that are simply based on the features and functionality of your products, then the only thing youre achieving is pushing the prospective customer back to the price. So how can technology companies make themselves stand out?

In order to compete based on something other than price, you must focus on how youre selling your products rather than what they are. PowerPoint seems to be a main selling tool in the technology industry, probably more so than any other, and all it is really capable of is describing. Are your animated slides and graphics really any better than anyone elses? In todays competitive marketplace, customer value doesnt lie in the selling of products, but it lies in the way in which they are sold and the way in which they are acquired by the customer.