Installment 5.5: Evaluation

Continued from last week's article on Evaluation...

The Four Hurdles of the Evaluation

As they evaluate potential solutions, you face four hurdles to be considered that we will explore further with insights from our 20 years of prospect research:

1. Familiarity
2. Perceived? relevance
3. Reputation
4. Prospect experience

(Check back to last week's Growth Fuel for 1 & 2)

3. Positive Prospect Experience

Keep in mind that almost three quarters of the consideration journey may take place before a prospect engages with sales. That means that their “experience” likely starts before you know it.?

Your prospects’ first impression of your company will come from your social media presence, your website, and your responsiveness to any question or query. And while none of those sources is actually involved with the delivery of your service, they have to be crafted and served with an eye to the future. You are setting the table for your future guests.

Selling or solving??

In other words, you can have a great solution, but few will get to implement it if their early experience with you is not stellar. First impressions count.?

In a recent win-loss interview, I asked a customer CEO why they selected a particular provider, even though they were more expensive and the products were similar. Her reply was quick and clear. She immediately named the provider’s salesman. She said he was knowledgeable and showed he cared. He was able to turn your product into their solution. He won the business and was considered part of their team.?

4. Favorable Reputation

If you’re leading one of the thousands of B2B SaaS startups, it’s likely that your prospects will not get reinforcement if they ask a colleague if they’ve heard of you. To overcome this, you need “thought leadership” and case studies (which includes referrals).

As you get a better idea of how to articulate your solution using the focus and terms that your prospects use, it’s smart to listen to how they articulate their problem. In our 20 years of listening to customers, it’s almost guaranteed that it won’t be the same way providers talk about it.?

Tell me a story please

Every company has case studies, but the ones we hear your prospects talk about are the ones that:

• Reflect companies like theirs in size and industry, so it’s relevant??
• Show measurable results so they give hope to people seeking solutions
• Transparently talk about the real challenges of implementation so they communicate credibility.

The culmination of the evaluation stage is getting on the short list for the next stage - selection.

Next week we explore the fraught stage of the hand-off from marketing to sales where MQLs become SQLs (hopefully).

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