Show Me The VALUE!!

If you have read my earlier articles you will know that I am no fan of Sales Cycles. I see them as a device to aid Sellers in achieving their objective of moving products/services. Nothing wrong with that per se, except that it comes at the expense of Buyers getting what they need.

And in a moment, I will share some compelling evidence of that.

So what is an alternative to Sales Cycles? I suggest we have buyer-oriented sales processes that facilitate their 'Buyer Journeys' (for want of a better expression).

So, where Sales Cycles are Seller-oriented, Buyer Journeys are Buyer-oriented.

Buyer Journeys are simply their quests to gain value.

And in this and the following articles, I will explore what an enormous opportunity that represents for Sellers.

What opportunity?

Well, circa 50% of B2B Journeys these days result in no decision, and 56% of technology Buyers later regret their decision (Gartner).

You could say then that almost 80% of those Buyers aren't getting the value they want!

The wages of Sales Cycles perhaps?

Clearly, what Buyers need is guidance i.e., enablement and empowerment, that results in them gaining the value they want.

That said, most Buyers do not correctly understand value and in particular the distinction between value and needs. I say that as Buyers and Sellers universally focus on needs e.g., Needs Discovery. They pay little attention (the right attention) to value, as evidenced by those appalling no-decision and regret stats.

The good news is that that represents an excellent opportunity for Sellers to get to grips with value and to become real sources of value to Buyers in helping them clarify their Perceptions of Value (POV) and how to get it.

Buyers are, on the other hand, quite familiar with needs and needs exploration. Anyone that has bought anything be it B2B or B2C will have been subjected to Needs Discovery, as every Seller uses the technique in one form or another.

The Problem with Needs Discovery

These typically go along the lines of:

'what are you looking for in…, a new production plant, IT system, accountant, home, or whatever?’

Again, typically, Buyer responses are a list of functional features they expect the product or service to have or do. They are the stuff of RFP's. However, as I’ve pointed out in earlier articles that is not value. Buyers may well get those features when they buy. So what?

A bunch of functions and features does not a result make.

That is where value comes in.

Value is the results or outcomes Buyers expect from using the product or service. It is why they want it. Or, to put it another way, it is the answer to the 'what will it be like when…' question.

Value Discovery

Value Discovery is how you find the answer to that, and it has two dimensions; personal and professional and we need to consider them on a per-Buyer basis, as it is their perceptions that we need to understand. For example:

Professional Perceptions of Value (POV): this is specific to their Buyer role and the business results they want, typically in the form of business objectives or KPI’s.

Personal POV: the personal bottom line a.k.a. WIIFM. You might say it is what professional success enables or empowers Buyers to have. For example, recognition, satisfaction, ambition, wealth, leisure and time for hobbies, interests, family, and so on.

Personal POVs are by far the most critical because as I have mentioned previously (all) decisions are emotional, and when we buy it is our POVs that influence our choices. To put it plainly, we typically act in our own best interests. We certainly won’t act against them.

Professional POVs are how we succeed at work.

Personal POVs are why we go to work.

In both cases, Value Discovery is about discovering the Buyer’s desired future state, as your goal is to become an enabler for them to have that; provided that is possible of course. If it is not possible, then it will have you qualifying out and exiting gracefully, sooner rather than later.

Speaking of which…

In earlier articles, I've referred to our use of street directories (back in the day), as a metaphor for the discovery and subsequent qualification process. For example, you first confirm (look for) the Buyer's desired end state or destination and then work back to their current location to figure out a route to the destination. If it turns out that ‘you can’t get there from here’ i.e., you cannot be of value because you do cannot meet those Buyers' POVs, then that is when you qualify out.

Early qualification is baked into Value Discovery, which is not so with needs-based approaches because needs focus solely on professional/technical considerations, e.g., Requirements Definitions and RFP’s. However, even with a great technical needs-based fit, Value Discovery will qualify you out when you realize you are not a match for a given set of Buyer POVs, typically for reasons typically do not learn from RFP’s.

Another benefit of Value Discovery, at least for quite a few years yet I suspect, is that none of your needs-based competitors will be doing it.?And so, to Buyers, you will appear refreshingly different. Differentiation from the get-go. Way to go!

Performing a Value Discovery

The first thing to notice about Value Discovery is that it is conversational, not interrogative like needs Q&A’s tend to be, and so from a Buyers perspective they are something to be enjoyed rather than endured.

That naturally happens because value queries result in long-form answers that provide real insights that naturally prompt further questions for even deeper insights. For example:

'Imagine your (business area) is working the way you would like it to, what will that look like?'

Or, a real doozy of a value question:

'Imagine if while you are asleep tonight a miracle happens, and your greatest challenge is resolved. What would be the first thing you would notice when you go to work tomorrow?

And some examples my clients have shared with me:

Security systems: ‘what does feeling safe feel like to you?’

Commercial photographer: ‘how would you like people to feel when they view these images (of your product, premises, people)?’

IT systems: ‘when your new system is working how you want it to, what will be happening for you that isn’t happening now?’

You get the idea.

Those questions discover Professional POVs. And then the answers to those provide a convenient segue to Personal POVs by simply asking:

‘…and how will that make you feel?’

As these are not the style of questions Sellers typically ask, Buyers may not have ready answers, and if they do, they will likely respond with a need not value (a want), which you then need to transition to value, as I will explain.

And as value questions, at least initially, are broad and general in nature, they do not require Sellers to have a depth of domain knowledge, if any. Further, they are aspirational i.e., outcome rather than problem-focused and so, conversations have a positive tone.

And they are great relationship builders as they fuel rapport and overcome most of the initial awkwardness that characterizes many introductory calls.?

Going from Needs to Value

Making the switch from Needs Discovery to Value Discovery does take practice. Although, it is not difficult, just different and simply a matter of remembering to do it, rather than trekking down the more familiar ‘what do you need?’ path of Needs Discovery.

Even if you do at first head down a needs path you can easily redirect into a value discovery. Simply ask ‘what will that give you?’ as you learn of a need to segue to a value conversation because you can follow their response with ‘what will be the value of that to you?’ or ‘how important is that to you?

Note the ‘to you’ at the end of each query, as it is their personal perceptions of value we want to discover.?

It is better, of course, to go straight to Value Discovery, if for no other reason than that will avoid you from appearing as a typical Seller. You no doubt have the finest of intentions, but there is always the risk that your 'I am keen to understand what you need' will be heard by Buyers as 'I am keen to discover what I might be able to sell you'.

Even so, when you do commence value discovery you are likely to get needs-based responses, as that is what Buyers are most familiar with.

For example, they will say they want faster, more reliable, easier to maintain, and so on, which sounds like value, but it’s not. And why? You guessed it. it doesn’t answer the ‘what will be the value of that to you?’ question.

The type of answer you want is ‘I need to move NN tons of raw material from A to B’, or 'I need to grow customer satisfaction', or ‘reduce inventory by 15%’, and so on.

So here is a pro tip. Questions of the ‘what will that get you?’ variety get to people’s bottom lines, their POVs.

And here is another pro tip. We commonly ask people what they think about something. As a follow-up, ask them how they feel to get to their Personal POV. For example:

‘how do you feel about that?’ Or variations like, ‘how do you feel when that happens?’, ‘What would that feel like? ‘What would it take for you to feel more confident?’ And so on.

The types of answers you get to 'how do you feel' questions are insights into what people truly value —?greater security, satisfaction, confidence, acknowledgment, relaxation, less stress, work, worry, and so on.

Do you see how different that is from exploring needs? Ultimately, the real trap with needs is that you focus on satisfying those rather than their POV. And often what they say they need is not what they need at all.

I wonder if that is what happened for that 67% of Buyers who have regrets about what they bought?

In coming articles, I will drill deeper into Value Discovery conversations.

In the meantime, if you would like free tips on value-focused approaches, you'll find plenty on the?Resources page of my website.

And if you would like some insight into how value-focused your sales processes are, try this FREE self-assessment. There are two versions.

Individuals or Sales Teams?and one?especially for MSP's

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