What "Value-Based Selling" really means...

As Warren Buffett famously once said: “Price is what you pay, Value is what you get…”? We really like this succinct definition of value – and it neatly clarifies a major stumbling block in many sales – if the value a buyer will get from a proposal isn’t clear to them then how can they justify investing in it?? ?

However, whilst the solution to this (make sure buyers understand the business value before you talk about price!) might be blindingly obvious, it’s not easy to put into practice!?

In this short article we offer some top tips from recent work with partners in top 5 consultancy firms,? tech sales teams and sales leaders in major manufacturing companies – because whether you are selling major transformation programmes, machinery or SaaS solutions, the challenges are remarkably similar!

So, what do top sales teams do? – 3 Top Tips…

Tip 1 – do you really understand the specific Business Value you can provide???

Of course, most business development professionals can explain the potential benefits a client might gain from their service.? However, that doesn't mean the client can see the real business value of the offer.? So “greater speed” (IT benefit), may not immediately translate to a tangible business benefit for the key stakeholder faced with a buying decision.???

The underlying issue here is that you are often relying on your immediate contact (in this case say an IT manager) to translate to a CFO / CEO why they should pay a premium price for your solution – and why it’s important to do it now.?? Personally, no matter how professional your clients are, they are not all expert salespeople or influencers!?

The answer of course is that your teams should be able to do that translation for them – e.g.?

?“This reduced latency would mean that potential customers visiting your web site are more likely to stay around, explore your site and buy from you – in fact from talking with your marketing teams, we agreed that the speed we are proposing could increase your sales by over 20%”.??

To do this of course, BD professionals need to move their discussion beyond their main contact (who may not even know the end business impact themselves) and explore business issues with decision-makers in other related functions. There are of course some knock-on benefits of this – as another client recently told their teams during one of our programmes…?

“This shift to having business conversations, rather than swimming in the weeds makes selling a lot more fun as well as being more profitable”.???

Tip 2 – Focus your conversations on areas where you outperform the competition?

The key skill in a competitive bid is understanding the decision criteria that prospects are using and then actively influencing these criteria so that they are a clear match to your own strengths.???

In the example above – if ‘Reduced latency / Increased Speed’ is an area where you out-perform the competition for this deal, then this is the topic you want to be emphasising.? Your clients may already see you as strong here – but if they can’t see the tangible business benefits from these strengths, this product advantage is simply not working for you – we call these ‘value sleepers’.??

So, the trick here is to make sure you clearly articulate the tangible business benefits to be gained from those areas the prospect already sees as competitive strengths of yours.?

Tip 3 – Powerfully articulate this differentiated business value?

The final step here is obviously to articulate the value message both verbally and in writing and in a variety of situations – including:?

• 1-1 discussions with technical and business heads?
• Written proposals and quotations??
• Pitches and presentations???

So, how do you structure your compelling value proposition to make it memorable??

In our Value Selling programmes, we introduce an immediately usable model to help Business Development professionals structure the way they talk about their proposition…?

1. Business Drivers:? What changing in the client’s world that’s making this initiative particularly important now?? Showing you understand their overall business and encouraging urgency?
2. Business Pain-Points & Needs:? What are the end-business results they are looking for?? Allowing senior stakeholders to see the end-result
3. Enablers:? What do they need to do differently to achieve the above business results?? Clarifying the direct outcomes, they will quickly see from using your solution – and can logically lead to the end business results?
4. Your Solution:? What is it about your solution that will allow them to achieve the above enablers better than alternatives?? Bringing out the value of your differentiators…?
5. ?Proof: How can you demonstrate that this will work?? Ensuring your proposal is seen as low risk…?

Value Mapping

This structure is the basis of our full Value Map ? tool, which allows both sales and marketing executives to clearly and succinctly bring out the real differentiating business value of your solutions.? If you would like a complimentary version of the Value Map, together with instructions for its use, then contact us?here??

I hope you enjoyed reading this excerpt - if you would like to read the full version, then click here for the full blog article