Every sales cycle includes three conversations where your reps need to articulate value – here’s how to master each one of them.
It’s a timeless question for sales leaders – one they asked 50 years ago and one they’ll be asking 50 years from now: What separates top performing salespeople from low performing ones? Where does the difference lie?
You might be tempted to wonder if particular salespeople are the beneficiaries or victims of circumstance. Maybe you’ve pondered whether some salespeople simply get more leads than others. Maybe you’ve thought some reps operate in more business-friendly territories. Are your top performers selling better products? Are they being trained on a better sales process?
In virtually every case, the answer to all these questions is a resounding no. As you well know, most companies take pains to standardise these areas across their enterprise; they strive to train salespeople on the same process, give them the same products to sell, and put them in equally viable territories with similar lead quantities.
So, with all these factors being even and accounted for, what is it that separates the wheat from the chaff? According to analyst firm SiriusDecisions, it’s the ability—or inability—of your reps to articulate value in conversations with prospects and customers. The firm found that 71 percent of executives identified value conversations as having the biggest impact on a company hitting its revenue targets.
With this in mind, the imperative is clear: How do you ensure your reps master the most important sales interactions so they can articulate value throughout every customer conversation?
Three “Moments of Truth”
The idea of articulating value may sound good, but it remains an abstraction if you can’t define what it looks like and sounds like out in the field. As I see it, there are really three value conversation “moments of truth” that happen in every sales cycle – and, to defeat the status quo and get prospects to choose you, your salespeople need to excel at all three of them.
I explore the specific techniques and objectives of these three pivotal moments in my upcoming book, “The Three Value Conversations” (McGraw-Hill). Here’s an outline of the value conversations your reps need to master to seize control of the entire sales cycle.
• Value Conversation #1: Create Value
Objective: Defeat the status quo and differentiate your solution.
Differentiation is an enduring challenge for salespeople – a challenge that’s often exacerbated by salespeople jumping into the wrong conversation at the wrong time. What typically happens is that salespeople vault ahead to “why you” conversation, trying to convince prospects and customers why they should buy your solution. But many times—even after a prospect engages a salesperson—they haven’t yet committed to leaving their status quo. This “why change” story is a crucial part of your story – it’s what generates the urgency you need to dislodge the status quo and distinguish your message from competitors.
Focusing on the “why change” conversation will allow you to create the buying vision avoid the dreaded deal that ends in no decision.
• Value Conversation #2: Elevate Value
Objective: Secure executive buy-in and demonstrate your business impact.
The lion’s share of buying decisions—80 percent!—now require approval of decision makers with VP or higher titles, according to analyst firm IDC. That means high levels of business acumen and advanced industry knowledge are prerequisites for this conversation, where you need to elevate value to executive-level buyers and free up the budget for an opportunity.
Given such objectives, a seller-centric, solution presentation isn’t going to pass muster. Instead, you need to deliver a conversation in which you build a business impact model that provides a clear and compelling business justification for their investment.
• Value Conversation #3: Capture Value
Objective: Preserve your margins and maintain deal size
Conventional wisdom holds that your pricing takes a dive at the end of the sales cycle. This, however, is a misconception. In reality, the perceived value of your solution has been diminishing throughout the sales cycle. In large part, this is fueled by shoddy negotiation habits such as giving things away for free in the interest of moving the deal forward. This is a prescription for smaller deals and eroded margins.
To protect your margins and hit your revenue targets, your reps need to embrace the tension of negotiations, while recognising that these giveaways are actually opportunities to negotiate more value for your deals. Instead of letting value leak away, try exchanging value by executing something I call “pivotal agreements” – essentially, milestones you can use as leverage to add value to your deals and move them forward.
The value conversations outlined above each have specific objectives and outcomes. But make no mistake: These are distinct but complementary pieces of a status quo-busting customer conversation. By mastering the techniques needed to thrive in each “moment of truth,” your reps will have the conversational foundation to thrive where it matters most: Articulating value in front of prospects and customers.
