Sales Velocity Partners
www.salesvelocitypartners.com
Identifying Value What Happens to The Customer in the Absence of the Value of your Solution? Customers want to know how you're offering is going to add value to their business and help their career. They want to know how it will reduce their company's costs or generate additional revenue. They also want to be assured that your solution will deliver as promised. They don't want value added, they want value of assurance. They ask themselves, "Show me how this dream will become reality and give me the confidence to invest in your solution. What is my incentive to change?"
What is the Value Differentiation? (Focus on what YOU KNOW that makes you different and NOT what you think the prospect may know about what makes you different!)
What are the customer's ramifications of the problem? What are the problems and the consequences of remaining in the status quo? How can we connect our solutions to the problems that the everyday customer is currently facing? What 'top-of-mind' situations are occurring that would encourage executives to drive adoption? What are the 'problem' indicators? If there are no indicators, there is no pain; and the probability for change is very low. You will create a sense of urgency in motivation by showing the prospect that the problem you are addressing is one that really should be fixed.
By asking the right questions you will: Help customers to realize that they have a problem that is seriously affecting their personal or business objectives. Help customers thoroughly explore the dimensions of the problem and the sum of the total cost within. Help customers determine whether that cost justifies immediate action relative to other issues and opportunities they face.
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Sales Velocity Partners
www.salesvelocitypartners.com
Focus on the Customer's Gain. The decision to buy is the customer's decision, and the only way to ensure the quality of that decision is to ensure that the customer fully understands the problem and the consequences of remaining in the status quo. If you diagnose complex problems, but don't help your customers fully comprehend them, then they will not see the need for change and will not buy. The more value elements you can help your customers understand and connect to, the more linked you and your solutions become to the customer's organization. We want our customers to perceive us as credible. We establish our credibility by our ability to identify, evaluate, and communicate the sources and intensity of their problems, as well as helping them recognize opportunities they are not aware of. We reinforce that credibility by refusing to alter the customer's reality to fit our own needs. We establish our integrity by creating a solution framework that that solves their problems.
Customers ONLY CARE ABOUT what is left with when you leave. Focus on their NEEDS. Show them the OUTCOMES. Give them some EVIDENCE.
Motivation does not come from problems and needs. Most businesses are faced with dozens of problems and needs, most of which will never get solved. If you cannot create a sense of urgency in the decision maker to go forward with your recommendation, you will not be successful in your persuasion effort. To be a solution, the products and services you recommend must be linked to the customer’s specific problem. Show them directly that you understand them and their business. Are the potential outcomes, the return on investment, or improvement in productivity so big that the prospect can’t afford to wait? Do the returns to be gained from fixing the problem outweigh its costs? If you want to motivate someone to do something or to change their attitude about something, the proof element ties to their own self-interest. If they agree with your analysis of the situation, then they are more likely to be motivated to do what we want them to do. To be successful in motivating others, we must try to focus first on meeting a fundamental need that they think matters, solving a problem that is distracting or bothering them, and then turn attention to helping them reach their goals. The things that motivate people at work are unrelated to the things that make them dissatisfied. The key 'on-the-job' motivators are the opportunity for achievement, significant recognition for success, the pleasure involved in doing the work itself, the opportunity to exercise greater responsibility, and the opportunity for advancement. Beyond the basic hierarchy of needs, we move upward through connectedness with others, esteem and respect, and ultimately selfactualization. Customer expectations are not always realistic. Help them explore and adjust
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Sales Velocity Partners
www.salesvelocitypartners.com
each one of those expectations to reflect an achievable outcome. Show them the money. What is they're organization going to look like once you are gone?
A focus on customer’s pain only gets their attention. By focusing on their gain you get their commitment. Here are a few suggestions: What are some of the roadblocks you are facing now? Let's look into the future. What should your results look like once you have a new system in place? What would you like to see? You must concentrate on the customer who has the highest probability of being negatively impacted by the absence of your solution and therefore the corresponding high probability of being receptive to your solution. When in the diagnostic mode, you are dealing directly with your customer's reality. When customers realize that they are dealing with real problems and real costs as opposed to future benefits, the urgency that drives the decision to change is created. They find themselves on the critical actionable and of the change progression.
Stages of Value If you can define value in stages that enable your customer to understand the absence of value and build confidence in their ability to acquire and achieve that value for themselves, you will compel them into action. This results in your customer understanding how your offering relates to their world and enables them to evaluate its worth. Sources of Value - Sources of value or value capabilities are the elements of value inherent in your company and its solutions. That encompasses the ability of the elements of your solution to create value for customers or that enable customers to create value for themselves. What are your offerings most compelling value capabilities? Uses of Value - In what way will your customer be able to use the value you provide or require the value you provide? What can the customer's do with your solution that they can't do without it? Where are your customer's most compelling value requirements? Absence of Value- The absence of value is what it looks like within organizations that do not have your value creating solutions in place. What are the physical signs, or observable indicators of the absence of your value? What costs did those organizations incur that your solution enabled them to eliminate? What revenues were customers not receiving that they now are? When we make initial contact with prospective customers one of our first tasks is to verify that these generic absences of value actually exist. What are the observable indicators of the absence of value among your customers?
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Sales Velocity Partners
www.salesvelocitypartners.com
From your perspective, what are your sources of differentiated value? The answers to this question confirm that your organization has considered and clarified all of its capabilities and competencies and will they add unique value to a customer's business.
From your customer's perspective, what are their uses of your value? Just because you can deliver value, you cannot assure you are customer that your solution will resonate with their value drivers. Answering this question will ensure that the sources of value within your organization are aligned with your customers uses of value, as specified by their value drivers.
What are the indicators of the absence of the value your solution provides ? Once the uses of value are verified, its absence and the consequences thereof must be quantified. You will not be able to identify your best customers until you know what the customer's world looks like when the solution is not in place. What are the customer's ramifications of the problem? What are the problems and the consequences of remaining in the status quo? How can we connect our solutions to the problems that the everyday customer is currently facing? What 'top-of-mind' situations are occurring that would encourage executives to drive adoption? What are the 'problem' indicators? If there are no indicators, there is no pain; and the probability for change is very low. You will create a sense of urgency in motivation by showing the prospect that the problem you are addressing is one that really should be fixed.
The questions that drive this process are: What are the sources of your value? What are your customer's uses of value - the problems that your customer experiences or will experience in the absence of your sources of value? What are the physical symptoms, or indicators, that occur in your customer’s organization that confirms their potential uses of value and that validate your own sources of value? Where in the customer's organization are the symptoms experienced? What are the consequences of the customer's experiences ... and what is the financial impact of those consequences? Who in the customer's organization cares about these consequences and their financial impact? In light of the above answers, what value assumption will constructively engage the prospect? What is your customer's level of comprehension? How well do your customers understand their own problems? How well do they understand your solutions?
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