When selling to well-informed buyers, your sales team needs to skip the “features and functions” pitch and get straight to the point: the value your solution delivers relative to the problems it solves. Do they have the right tools and training? Do they understand what’s most important to buyers?
When you understand a buyer’s business issues and unique needs, you can help them understand the magnitude of their problems. And when they understand what’s at risk, they can better appreciate how your offering provides the best possible solution. This is accomplished by building a persuasive business case that clearly articulates the value of your solution and quantifies that value in dollars and cents.
Business Case Building Blocks
Before your sales team can build business cases that close more sales, they need to be empowered with:
- The right perspective. Consider training reps on the principles of value selling. Teach them how to assess the buyers’ situation and articulate a compelling value proposition.
- The right tools. Use value selling tools to gather information from buyers, and provide a framework for your sales team to quantify and validate the value proposition.
If you’re ready to improve sales performance, let’s look at the steps that lead to building a winning business case.
1. SOLVE Problems to Create Value
Your offering is only valuable if it solves a buyer’s problems and improves some aspect of their business. This is key to defining your value proposition. The best way to get there is to listen carefully to the buyer before saying a single word about your offering.
Sales reps should take time to build rapport and focus on understanding the buyer’s business. They should collaborate to map out business problems and estimate the magnitude of those problems. Then, and only then, can they have a meaningful dialogue about the business value of your solution.
2. QUANTIFY the Value Proposition
The information buyers enter into your assessment tools and value calculators contains a wealth of information for helping the sales team understand unique buyer gaps and problems and quantify their corresponding impact.
- Assessment tools identify where the buyer has failed to meet benchmarks or performed poorly against industry norms. Sales can use this information to create KPIs that can be improved by using your solution.
- Value calculators quantify KPI improvements into a preliminary value estimate. Sales can use this as the basis for their business case.
Train your sales team to review this company-specific information every time they prepare for another phase of engagement. Buyers will be impressed with how well you understand their business!
3. BUILD a Winning Business Case
We are now at the most important part of the sales process: building a winning business case. This business case must include the projected financial results and KPI improvements that will be realized if the buyer implements your solution.
Proper use of ROI tools is essential for calculating ROI during the middle and end phases of the sales cycle. Results are most persuasive when sales uses them to contrast the cost of “business as usual” with the potential improvement.
Firmly establishing value in dollars and cents provides a solid foundation for resisting requests for discount pricing and special deals.
Conclusion
Empower your sales team with value selling tools and comprehensive training so they can increase sales through the persuasive power of a solid business case. When presented to every level of stakeholder, from sales and operations to the CFO, the entire organization is on board and ready to adopt your solution and the value it delivers.
Resources
Connect with David Svigel on LinkedIn.
Join the Value Selling for B2B Marketing and Sales Leaders LinkedIn Group.
Visit the ROI Selling Resource Center.
