When I began marketing the first value selling course in the mid 90's, "value" quickly became a buzz word. The intent was to uncover the value of making a change to motivate the prospect to take action faster and bigger. Unfortunately, it quickly morphed into another way of saying "differentiation." "Our value is our ability to handle a much larger database"
for example (differentiation), versus "It sounds like you are spending $10K a month to manually implement changes in your process" (value).
I have since renamed the subject "Impact" to denote the actual concept better and distance it from the mislabeled but complimentary skill of differentiation. Either way, the objective is to uncover the cost of taking or not taking action in both measurable outcomes and intangible implications. I've found that many sales people, when first introduced to the
skill, struggle to get the subject uncovered with their prospects. If they fail the first few times, they tend to give up on the objective to the detriment of their future sales cycles. To aid the first timer, I've gathered a few suggestions.
To begin with, the visibility of impact can vary greatly depending on the person's role in the organization, their level in the organization, their ability to translate tactical to strategic, and the questions you ask. So it's not always an easy task to uncover impact, but it can be. I once met with a person from Apple Computer (as it was called then) and he started the meeting by telling me that they were spending tens of thousands of dollars a day fixing manufacturing problems on the shop floor, not in the design department where they should be fixed. He had the ability to translate tactical activities into a strategic initiative that required action and he shared it without my prompting. But that's not always the case.
So where do we start?
If you're a student of the Enterprise Selling methodology, you know that the discovery process includes diagnosing the problems or challenges the prospect is living with, and connecting those unresolved challenges to a business issue like revenue, cost management, market share, etc... When that is done effectively, we have the starting place for uncovering Impact.
I suggest starting with the two most basic premises for uncovering impact: 1) Uncover any currently known measurable ramification of the challenges or business issue, and 2) Identify currently measured goals, especially those that are proving to be troublesome.
In the first case, I usually ask the prospect to "size" each of the problems or challenges that we've uncovered. Has there been a measurable pain associated with each obstacle? I'm ultimately looking for dollars, but could start with time lost or wasted, contrasts to best case or other competitors, etc... And then try to work with the prospect to convert the
percentages or other metrics into dollars. For instance if I'm selling a solution that could reduce the number of people required to manage a process from four down to one, I would ask if they had a standard burden rate for this
type of personnel, scale it by three people and come up with a hard dollar figure.
In the event that this path doesn't produce results, or even if it does, I would also ask if there are current metrics for the organization that might be relevant. Here's where it gets interesting. Some people are motivated by a goal, and if they see my solution as helping them reach their goal, then the goal itself is the motivating impact statement. i.e, My
understanding is that you want to achieve $1M in new product bookings by the end of year". However, some people are motivated by the gap. In this case, I would ask what the goal is, but also what the current shortfall looks like. "So
what I'm hearing is that you want to achieve $1M in new product bookings by the end of the year, but you're only on track to book $750K, is that right?" I might go further by restating it as "so it sounds like we have a $250K problem,
would you agree?"
How do I know when to ask about goals or gaps? I try to determine from my conversation if the person is an innovator or a re-aligner. Meaning, do they anticipate and change to meet opportunity before there is any pain, or are they changing because they are feeling pain. The innovator is motivated by new goals in a proactive sense; the re-aligner is motivated by gaps in goals in a reactive sense.
Lastly, whatever the quantifiable impact, it can pale in comparison to the personal impact. People tend to make a purchasing decision with their own interests in mind, while using the quantifiable impact as the rationale. With this mind, a follow up question that gets the prospect to think about the personal value proposition is worthwhile. "So if we overcome this shortfall, how will that impact you personally?" Or "If you are unable to overcome this shortfall, how will that impact you personally?", purposely selecting the question based on the prospect's orientation toward being
proactive or reactive.
To get the real answer, our trust, credibility and rapport will have to be really high; however, even if they don't answer the question with a straightforward response, you will have caused them to go to that place in their mind. We want them to recognize career implications (both good and bad), prestige, eliminating frustration, getting accolades, etc... and be motivated for their own reasons. Sometimes, its triggered by a question they won't answer for anyone but themselves.
Final thought: getting this information is only half of the value to you as the seller. Now you want to make sure the prospect is crystal clear on the impact of buying or not buying your solution. Recap the information in an email, during the next presentation, or before beginning a demonstration. The more we can have them recognize the impact, the faster they are going to want to make a purchase. The only caution is that you can't always replay the personal impact component, especially in a public format. So consider alluding to it with something like, "... and you also implied that this
was important to your personally as well".
Try these basic approaches out, and let me know how it goes. I'm also available if you'd like some advice on the current opportunity you're developing.
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