Speaker 1: It can't just be what we believe is value, and
Speaker 1: it's got to be that the customer sees that what
Speaker 1: we're talking about is valuable to them. So asking the
Speaker 1: right questions to uncover what the buyer values most is
Speaker 1: what is crucial.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the audible Ready podcast. The show that
Speaker 2: helps you and your teams sell more Faster. Will feature
Speaker 2: sales leaders sharing their best insights on how to create
Speaker 2: a sales engine that helps you fuel repeatable revenue growth,
Speaker 2: presented by the team at Force Management, a leader in
Speaker 2: B to B sales effectiveness. Let's get started.
Speaker 3: Hello and welcome to the Audible Ready Sales Podcast. I'm
Speaker 3: Rachel clap Miller. Joining me for our conversation today is
Speaker 3: Forced Management facilitator John Boney. Hi John, Hey, Rachel, how
Speaker 3: you doing.
Speaker 1: Good? To see you again?
Speaker 3: Good good, Yes, John's second time on the audible Ready podcast.
Speaker 3: We're happy to have them back with us. Today we
Speaker 3: are tackling the very small topic of selling on value,
Speaker 3: which we talk a lot about on the audib Already
Speaker 3: Sales podcast, But today we want to talk about what
Speaker 3: does that mean to sell on value throughout the sales process.
Speaker 3: We talk about it a lot it's so important, but
Speaker 3: it's almost this throwaway term. It's what we preach every day.
Speaker 3: But the real crux move, so to speak, or the
Speaker 3: tactic elite sellers do, is to keep the focus on
Speaker 3: value throughout the sales process. So, John, let's kind of
Speaker 3: start with the mindset, the overall mindset that you need
Speaker 3: to make sure you are keeping the focus on value.
Speaker 1: Yeah, really good question, and again thanks for having me
Speaker 1: back well being able to continue to share some thoughts
Speaker 1: and knowledge as people are always learning and getting better
Speaker 1: at what they do. So when you ask the question
Speaker 1: about mindset, it's such a critical component to being in
Speaker 1: that mindset of being in a value based world. As
Speaker 1: a sell you've got to constantly remind yourself that your
Speaker 1: goal is creating and communicating value to your customer, and
Speaker 1: that means understanding your buyers needs, what their challenges are,
Speaker 1: what their goals are, and ensuring that your solution aligns
Speaker 1: to address those areas. It's about being genuinely interested in
Speaker 1: helping your buyer succeed. And being genuinely is kind of
Speaker 1: the key that you've got to be genuine in that
Speaker 1: it can't be just a list of question that you're
Speaker 1: coming to ask about, but really caring about what the
Speaker 1: customer is trying to solve for and again aligning those
Speaker 1: things that around the buyer's needs, their challenges, and their
Speaker 1: goals and sharing that that solution ties back to it
Speaker 1: such a critical component.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was talking with Brian Walsh, another one of
Speaker 3: our facilitators, and he always has this phrase. He says,
Speaker 3: you know, with or without us, you may choose to
Speaker 3: go with us, or you may choose to go with
Speaker 3: somebody else, But no matter who you choose, what are
Speaker 3: you trying to accomplish? And that's what you're talking about too.
Speaker 3: It's like whe or without your solution. That genuineness you're
Speaker 3: talking about is getting the buyer to that outcome that's
Speaker 3: exactly right.
Speaker 1: And you know, again, if you're not genuine about it,
Speaker 1: there's going to see right through it. And you've got
Speaker 1: to have that care and that fashion in order to
Speaker 1: understand where the buyer wants to go. And again, if
Speaker 1: it's just a list of questions and you're just peppering
Speaker 1: them for your own benefit rather than truly trying to
Speaker 1: help that customer, you're going to miss the boat, miss
Speaker 1: the mark. And so it's keeping yourself in that mindset.
Speaker 1: It's keeping yourself in that compassionate understanding mindset to really
Speaker 1: ascertain what are those challenges goals that the customer's trying.
Speaker 3: To get to right exactly, So now we have the
Speaker 3: right mindset, right, let's figure out how we how we
Speaker 3: do it. A lot of us think we sell on
Speaker 3: value and we're like, yeah, we do this every day,
Speaker 3: but do you really right? And it's about being really
Speaker 3: specific in to your point, drawing those links to the
Speaker 3: buyer might be clear to us because we're living in
Speaker 3: this world of our solution every day of how our
Speaker 3: solution helps achieve those positive business outcomes aka the value
Speaker 3: the buyer is trying to get. But we have to
Speaker 3: make sure that line is clear for the buyer. Does
Speaker 3: the buyer understand how that helps? Because a lot of times,
Speaker 3: you know, our buyer is like in the sea of
Speaker 3: safeness with other vendors, right, everybody looks the same and
Speaker 3: they're probably in the weeds on our problem. They can't
Speaker 3: figure out how to fix it. I mean, I can't
Speaker 3: tell you how many times I've been on with the
Speaker 3: vendor and I'm like, I don't even know, just can
Speaker 3: you fix it?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 3: What do we do right, right? I know, John, you
Speaker 3: really focus on helping sellers reinforce and build on that
Speaker 3: value proposition as they go through the sales process. You know,
Speaker 3: it starts with the discovery to your point, finding out
Speaker 3: what the buyer wants. But let's talk about how you
Speaker 3: do that from that initial contact to closing the deal.
Speaker 3: We always say valuable is meaningful only if the buyer
Speaker 3: understands it right, the buyer understands the line. Let's talk
Speaker 3: about that decision criteria or how we say and command
Speaker 3: a message, the required capabilities and how that links to
Speaker 3: building the value prop and how you deal that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, kind of a two part question there. So you know,
Speaker 1: it's crucial to establish that strong value proposition from the
Speaker 1: initial contact, like understanding what's important to that customer, and
Speaker 1: this involves in understanding the buyer's decision criteria and required
Speaker 1: capabilities that you just referenced. And value is only meaningful
Speaker 1: to the buyer if they think it's meaningful. It can't
Speaker 1: just be what we believe is valuable. It's got to
Speaker 1: be that the customer sees that what we're talking about
Speaker 1: is valuable to them. So asking the right questions to
Speaker 1: uncover what the buyer values most is what is crucial,
Speaker 1: and this could be in the form of cost savings
Speaker 1: or efficiency, or innovation or risk. All those are are
Speaker 1: things that the customer is going to view as valuable.
Speaker 1: And one of the best tips to keep the lines
Speaker 1: of communication around the required capabilities open is to continually
Speaker 1: check in with the buyer to ensure that you know
Speaker 1: something hasn't change with those capabilities. We've got to stay
Speaker 1: on top of the changing environment that happens in today's
Speaker 1: world of capabilities or decision criteria can change on a
Speaker 1: consistent basis because people are changing environments and changing. Priorities
Speaker 1: are changing and every scenario that we're in, and so
Speaker 1: you know, we've got to make sure that we are
Speaker 1: staying on top of and validating to reinforce what that
Speaker 1: value prop is, to make sure that we're in front
Speaker 1: of that and we're hearing what the customer is saying
Speaker 1: and documenting those and getting agreement that what the customer
Speaker 1: is saying is their value prop and what our aligned
Speaker 1: solution to solve that is. We're continually validating that and
Speaker 1: communicating that on a consistent basis.
Speaker 3: Right, And to your point, you don't want to focus
Speaker 3: on a value of a requirement that has now changed, right,
Speaker 3: and they're like, hey, that's great, that's all you do,
Speaker 3: but this is.
Speaker 1: More important, right, That's right, because if it changes and
Speaker 1: we're focused on something that's not important to them anymore,
Speaker 1: we're going to look like we're not understanding what their
Speaker 1: business is or we're not listening to what's happening within
Speaker 1: their organization. And again, Rachel's private said a million times
Speaker 1: over that two things that are said about us as
Speaker 1: customer facing folks is that we don't listen to what
Speaker 1: the customer is saying, and we don't understand their business.
Speaker 1: So constantly validating that and getting alignment with the customer
Speaker 1: that we're hearing them and we're understanding what their priorities
Speaker 1: are are just critical.
Speaker 3: You mentioned this in just a minute ago, but I
Speaker 3: wanted to dig a little bit deeper on it. So
Speaker 3: let's say we've done our initial discovery, we've got our
Speaker 3: initial list of required capabilities, we feel like we know
Speaker 3: the importance of where it stands, and then the customer
Speaker 3: then rere validating because I was like, actually, this is
Speaker 3: probably more important or this is what does that tell you?
Speaker 3: As a seller, like you can't just who my gas is, right,
Speaker 3: You can't just take that change at face value keep going.
Speaker 3: It's probably indicative of something. What is that signaling to you?
Speaker 1: So, if I'm understanding your question, it's you know, how
Speaker 1: do we make sure that we're keeping the value front
Speaker 1: and center of the conversation?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 3: Always, But you know, if all of a sudden something
Speaker 3: else becomes more important or the priorities have changed, are
Speaker 3: we thinking this is a different ship from a company?
Speaker 3: Could that be indicative of a competitor, like the change
Speaker 3: in priorities might tell us more about well, absolutely, going
Speaker 3: on right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Really good point. So as relates to that, if something changes,
Speaker 1: there's a plethora of things that could cause that to
Speaker 1: be happening. Right. It could be that there's a competitor
Speaker 1: that has influenced the decision criteria and now the customer's
Speaker 1: thinking in a different way than they were before. It
Speaker 1: could be that there's a change in leadership, that there's
Speaker 1: a change in the priorities of what it is they
Speaker 1: need to solve for. There could have been an event
Speaker 1: that happened, like a breach of something that has caused
Speaker 1: a more urgent criteria to be prioritized within how they're
Speaker 1: going to make their decision. That could be customer loss,
Speaker 1: that could be so again us being aware of what
Speaker 1: is happening within the organization, and that's probably going to
Speaker 1: take us. I can almost sense what the next question
Speaker 1: is going to be Rachel about, how do you make
Speaker 1: sure that you're in front of that and who are
Speaker 1: the folks that you need to be talking to to
Speaker 1: avoid what we like to refer to as a single
Speaker 1: threaded decision versus a multi threaded decision.
Speaker 3: So, as we know, the value prop becomes stronger when
Speaker 3: you're multi threading your deals and when things like this
Speaker 3: happen where changes are happening, the more tied we are
Speaker 3: to additional people, the better position will be. So, what
Speaker 3: strategies do you use or do you encourage sellers to
Speaker 3: use when trying to make sure they're building out relationships
Speaker 3: with more than one person, building out the foundation to
Speaker 3: build that collective yes and not just getting that yes
Speaker 3: from one decision maker.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So when we're going back to that value prop,
Speaker 1: it becomes more robust, more, it becomes bigger as we
Speaker 1: deal with that multi threaded opportunity. And we talk about
Speaker 1: this a lot, and you just mentioned it right the collective. Yes,
Speaker 1: So the strategies that we're we're looking at when it
Speaker 1: when it when we talk about multi threaded opportunities, it's
Speaker 1: ensuring that we are in front of not just the
Speaker 1: decision makers, but also some of the folks that are
Speaker 1: involved in the organization with using or implementing the technology
Speaker 1: that or whatever the service or product is that we
Speaker 1: may be addressing with our client that solves their problems.
Speaker 1: And so there's a lot of things really that we
Speaker 1: need to be able to pay attention to, and you know,
Speaker 1: I want to take a little bit of a deeper
Speaker 1: dive on this. The first one is who are the
Speaker 1: key stakeholders. We've got to identify them early and often because,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned before, they change. We've got to map
Speaker 1: out that organization and we do that through talking to
Speaker 1: various people, asking the questions of who else we can
Speaker 1: talk to, and doing some research. The second is tailoring
Speaker 1: our value problem, the value based conversation that we're having.
Speaker 1: It's tailoring it to the people we're talking to. If
Speaker 1: we're talking to an executive level, it's a different conversation.
Speaker 1: We're talking to somebody who may be lower in the
Speaker 1: organization and we get delegated to who we sound like
Speaker 1: is another common phrase that we hear a lot. So
Speaker 1: it's making sure we're personalizing that communication and using relevant
Speaker 1: case studies that apply to those different people. The other
Speaker 1: piece is facilitating some of the other internal discussions that
Speaker 1: need to take place, like pulling different groups of people
Speaker 1: in to again gain collective understanding of what's happening. And
Speaker 1: that involves building your champion and providing resources that are
Speaker 1: relevant to those different groups. And as I mentioned before,
Speaker 1: that continuous validation with regular check ins and feedback loops
Speaker 1: that we need to have to ensure that you're not
Speaker 1: going off track and you're going down the wrong path.
Speaker 1: And then that helps you build that consensus by aligning
Speaker 1: those goals within the organization and addressing their concerns. Again,
Speaker 1: you're hearing an understand what it is the customer's saying,
Speaker 1: and as you're having these different discussions, this is so
Speaker 1: important and I see this ball get dropped fairly frequently,
Speaker 1: and that's the follow up the post communication and how
Speaker 1: that gets translated back into the post sale engagement and
Speaker 1: the customer success programs to ensure that they understand what's happening.
Speaker 1: And then not coming in cold when they get the
Speaker 1: ball handed to that. So there's multiple steps that kind
Speaker 1: of play into this multi channeled approach of talking to
Speaker 1: a lot of different people. It takes a lot of
Speaker 1: effort and it takes a lot of determination in order
Speaker 1: to make sure you're in front.
Speaker 3: Of those right people right you're pulling the right people together.
Speaker 3: But to the point of what we're talking about today,
Speaker 3: we might use the phrase political landscape, like what's the
Speaker 3: landscape within the account? But all of this helps to
Speaker 3: make your value prop stronger.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, And you know, strengthening that value prop
Speaker 1: is it's been the component that we've been talking about
Speaker 1: the whole time, and it's an ongoing process that we
Speaker 1: have to make sure we're talking through, not just at
Speaker 1: the front, not just in the middle, not just at
Speaker 1: the end, but we're consistently having this conversation.
Speaker 3: It's around because you mentioned a stack wriking or prioritizing
Speaker 3: dishes and criteria as so you can better articulate the
Speaker 3: value of your solution and your differentiation. But as you
Speaker 3: multi thread these deals, it can help you if there's changes,
Speaker 3: but the value may not be the same to each
Speaker 3: player within the with your own company, within the company
Speaker 3: that you're working on, right, people might have different lenses.
Speaker 1: That's exactly right, depending on where you are in the
Speaker 1: organization and who you're speaking to. Each group, person or
Speaker 1: department may have different goals, different needs, and different pains
Speaker 1: that they're trying to solve for, and we've got to
Speaker 1: make sure we understand that. If I'm speaking to somebody
Speaker 1: at let's just say it an implementation of developer per se,
Speaker 1: what are their goals, needs, and pains. They're probably going
Speaker 1: to be more tactical in nature and more technical in nature,
Speaker 1: and I've got anunderstand them be able to speak to
Speaker 1: them at that level. If I'm speaking as I move
Speaker 1: up the organization chain and I get into an executive
Speaker 1: level conversation, those goals and pains and needs are going
Speaker 1: to be different, and they're probably going to be more strategic,
Speaker 1: and they're probably going to involve things like cost, revenue,
Speaker 1: risk efficiency things at those nature that I've got to
Speaker 1: be able to speak at that level, and I've got
Speaker 1: to understand and be able to provide context of where
Speaker 1: we can help them achieve those goals across all different
Speaker 1: types of people that I'm speaking to. And if I
Speaker 1: am speaking over top of somebody's head, I'm going to
Speaker 1: lose them in conversation and I may even put them
Speaker 1: in a place where they feel threatened about their job.
Speaker 1: And I don't want to do that. I want to
Speaker 1: speak at their level and understand what their goals, pains,
Speaker 1: and needs are. And the same thing at the executive level.
Speaker 1: If I'm speaking too tactical or technical, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to be in that conversation for very long. They're going
Speaker 1: to ask me to go speak to somebody else again.
Speaker 1: They get delegated to who we sound like. So really
Speaker 1: critical that we're able to speak at the level of
Speaker 1: people that were in the front ups and they can
Speaker 1: follow along and understand how we're trying to solve collectively
Speaker 1: for the organization. Right.
Speaker 3: So it's aligning value to your buyer, to the buying
Speaker 3: organization right, and their challenges and their initiatives and the
Speaker 3: PBOs at the organizational level. But then it's also nuancing
Speaker 3: that for the individual people that you're talking to within
Speaker 3: those organizations. How is your value aligned to the technical pain?
Speaker 3: How does your value aligned to the business pain? It's
Speaker 3: all important, right. We always say we've got to get higher,
Speaker 3: but you've got to have that old story.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, it's it's understanding technically and from the business side
Speaker 1: of how we're going to be solving through these problems
Speaker 1: that our customers are dealing.
Speaker 3: With and building it along the sales process, John, what
Speaker 3: is one thing you We have a lot of like
Speaker 3: quota caring reps that listen to this podcast and they
Speaker 3: are grinding it out every day. And we always say,
Speaker 3: sales is the game of inches, right, and some of
Speaker 3: these like little tidbits that we share on the Audible
Speaker 3: Ready Sales podcast can help people in the game of
Speaker 3: inches right, just give you that little little bit of
Speaker 3: a bit of edge. What are the things that you
Speaker 3: really want to make sure those people listening take away
Speaker 3: from this conversation today.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say, good question, Rachel, and I would
Speaker 1: say the key takeaway is selling on value is an
Speaker 1: ongoing process, right, It's not a one time thing. It
Speaker 1: requires deep understanding of the buyer's needs, continuous validation of
Speaker 1: the value prop and engagement on multiple stakeholders. So by
Speaker 1: keeping the focus on values throughout the sales process, you
Speaker 1: not only increase your chances of closing the deal, but
Speaker 1: also build stronger, more trust based relationships with your clients.
Speaker 1: So again that key thing is selling on value is
Speaker 1: an ongoing process, not just at the beginning.
Speaker 3: That's it. That's it. Thank you, John Boding, Thank you.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Rachel, good talking to you.
Speaker 3: Yes, be sure to listen to our other podcast with John.
Speaker 3: We've linked it up in the show notes. It's also
Speaker 3: another great conversation. And thank you to all of you
Speaker 3: for listening to the Audible Ready Sales podcast.
Speaker 4: At Forced Management, we're focused on transforming sales organizations into
Speaker 4: elite teams. Our proven methodologies deliver programs that build company
Speaker 4: alignment and fuel repeatable revenue growth. Give your teams the
Speaker 4: ability to execute the growth strategy at the point of sale.
Speaker 4: Our strength is our experience. The proof is in our results.
Speaker 4: Let's get started. Visit us at forcemanagement dot com.
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