What We Miss About Value

The majority of sellers don’t understand value. As a result, the only thing they talk about is the product–it’s features and functions, customers using the solutions, how great their company is, and how the product is better than competition.

They don’t understand the customer, as a result, can’t translate what the solutions mean to the customer.

Perhaps, they’ve been trained generally, so they understand the solution might improve productivity, reduce costs, improves quality, or help drive revenue. They quote results from other customers and cite generalities about the results those customers have achieved.

But they can’t translate it to specific value, because they don’t understand the customer–as an enterprise with certain strategies, priorities, goals, and challenges. They can’t translate the value to specifics meaningful to the enterprise considering the solution.

They can’t translate it to specific value for the individuals involved in making the decision and implementing a solution. They have never taken the time to understand their specific issues, challenges, dreams, fears.

Those few sellers that have developed a business case for the solution take a giant step forward. They focus on what the customer will achieve in implementing the results. They can cite data specific to the customer and the issues they seek to address. They may express that value in ROI, IRR, Payback, or other financial terms. They may cite specific productivity improvements, or other benefits the customer should expect. They build a specific case to show the customer what they can expect.

But too often, they focus on the numbers and data, not on how the customer–the individuals–feel about it. Regardless how powerful the business case, if the people buying and using the solution aren’t confident, they won’t buy. They don’t worry about FOMO, rather they are consumed with FOFU.

While business cases are critical to getting approval and moving forward, the reality is that each alternative the customer is considering is likely to produce similar business outcomes.

Ultimately, the greatest value we create is how we help the customer understand and navigate their change process. Value creation is about helping them understand and define what they are trying to achieve. Are they asking themselves the right questions? Do they have the right people involved? Are they learning from what others have done? Do they understand how to manage the risks? Are they gaining support from management? Are they navigating the buying process effectively? Are they building their confidence they are doing the right thing–for the company and themselves?

All of this has little to do with what the seller sells. It is all about the buyer gaining confidence they are doing the right thing.

Helping the customer understand and act is the greatest differentiated value we can create. Building their confidence, building their trust, demonstrating we care about their success is the value we co-create with the customer.

So few sellers do this, yet those that do outperform everyone else. Their win rates are higher (we’ve seen them double.). “No Decision Made” plummets because of the focus on decision confidence. And, not surprisingly, buying cycles reduce by 30-40% since the seller is helping the customer navigate their process effectively.

Value is all about helping the customer through their entire process–the change initiative, the buying decision, the implementation, the results achieved. The best sellers recognize this and work on all elements of value creation.