Unfortunately, they still mean different things to different people. And they have been misused for too long.

“The greatest inhibitor to sales effectiveness is the seller’s inability to communicate a VALUE message.” — SiriusDecisions

To me, a value proposition is a means to communicate succinctly to a Prospect or to a Buyer what’s in it for them when they deal with us.

A value proposition is a means to communicate succinctly to a Prospect or to a Buyer what’s in it for them when they deal with us.

It should be that simple, but organizations have tied themselves into knots coming up with ones that work for them.

What’s worse, too many organizations are still inward-looking and product-focused when they should be customer-centric, i.e. they should “do everything with the customer in mind”, as Jeff Bezos put it for his company Amazon.

So, to me (and to Jeff, I guess) the only value proposition that counts is the one that engages your customers.

The only value proposition that counts is the one that engages your customer.

Why is that important?

Because if you get it wrong it can have horrible consequences for your business. One of my pet grievances is when marketers put up a value proposition that is completely focused on the wrong thing: on their organization.

Not only does it wreak havoc with how prospects view your website, but your sales people will start using it in their prospecting and customer interactions, too.

Here are some actual real-life examples of what I am talking about:

This is a cold email that landed in my in-tray and didn’t get caught by the spam filter

“Dear Peter,

Greetings from (name withheld)! I am reaching out to introduce (name withheld). We are a cross channel ad management and optimization platform. Our advanced algorithmic solutions automate & optimize your digital marketing process to give you a better ROAS. We have deep integration into various digital channels and analytics into a unified dash board. This equips you to easily manage and optimise all your social marketing campaigns. Attached is an introductory deck which showcases our product features. I would love to get on a quick 10-minute introductory call to discuss how our automation platform can add value to your digital marketing efforts. 

How does anytime this week look for you? Let me know when I can set up the call.

Best,

(name withheld), Product Manager”

Did you notice how many sentences above start with “Our”, with “I” or with “We”? What is this email about? Is it about the company and its products, or is it about what they can do for their customers?

So, I say that any value proposition that begins with “I” or “We” leads you down the wrong path because it leads yo to talking about yourself, not what’s in it for your customers.

Here is an example from the ABOUT US page of a vendor website:

“(name withheld) is a fully managed IT services company that focuses its time and energy on developing, maintaining, and supporting technology systems for growing businesses, implementing ERP systems and custom application development. 

(name withheld) has distinguished themselves by working for and with leading companies and service organizations acquiring vast experience with, and on, a wide range of complex, mission-critical and high-volume information systems platforms and roll outs for high profile organizations.”

How customer-centric is this information? What value does it convey?

So, have a look at your own business. On your company website does the ABOUT US page talk about you, or about what you do for your customers?

Check how your sales reps and SDRs: How do they introduce your organization every day?

Does your ABOUT US web page talk about you? How do your sales reps and SDRs introduce your organization?

Sales executives that I deal with tell me that prospects now decide in the first few seconds of a cold call whether they are interested, or not. Once they have lost interest it is VERY difficult to get their interest back. So we only have a few seconds to make a positive impression and to capture the imagination of our prospects.

We have to make our value proposition immediately engage our customers and prospects.

We have to make our value proposition immediately engage our Customers and our Prospects.

So, how customer-focused in your value proposition? How do you get yours right?

It’s easy: just consider everything you do from your customers’ perspective and convey clearly what’s in it for them.

The post How Customer-Centric Is Your Value Proposition? appeared first on Head Of Sales.

Less than ten seconds is all the time executives now take before they decide whether a sales rep is worth spending their time with, or not.

Seasoned salespeople tell me that, ten years ago, they used to have 30 minutes, or even longer, to establish rapport with a new Prospect or Buyer. During the 2010s, this time shrank down to just a few minutes. The latest feedback is that this window of opportunity has now shrunk even further and is now down to less than ten seconds.

That’s all the time executives now take before they decide whether a new sales rep is worth spending their time with, or not. This anecdotal evidence is also backed up by research. In fact, the hardest part of the sales cycle now is no longer to close a deal, but to gain traction and engagement with a Prospect in the first place. Or, put another way: While it is easy to reach out to your ideal customers, it is now VERY difficult to draw them into a meaningful sales conversation.”

Further, Sirius Decisions tells us: “The greatest inhibitor to sales effectiveness is the seller’s inability to communicate a VALUE message.”

Add to this Forrester’s research findings, saying that “85 percent of sales interactions fail to meet the expectations of buyers” and you can see how the old linear method of introducing ourselves and our business first, before moving on to our products, services or solutions and related customer pain points, is well and truly passé.

Possessing an effective and professional business introduction that spells out clearly and succinctly the benefits that we bring to our buyers is now more essential than ever. If those benefits are also quantified then that’s even better.

So, why do many businesses and their salespeople turn off their prospects, right from the first contact?

Let me give you a concrete example:

The other day, I was asked by a senior executive in an international technology company to facilitate an introduction to a CMO whom I know personally.

I was happy to make the introduction and asked the executive to send me just a short paragraph with a synopsis on their business for me to make the introduction with. Let’s call them xyz IT Company to protect their true identity.

Here is an anonymized version of what I then received:

“xyz IT Company is a US-based technology company founded in 2013, we provide a cloud-based application, designed for enterprise businesses who are committed to B2B and B2C sales transformation, and interested in automating the preparation of bespoke presentations to increase productivity and drive revenue growth, along with reporting and analytics to surface the most effective presentations. 

xyz IT Company integrates deeply with CRM’s, BI tools and any data sources to fuse company data and approved content, delivering a high quality, interactive experience. These automatically generated presentations save a sales (or account management) teams significant preparation time; meaning they can spend longer with their customers and prospects doing what they do best: selling. The presentations themselves are developed as web pages at a slide level, so there’s unlimited flexibility in how content is designed and the way data is visualized.

 xyz IT Company currently works with organizations across a range of industry verticals and company sizes, clients such as (customer brands removed) and we’re also in the process of launching pilots with companies such as (brand names withheld).”

Did you understand it? Did you read even past the first paragraph?

I know the company well, but even I couldn’t make sense of their introduction. Now imagine what the poor CMO (whom I was meant to introduce) would have thought both of XYZ Company and of me, as the referrer.

I get it that it is human nature to want to talk about ourselves and our business and how important and great we and our products or services are.

For a quick exercise go to your website and take a good look at the ABOUT US page.

For a quick exercise go to your business website and take a good look at your ABOUT US page. If that web page is really all about you then get it changed. Get it changed to ABOUT WHAT WE DO FOR YOU. Only then will it be more likely to engage buyers.

Let’s see how it looks from the other side.

Just put yourself into your prospects’, clients’ and customers’ shoes and imagine this:

If I were in their position, would I want to hear all about you and your company, how long you have been around, how many employees you have, in how many countries you operate, what products you have and the logos of your customers?

Or, would I first and foremost want to hear what’s in it for me (WIIFM)?

I like to break the process of starting a new business conversation down into three parts:

1. Answering WIIFM
2. Answering HOW we do it
3. Answering where we have done it before

Let me elaborate:

1. Answering WIIFM

If we spell out the exact business benefits in qualitative and quantitative terms then a buyer can decide very quickly whether they are interested in finding out more, or not. After, all for a sales rep it is just as important to qualify a prospects OUT, as it is to qualify them IN. It saves a rep a lot of time NOT to pursue a prospect who is not interested.

2. Answering HOW we do it

Once we have established active interest in our buyer’s mind they will want more information. Information such as how we deliver the benefits, what they need to do from their end to be successful and how our product, service or solution may apply to their business.

3. Answering WHERE we have done it before

So, they know what’s in it for them and how we deliver the outcome. Now, our buyer will want to be assured that this result can also be delivered to their business and that they are not a lab rat or Guinea pig. They want proof that what we can deliver what we promise. So at this 3rd stage they want customer success stories and testimonials.

All the above, however, depends on gaining that buyer’s interest in the first six seconds. So, how is your business introduction doing?

The post I Have 10 Seconds To Make An Impression? appeared first on Head Of Sales.

The TV character Harvey Specter in the legal drama “Suits” commented to his offsider, “People respond to how we’re dressed.” Whether it be personal appearance, the workplace or a digital profile, humans instinctively make a judgement in a very short timeframe.  As I reflect upon this topic I begin to realise that the power of the senses to perceive, analyse and categorise is phenomenal.   In a corporate capacity, this leads to the question of the impact of the reception area of a workplace on visitors, customers and future employees.

Colour

Countless studies have been undertaken on the psychological impact of colour.  Munsell’s (1912) work stated that colour contained three components, hue, value and chroma. In other words, the overall name of the colour (eg red, green, blue), the brightness and the saturation. When someone walks into your office reception area what are they seeing? What is the overall dominant colour, how light or dark is it and how vivid is the particular colour? Valdez & Mehrabian (1994) assessed a variety of studies and ranked blue as the most preferred colour, with the brighter and more saturated blue eliciting the greatest pleasure.

Thin Slicing

Thin slicing refers to the small (or thin) interactions that we have in which a judgement is made. Ambady et al (2000) claims that thin slicing has the tendency to be immediate, automatic and quite often valid based on our initial judgements. Whilst traditionally thin slicing has referred to the perceptions we make about individuals, the psychology of consumerism has indicated that branding and digital presence are also affected by thin slicing. Our immediate judgement when looking at a website or at a product on a shelf are often immediate and accurate. The same when walking into an office space. The reaction we have when entering a physical environment can be long lasting. Organised, engaging, bright and professional areas affect an individual’s initial reaction in a different manner to dark, crowded and drab areas. Is it always a valid reflection of the company? No, however, research indicates that the physical reception area is a representative of the brand and as such captures the emotions of the visitor, customer or contractor.

Physical Layout

Medical facilities are investing heavily in planning, designing and restructuring welcome and reception areas to accommodate the ever changing needs of the health consumer. Large sterile medical receptions are being altered to facilitate designs that will reduce and lessen anxiety and create a more positive atmosphere. More importantly, studies have indicated that the waiting room environment is perceived as indication of the quality of healthcare provided (Arneill and Devlin 2002). Considering my childhood GP was a highly accredited and skilled medical practitioner who had a waiting room full of old magazines and primitive wooden blocks should I be worried about my vaccinations? Logically no, but from a psychological perspective, definitely.

The same can be said of a corporate reception area. Practical, comfortable and welcoming reception areas are vital. The initial impressions on a visitor are significant and should never be underestimated. A simple method of welcome and an impressive design is vitally important. Research has shown that potential employees make judgements about a company when waiting in reception area, often asking that simple question of, ‘‘do I want to work here based on what I see in the reception? ‘(Park 2005)

What does this all mean to business?

The demands of business are phenomenal. From recruiting staff to generating long term customers, the varying pressures placed on organisations to grow and develop is considerable. The psychology of consumerism tells us that the initial impact of a brand, a colour, a physical layout and a welcoming employee can never be understated. First impressions do count. The overall appearance of a work environment, the utilisation of technology and the layout and design of a reception area have an immediate and long lasting impression. It is worth the effort to get it right and to have a competitive advantage within the marketplace. As Tesla CEO Elon Musk said, “Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it will be ahead, other times it will be behind. But brand is simply a collective impression some have about a product.”

The post The Psychology Of First Impressions appeared first on Head Of Sales.

Then you know the importance of getting these first meetings off to a good start.

Taking deliberate steps to build rapport has been proven to significantly increase your chances of reaching an agreement.

Whether you’ve finally scored that elusive meeting to meet with the ‘perfect whale’ of a prospect or they fall into the ‘small-is-sweet’ category, it doesn’t really matter. If you have a first meeting booked, you’re going to need to impress, and I think one of the best ways to impress is to differentiate yourself early on. Here are some strategies I can suggest that use a combination of LinkedIn as well as more ‘traditional’ sales skills to set you up for a greater level of first meeting success.

Step 1 – About a week prior to the meeting, view their profile and take notes in preparation, not least because it will send them a notification that ‘you’ve viewed their profile’. This, in turn, will be likely to drive a return visit to your profile, building some nice familiarity prior to your meeting. If your profile is set up correctly they will learn, with only a quick view, where your areas of expertise are and whom you’ve helped previously, as well as, what sort of outcomes they might expect from engaging with you. – A good strategy.

Step 2 – 48-24hrs prior to the meeting, send a connection request. Example. “Hi Gary, We are scheduled to meet the day after tomorrow to talk about widgets, just made sense to reach out for a connection to make it easier for you to leverage some of our previous work or perhaps some common connections and contacts. Hope you agree”

Step 2a – If you were NOT successful in connecting prior to the actual meeting don’t worry. During the meeting, explain that you use LinkedIn as a CRM/ business card-style tool to manage your important contacts and that you would like to connect, would they agree to a connection request? – They will always say ‘Yes’. Politely say, if I haven’t sent you one already I’ll make sure you have one very shortly’.

Step 3 – Rapport building strategies. Building rapport is NOT about deliberately pretending you are something you are not in order to ‘win over the client’ this is misleading and sets the relationship up for a false start. Relationships based on falsehoods are to be avoided. – DO NOT DO THIS. Instead look for genuine areas where you can maximise SAMENESS between you and them and minimise any DIFFERENCEs.

Example 1 – They went to public school, yet you went to private? = Difference. Don’t talk schools. Find something else. However, if you both went to private schools in a similar area you might leverage the possibility that your prospect might know such-and-such from his days at ‘old-boy’ college.

Example 2 – If you’re both from the country now living in the city, (very common), you might ask how long ago or how they became a city person, outlining that you too moved to the city from the country. Each scenario is completely different and using LinkedIn in advance helps provides you with some strategies which are much more likely to increase the levels of sameness and limit the amount of difference, therefore, setting you up for a better start to your first meeting.

Step 4 – Make sure you reach out via AT LEAST one of the following.

• Inmail outlining the common connections, opportunity for them to get a referral, reference of your previous work. (Details on how to do that here). This helps them to build confidence in your ability and provides comfort in their potential decision to chose you as a supplier.
• Provide a case study or ‘TAG’ them in a similar post from a thought leader which talks about a similar topic or strategy that you’re about to meet with them to discuss.

This shows that you’re thinking about the client and their issues and you’re trying to provide some extra ‘insight’ or ‘value’. Makes initial communication easy and we know the more you and your prospect/client get communicating the more information you will be able to glean over time. This will help you provide the absolute best solution for them. This is a good thing.

Step 5 – Optional/ Advanced. Post meeting, provide a genuine LinkedIn recommendation, leverages terrific levels of reciprocity AS LONG AS IT IS GENUINE. Recommendations on LinkedIn are not ‘old-school’ employment style references. (who said they were anyway)? So something simple can work very well. Such as “We met with Gary and his team to discuss their widget requirements. I was very impressed with the depth of knowledge he and the team had around their specific situation and the obviously very high level of research they’d done on potential suppliers, including us. If all my clients did this level of research prior to a meeting, these great conversations would lead to higher quality business outcomes. We really appreciated the levels of preparation they’d done before the meeting. A very professional approach, which is not widely seen” WARNING. Must be genuine to work.

Whilst it’s important to build rapport, don’t go too overboard. One of my favourite sayings from Dean Mannix is “EXPERTS always get paid more than friends”. Don’t fall into the ‘friend zone’.

P.S. Trust is the combination of rapport and credibility. Deliberately building credibility is an important part of first meetings. More on that in another blog post.

The post First Meeting Strategies To Make A Better First Impression appeared first on Head Of Sales.

The sales rep paused for a moment, ensuring all eyes in the room were fixed on him, before clicking through to his first slide. A kaleidoscope of company logo’s sprung up on the screen, wowing the audience with the vendor’s customer base and depth of industry experience. An audible gasp rippled through the room as a 2nd logo slide replaced the first, with even more customer logos. Whispered conversations broke out as the user community remarked on how lucky they were to be embarking on a project with a vendor of this experience.

When the sales rep casually mentioned his company was 100% Australian owned, you could feel the excitement beginning to build to a crescendo.

“We’ve won countless awards for our projects” he continued, sensing the audience were now eating out of the palm of his hand.

“Did I mention we’ve got very low employee attrition rates and are regarded as one of the best businesses for employee satisfaction in our industry?” he concluded, with an air of supreme confidence.

The spontaneous burst of applause took even the sales rep by surprise, as the CEO jumped out of her seat, hand extended and pen poised, ready to sign the waiting contract.

At least that was how it was mean’t to go…unfortunately even the best laid plans can sometimes go astray. What really happened went something like this:

• Sales rep puts up first logo slide – an audible groan emerges from the back of the room and what sounds like the word ‘Bingo’. This group have spent the past week sitting through PowerPoint presentations and have seen the same logo’s represented again and again across all three sets of vendor slides.
•  Sales rep puts up second logo slide – CEO looks at her watch, gives a disapproving stare to her key project sponsor, whose job it was to properly brief the vendors and makes a quick note on her iPad.
•  Sales rep explains his company is 100% Australian owned – The entire room collectively asks themselves “So what?”
•  In quick succession, the Sales rep highlights the awards, low attrition rate and high employee satisfaction which his company enjoys – By this stage half the room have zoned out completely and the other half are feeling bad for the rep, as they watch their CEO getting more and more irate.

For those sales professional who conduct dry-runs before an important customer presentation (and I hope that’s most sales professionals) you could do a lot worse than taking 3 or 4 pieces of cardboard and a marker pen and writing the following:

During your presentation dry-run, ask your colleagues to play the role of the customer. Every time you make a statement, particularly one which relates to your business or your solution, anyone in the room should be encouraged to hold up their ‘So What’ card, if they fail to see how your statement is relevant to them as a customer. Let’s look at a couple of quick examples:

• We’ve got lots and lots of customers, look at all their logos on the slide behind me

So what?

 “I’d like to highlight 3 specific customers from this slide to talk about, due to the similarity in the business pains they were experiencing and the fact that these might represent good customers for you to speak, when we move into the reference phase of your review process”

• We’ve won lots of awards for our projects over the years

So what?

 “We’re incredibly proud of the industry awards that we have received over the years, because we have won them in conjunction with our customers and they recognise the commitment of teams in delivering an exceptional project outcome. I sincerely hope the project we’re about to embark on might be nominated for an industry award also”

• We have a very low employee attrition rate in our business

So what?

 “Our employee attrition rate is well below industry standards. What that means for our customers is far greater continuity in terms of the resources working with you to deliver on your project outcomes. It also means that we have built deep domain and industry expertise in our business, which we leverage to deliver an even better outcome for our customers.”

Remember, as a prospective customer of yours:

• It’s not my job to care, it’s your job to make me care.
• It’s not my job to search for the relevance, it’s your job to highlight the relevance.
• It’s not my job to make the link, you need to ensure you create the link for me.

Add this 1 simple step into the way you prepare for presentations and it will transform the way your audience connects with your message. Oh and if you do try it, please send me a picture of your ‘So What’ sign for my collection!

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