Webinar: why salespeople cannot rely on generic value propositions

According to marketers, every company needs a clear and consistent “value proposition” for every significant offering – and that may be enough when it comes to simple transactional purchases.

But when it comes to high-value, complex B2B buying decisions (often lengthy and involving multiple stakeholders) trotting out the same generic value proposition to every prospect is not enough.

In these environments, whilst a strong generic value proposition might get you considered, every customer needs and deserves a specific and uniquely customised value proposition if we are to maximise our chances of winning their business.

I addressed this topic in a well-received recent webinar with the Institute of Sales Professionals (https://the-isp.org).

You can watch the full webinar below – and I’ll summarise the key conclusions (and offer my recommendations) in the rest of this article.

4 Key Questions

The “Fear of Messing Up” factor [FOMU] tells us that - when faced with a significant buying decision - we can expect every prospect to be seeking credible answers to 4 key questions before they can be confident that they are making the right decision:

1. WHY do they need to ACT (rather than continuing on their current path)?
2. WHY do they need to act NOW (rather than later)?
3. WHY should they choose US (rather than any other option)?
4. WHY should they TRUST us (to ensure they achieve their intended outcomes)?

Until and unless the answers to all 4 questions are satisfactory, they are likely to hold back from making any commitment, and as time goes on, it becomes increasingly likely that the buying journey will end in a decision to “do nothing”.

It should be obvious that simply repeating or repackaging an unmodified universal value proposition is not going to convince any prospect of the need to act. If we are to maximise our chances of winning, we need to address all 4 questions, even if we have not been asked them directly.

WHY ACT?

This is the first and perhaps the most fundamental question: until and unless there is a compelling reason to act, our prospect is likely to decide to stick with the status quo. If we are to persuade them of the need for actions, we need to establish a clear contrast between their current situation and the painful consequences of staying on their current path and their intended business outcomes and the positive benefits of achieving them.

This contrast between their current situation and their intended outcome is known as the outcome gap. When the gap is perceived by the prospect to be small, they are less motivated to act – but when the outcome gap is perceived to be large or growing, the prospect is far more likely to act. Our role as salespeople is to maximise this gap.

WHY NOW?

But even if our prospect believes they need to act, there is no guarantee that they will see the need to act now, rather than later. In my experience, there are three foundations of urgency:

• There needs to be a strong and convincing business case – which we need to help our prospect establish
• There needs to be a clear connection between this project and our prospect’s key corporate priorities and initiatives
• The cost of delay needs to be significant – the prospect must believe that the longer things continue as they are, the worse they will get

In the absence of clear urgency, any hoped-for close date will probably slip – potentially indefinitely.

WHY US?

This is perhaps the most obvious question from the average salesperson’s perspective, and the one they tend to concentrate the most on, most typically by claiming that they have the “best” solution. But every other salesperson is likely to be claiming the same thing.

Firstly, we need to understand what the prospect sees as their credible alternative options (not just our obvious close competitors). Next, we need to influence our prospect’s most important required capabilities – if we fail to do so, we end up competing on the same playing field as everyone else. Then, we need to explain how and why our approach is different – and finally we need to convince our prospect that this will lead to better business outcomes.

The message needs to revolve around our prospect’s better outcomes – not our “better” solutions.

WHY TRUST?

If our prospect is venturing into unfamiliar territory – maybe this is the first time they have tried to do business with us, or maybe they are engaged in an unfamiliar buying decision journey – then this last question is often the most important. Failing to answer it can kill the opportunity stone dead.

Our prospect’s Fear of Messing Up (FOMU) is closely related to confidence and trust. If they are typical buyers, they will be able to recall disappointments – maybe many of them – where previous buying decisions did not turn out as well as they had hoped. Some might have been disasters.

There are three key ways of establishing trust: First, we need to provide the (preferably independent) evidence to build their confidence in the business outcomes they can expect to achieve. Next, we need to make sure that every important sponsor believes their reputation will be enhanced through their association with the project. Finally, we need to do everything we can to minimize any remaining perception of decision risk – perhaps by enabling them to start small and grow.

BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER

If we have done our job effectively, these themes will come together in the all-important executive summary of our proposal. Rather than – as so many proposals do – focusing on simply answering “why us”, our proposal will make a compelling case for change, establish genuine urgency, differentiate our approach, and give them the confidence to proceed.

There’s much more detail in the webinar – and I’ve created a template for Outcome-Centric Selling clients (you can download a non-editable version here). Please book a call if you’d like to learn more.