Last weekend, I saw Brent Adamson, co-creator of The Challenger Sale, deliver a keynote. He did something that resonated with me and will hopefully do the same for you.
On a large stage, he stopped mid-sentence and simply walked off-stage. Now, before I tell you the rest of the story, why do YOU think he did that?
After a minute, he returned and asked the audience what I had just asked you. Of course, there were many possible responses. He felt ill. His wife called with an emergency. He had to pee. What reason did you come up with?
The point though, was that when we don’t know, we fill in the gap with a story, a belief. He brilliantly applied this to selling, but let’s apply it to value.
If a buyer doesn’t know your product’s true and complete value, what does he do? He makes shtuff up. He creates a story in his mind. This story is likely not true, and, odds are, it is not in your favor.
What does this mean to you? It means you must effectively tell the story of the value you deliver.
How do you do that? I strongly recommend you outline ALL of the significant ways your customers get value from your product. (In my bootcamps and classes we use my Value Table Framework to do that.)
Then, make sure salespeople know this list. Their objective should be to help buyers understand there is much more value than you are asking for in price. After all, Buyers trade money for value. You need to show them the value.
But it’s not just the salespeople who need to know this list. Marketing needs to tell your value story in every piece of content and every touchpoint.
The customer relationship team should know this list inside and out to ensure that they are helping customers realize and even calculate that value in their interactions.
The product and development teams should use this list to prioritize their efforts.
In fact, every single part of the company should know this list and reflect on how their work helps ensure and highlight this value. It’s a powerful tool, and you should be using it right now.
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Now, go make an impact!
