Last week I introduced the Notice, Decide, Commit framework. The gap between Decide and Commit is where deals die. This week I want to talk about one reason that gap exists and one practical tool for closing it.
Most companies compete on relative value. You work hard to demonstrate that your solution is better than the alternatives. It has better features, better support, or better total cost of ownership. Your whole sales motion is built around winning that comparison.
And often you do win. The buying committee agrees your solution is the right one. They’ve decided. And then nothing happens. You won Decide, but you still have to win Commit.
Relative value answers the question “which one?” but commitment requires answering a different question: is it worth it at all?
Instead of comparing your solution to another, the buyer is now comparing your solution to the status quo. Does the payoff, cost, and risk of moving forward beats doing nothing? That’s inherent value.
A buyer can be completely convinced you are the best option and still conclude that the best option isn’t worth the trouble.
The practical tool for building inherent value is something I call a Value Table. It has four columns: the solution, the problem it solves, the result it produces, and what that result is worth. The result column is the one that matters most here. It forces you to name the specific KPIs that move: revenue per rep, cost per incident, days to close, defect rate, whatever is real and measurable for that buyer. When you can name the KPI and show how much it moves, the conversation shifts. The buyer is now thinking about how your solution will change their company. Ideally, they go on to quantify that change in incremental profit.
That math is what inherent value feels like. The buyer is no longer comparing you to a competitor. They’re comparing their future with your solution to their future without it. When that comparison is vivid and credible, commitment follows.
Most companies never get there because they spend all their energy on relative value. Battle cards, comparison matrices, and feature checklists are all useful. None of them answer the question a stalled buyer is actually sitting with: is the pain of staying put bigger than the pain of moving?
Next week I’ll talk about problem clarity, because helping a buyer understand their own problem more deeply is what makes the inherent value case believable in the first place.
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Now, go make an impact!
Tags: buyer, buyer commitment, relative value, sales, sales commitment, value, value comparison
