Many technology gurus are taking advantage of the growing need for sales enablement software and developing highly specialized products and solutions that they really do deliver a ton of value to sales teams. Savo is a good example: http://www.savogroup.com/. That being said, these software companies struggle to communicate that value in a way that can be easily understood by the people making the buying decisions.
If you are struggling to get buyers excited about your sales technology product during the first call, here are a couple ways you can sharpen the knife, shorten your pitch, and make it compelling, memorable and value-added.
“So what do you do?” Your primary message
Lets face it, your prospect is wondering what you do. When they kick off a call with this question, you have one chance to make a memorable impression. Your goal in the next 10 seconds is to leave the prospect saying, “I need that.” To get your prospects to say, “I need that,” a few things need to happen:
- The prospect needs to know that you can help them.
- The prospect needs to relate to the problem that you solve.
- The prospect needs to value the outcome that you provide.
So, your answer to the question “what do you do?” should include:
- Who you help.
- What problem you solve.
- The outcome of your solution.
Nothing more nothing less. Don’t overcomplicate your value proposition.
“How can you do that?” Your primary message (continued)
If you successfully established value, your prospect will want to know how you are able to provide such a great outcome that solves his exact problem. Your explanation of “how you do it?” again, needs to be short, powerful and something that all decision makers can understand, not just your main point of contact, who can pick up on your more advanced terminology. Remember, no one is buying sales enablement software on their own without explaining the investment and getting buy-in from management.
Focus on the outcome and create another 10-second clip explaining (simply) how you deliver the outcome.
Anticipating pushbacks. Your secondary message
Primary messaging is simple because everyone in the buying process needs to understand it. Your secondary messaging, which dives deeper into the how of your sales software, will begin to address the common pushbacks of each of the stakeholders in the buying process. The easiest pushbacks to identify are the most common:
- “What experience do you have?” Give them examples of you delivering the outcome.
- “This won’t work for me.” Explain how it applies to their business.
- “We already do that.” Revisit your prospect’s problem. Are they really achieving the outcome they want that solves their problem?
A Real-World Example
I have recently teamed up with a sales enablement software company so I got to try my hand at communicating value to a C-level, non-technical stakeholder. I will use this as an example of nailing your primary messaging. Remember, the goal of your first impression with the prospect is to have them understand what you do and value it. All you need is a second meeting at this point.
So what do you do?
“We help sales teams who struggle to meet their revenue goals by providing them with a steady flow of their most targeted buyers, right when they start the purchasing process. This allows them to spend more time selling and less time prospecting.”
Well that sounds like a problem I have. It would be great if that were true. How can you do that?
“We listen to everything your target buyers and the companies they represent say online, waiting for something that indicates they might be ready to begin their buying process. As soon as we hear something, we bring it to you.”
There is no way you can do that for MY buyers! (The first pushback!)
“Let’s agree that your buyers are on the Internet. Their names, their job roles, the companies they work for—all of it is posted online or anyone to see, right? We have the technology to find exactly who you are looking for, and make a list of all their names, their email addresses, their company names, everything we need to verify they are exactly who we want to speak to.”
But then what? I can't be calling them all day. I only have a few sales guys and I can't call everyone. And, besides, it's almost never the right time. Our sales process takes forever. (Second pushback.)
“Your buyers post more than their personal information online. They are constantly talking. They’re updating their LinkedIn status with job changes and asking for help solving the very problems you have built a product and a service to solve. Or they post a question about the problem you solve in some nerdy backdoor forum no-one but them has heard of. It doesn’t matter where they are talking, our technology listens. The companies talk too. They announce when they hire someone new into a job role that would be responsible for purchasing a product or service like yours. We have the technology to listen to everything all of your target buyers are saying and doing and pinpoint the moment when a selling opportunity arises. Those are the opportunities we spoon-feed to your sales team with a wealth of information so they can do what they do best, sell. They don’t have to spend all of their time emailing and calling on tire kickers and time wasters.”
What do I do next?
Simplify your messaging. The fact that your buyers can’t easily relay to the value that you provide to other stakeholders is killing you! Anticipate their pushbacks and create some follow-up messaging that goes a little bit deeper into how you provide that value.
