I’ll Need You to Throw This One in for Free

October 14, 2009

Have you seen this hilarious video of how B-to-B negotiations would play out in “real world” situations?

We’re almost so used to B-to-B purchasing demands that we forget how ridiculous they are.  This video gives us a chance to step back and laugh, but, it doesn’t change the reality of your customers’ buying habits.

What can you do?  Do these battles always have to occur?  According to The Corporate Executive Board’s Integrated Sales Executive Council, only 9% of brand preference and loyalty decisions are based on price.  Meanwhile, 53% of a prospect’s decision to choose you comes from their sales experience.

So you are saying I’ve got a chance

What these percentages mean is… in a world where everyone sounds and looks the same, your prospects and customers are saying:  “Would someone please cut through the clutter and present a clear path to value that will result if I partner with your company?”

Unfortunately, too many salespeople wallow in parity with their presentations and proposals, leaving customers with the perception that everyone is a commodity.  Freeing them up to bring the hammer of B-to-B purchasing down.

Avoid these ugly and ridiculous confrontations by preemptively showing the contrast between you and your prospect’s status quo, as well as you and your competition.

Value Lives in the Contrast between Pain and Gain

Here are three easy ways you can use contrast to show value:

1) Focus on what you do that’s unique: Don’t waste precious conversation time playing the “me too” game.  If you’re in a job interview, would you talk about how your resume is exactly the same as the guy who interviewed before you?  Of course not!  Your prospect already knows that your solution is on par with others in the industry… that’s why they agreed to talk with you in the first place.  Instead, identify some unmet or under-served customer pain and talk about what you do uniquely or better to turn that pain into gain.

2) Before and After Stories: When presenting references, don’t just show off the end results your customers realized using your solution. That’s only half the story.  You need to show contrast. What was your customer’s life before they implemented your solution and then after?  Showcasing the pain first provides the foundation for understanding what value your solution brings by helping the customer visualize their current situation and see it getting better.

3) Use colors and space to make emotional connections: Don’t stop with the content of your message. Make sure the way you deliver your uniqueness and value is engaging and memorable. Work the room… or the web conference.  Remember, value lies in the contrast between the pain and the gain, so make the contrast as apparent as possible. Use different flipcharts placed at opposite sides of the room, or split your PowerPoint slide in two, to show the pain and the gain.  And use different colored markers or different colored fonts. In Western cultures, use red for bad and green or black for good. (Adjust the colors based on what significance they carry in your culture.)

Don’t fall for the same old B-to-B buying tactics.  Establish your solution as the one your prospects need by leading with your uniqueness, clearly showing the contrast between you, the status quo, and your competition, and proving it with a before and after customer story that makes your value come alive.

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Posted by Corporate Visions Inc.

Making it Real: Using 3D Props to Help You Sell

March 17, 2009

A congressional hearing on tainted food might be the last place you’d expect to find powerful sales messaging.  But, when a congressman recently wanted to elevate the concern over unsafe food on supermarket shelves, he unleashed an emotionally potent presentation technique.

Check out this brief clip:

Your Brain Wants Concrete

A by-product of the information age is that many of the “solutions” being sold today are no longer physical objects. They have no shape, substance or concrete form that can be seen and touched.

Have you noticed that consumer software is sold in very elaborate packaging? It gives you, the buyer, the illusion that you are getting something substantial for your money. In reality, with the advancements in digital storage technology, you could easily sell the entire Microsoft Office Suite on a disposable chip the size of a postage stamp.

Why is it harder to sell intangibles? The answer goes beyond the logic of “getting something for your money.” The reason lies deep in the wiring of your brain.

Behavioral science has taught us that humans are more likely to be motivated to act or to change a behavior based on a stimulus that is concrete. Scientists describe “concrete” as something that can be experienced through one of your five senses (Touch, Taste, Smell, Hearing, or Sight).

Using a prop, a three dimensional physical object, when describing your solution is an effective technique to make your solution appear more “real.” The concept of unsafe food on supermarket shelves, while unsettling, is not as emotionally potent as a plastic jar full of potentially tainted products, and an accused executive having to take his chances by taking a bite.

Here’s One You Can Use

Let’s say that you have a solution that offers greater flexibility to your customers. How do you communicate an intangible concept such as flexibility?

golfTry this. Hold up a golf ball and say: “This golf ball represents your business. Golfers know there are three types of clubs that are used to drive this ball forward. If you want power to drive great distance you use a driver.  If you want a combination of power and accuracy you will use an iron. Lastly, if you want even greater accuracy and finesse you use a wedge or putter.”

Then say: “What’s unique about the solution you are seeing today is that it gives you the flexibility to have everything you need in your bag to ensure you move your company forward the best way possible.”

By using the golf ball as a prop, you take an abstract, sometimes overused concept and make it real and more meaningful to your buyer.

In your next face-to-face customer interaction, bring a prop into the message.

  • Make sure it is relative to the needs of your prospect
  • Make sure it supports your message rather than steals the show
  • Keep the story around the prop very concise and to the point
  • Bring the prop onto the scene and then take it off. Don’t continue to hold it once your point is made.

Using this simple messaging technique, you can make whatever you sell seem more real. Plus, you have just made it easier for your prospect to buy.

Have a good example of how you used a prop in a presentation?  Email us your story with My Prop Example in the subject and enter to win a wireless PowerPoint remote.

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Posted by Corporate Visions Inc.

Lost in Translation

January 15, 2009

Whether you’ve traveled abroad or not, you can certainly appreciate the humor in this clip. Watch this funny TV spot:

It’s safe to assume that all of us have experienced the wish for conversation intervention. That’s when you were desperately hoping someone would intervene in a conversation because you didn’t understand what was being said. 

Well, how about your customers? What language are you speaking to them? Are you making it easy for them to get your message? Are you making it easy for them to understand? Or, are you expecting them to do the translation?

One of the big challenges of selling (especially in the business-to-business space) is that you rarely sell to just one person. The more complex your product, the greater number of buyer types you have to interact with, and accordingly, so does the number of languages you have to speak.

Once, while traveling through Luxor, Egypt, I visited the local Souk, or marketplace. It wasn’t long before I had a bunch of kids swarming around me, trying to barter off their wares. It was fascinating how shrewd these young kids were. 

First they spoke in French. When I didn’t bite, they tried Italian. Getting nothing there, they tried German. Still nothing.  “Strike three, you’re out,” right?  Finally, they spoke in English. 

“English, English, English! We love English!” They yelled loudly and now every other little kid in the area knew that when they came up to peddle their goods, they had to speak English.  

They were brilliant!  Even at this very tender age they’d identified one of the basics of sales and communication. If you want to make a sale, you need to figure out the language the customer speaks. 

I bet you know your product specs, features and capabilities inside-out, but how adept are you at changing up your message to match the buyer type you’re meeting with?

You get relegated to who you talk like.

How often have you found an executive who wants to spend time talking about product features and specs – the ISes of your solution?  It’s incredibly rare. Even if they want to, they often have so much going on that they simply don’t have time.

Instead, they only need to know the high level message – the MEANs of your solution. What value are you going to bring to their business? How are you going to make them more efficient? More competitive? More profitable? How are you going to help them solve the critical issues they’re challenged with, and either put them back on the road to success, or help them achieve greater success? 

Put your story in the customers context. The conversation is differs depending on who youre talking to.

Put your story in the customer's context. The conversation differs depending on who you're talking to.

On the other end of the spectrum, your key influencers are probably the technical buyers. Unlike the executives, these guys are interested in getting their hands dirty. They do want to spend time on the nuts and bolts of your technology and product. And boy, is that a completely different language and experience than the executive conversation.

But you’re still selling the same solution or product. How different can that conversation be? And on top of that, you’re not sure if they’ll buy, and changing the message every time is time consuming and hard work! Isn’t it better to talk to more prospects, instead? They know what they’re looking for. Why not simply share the exact same message with everyone, saving time and letting them do their own translation?

Because this is your big chance to be different and stand out from the crowd. Imagine if only one of those children I met on the streets of Egypt identified me as an English speaker and began explaining his wares in a way I could understand. Meanwhile, the rest of the children continued to babble on in foreign languages, only confusing me further. This would be an easy purchase decision. I’d choose the one that helps me understand. (I’d probably even pay extra for some additional guidance and advice on how to get around town.)

It’s the same in your customer conversations. Are you clearly aligning your story with the customer’s context and what they care about? Or are you carrying on in your native tongue?

— by Mike Miller,
Consultant, Corporate Visions Inc.

Check out our new The Power of Story webinar to learn more, and stay tuned next month for Part Two from Mike Miller!

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Posted by Corporate Visions Inc.