Business Lessons from a Spork
The Spork, invented all the way back in the 1800's, though familiar to most of us still has only a marginal place in our society. Today it is really only found at fast-food establishments, prisons and military barracks.
So as I looked down the other day at what can only be described at the most beautiful spork I have ever seen. I wondered - why did the Spork never take off?
Unfortunately, while they be convenient, for many they fall short as both a spoon and a fork. This got me thinking about all the business I encounter these days pushing hard toward "all-in-one" solutions and struggling to get their customers to go on the journey with them. They wonder why the sales team or CSMs can's get the customers to 'appreciate the value'.
It is a good time to ask, is your platform strategy driven by genuine customer demand, or is it mainly internal? If it's the latter, how do you convince customers who just want a "fork" to embrace the whole "spork"? Or how do you convince a team to drop their trusted spoon and fork suppliers loved by many in the company without creating unnecessary disruption and friction. Just saying it is cheaper won't do the trick... There is a reason more than 50% of deals are ending up in No Decision these days.
Having worked with hundreds of companies to chart the product to solution path, here's some quick tips on how to avoid a spork-like flop:
1) Deeply understand your customer's problems. How does your combined offering truly solve them?
2) Craft compelling messages that link those problems to your unique value and align with their goals
3) Build a Customer Value Roadmap to guide their buying team through a practical business case and plan for success.
4) Equip your team with the skills and tools for higher value and more collaborative interactions that also allow you to qualify early for fit and readiness.
Remember, a successful "spork" needs to be more than just convenient to be adopted. Your customer needs to believe you can not only solve for an important problem better than the current solution but it is also worth the disruption to make the change.... and they can trust you to take them through to the end.
At Insight Revenue - this why we built our 'Insight to Value' methodology to help companies make this transition successfully. Happy to chat about our experience if you are charting down this path!
#salesstrategy #customervalue #productdevelopment #innovation
Chief Underwriting Officer at Private Client Select
2moJason, look forward to partnering with you in our new relationship.