Value Starts at Discovery

"Value" in B2B software is a much-aligned word. It's like "love"...it means something different to everyone and especially to the seller and the buyer. That's a significant problem in sales. If you can't sell value and help your customer to make the case for change within their own organization, how can you expect a signature on a contract? Change is hard and making the case for change is absolutely required.

In fact, I've come up with my own acronym for the why change is so, so hard. I call it the CRUD.

C - The actual cost of change, which is typically more than a seller understands

R - The risk that the value justifying the software purchase won't be realized

U - The general unknown. There is plenty of it.

D - The disruption inherent in any software implementation or change out

The Case for Change

Knowing that the CRUD stands between a seller and a deal, the single greatest way to get over that hurdle is by laying out the value. By doing so, the seller creates the business case for change.

Way too often, the seller attempts to to fill in the value part far too late in the deal. In reality, the value conversation starts very early and continues to develop throughout the cycle.

Talking Value Early

Discovery is a mutual exercise of learning about the customer's needs while they learn about the use cases you deliver. Too often, a customer's needs turn into an immediate opportunity for a seller to talk about what a product can do. But a customer doesn't really need to hear a pitch every time they talk about their pain. The customer needs to be asked they "why" of their need--in that moment. In the "why" is the the business case for making a change. For example, if a customer says that they need call recording capabilities, a smart seller asks why they believe that. They follow that up with questions about how a lack of that capability impacts their work and business. Ultimately, asked of the right person, it becomes the first element of the case for change, the cost of the status quo.

Talking Value After Discovery

Once an opportunity is qualified, the value conversation changes to the other half of the case for change; the value derived from relieving the cost of the status quo. The case for change is the delta between the cost of doing nothing and the benefit of change. This delta is the real "value" and is the CRUD-buster. It is the only way to sell consistently.

Anchor the cost of the status quo during discovery and drive the upside value from the software purchase after qualification and you have the winning formula. Fail to anchor the cost of the status quo and take your chances. If you win without addressing value early, the customer likely sold the software to themselves.

The Winning Formula

Therefore, value that you can use to close is a simple math equation with some complexity in changing common seller behaviors:

Case for Change = (business benefit of change) - CRUD - (business cost of status quo)

This is the only definition of value that matters for selling success. It doesn't self- serve and it isn't ambiguous. It's the Case for Change.

Learn more about OneMove Advisory and our our Case 4 Change methodology.