CONNECTING VALUE SHEET
Customer Goals
Benefits of Achieving Goals (Time or Money)
Systems of Evaluation
Products
Specifics of Features and Benefits (features are in italics)
Value Type and Focus (Internal, External, or Both)
Unique Strength/Feature Value Rating
Reduce downtime
Prevent production stoppages from 18 hours annually to 9, which generate savings of $360,000 annually
Hours of downtime
Predicto Services
Variance Alerts prevent unscheduled breakdowns
Perceived value. Both; it ensures uninterrupted shipments to their customers (E) and saves them money from lost production (I).
Yes/ 5
Tolerance Checks prevents unscheduled breakdowns
Same as above
Yes/ 5
Conditional Commitment: Reduce the costs of $40,000 per downtime hour (SOE) to no more than nine hours annually (goal), save $360,000 (measurable benefit), begin in November and finish by December (start and completion dates), not exceed $1,080,000 budget (funding), get at least a three-year payback (SOE).
Exhibit 7-2: Connecting value sheet.
Step Three: Oops!
Be ready to explain any misses. These occur when your products do not fulfill all the requirements of the conditional commitments. Misses also occur when goals with measurable benefits have no features connected to them. You offset any misses with additional benefits customers did not consider. Steven Smartsell has no misses, but Chapter 8 provides several examples of the skills and strategies used to compensate for misses.
Are Your Proposed Solutions Pushed or Pulled Through?
Do not be more motivated than your customers are to achieve their goals. Therefore, before you continue with the second half of MP 3, conduct one last reality check. Verify that your proposals are pulled through by the customers and not pushed through by you. If you obtained the first two MPCs (Interest Confirmed and Potential Confirmed), they should feel pulled through.
However, sometimes in your zealousness to help customers, it is difficult to identify the category in which your proposals fall. Make that determination by taking the following “Does Your Proposal Pass the Pulled-Through Test?” in Exhibit 7-3. No boxes should be marked off in the left pushed-through column, while all the boxes should be checked in the right pulled-through column.
DOES YOUR PROPOSAL PASS THE PULLED-THROUGH TEST?
“Pushed-Through” (Salesperson-Generated)
“Pulled-Through” (Customers-Generated/MeasureMax)
q
Goals, systems of evaluations, and filters are not measurable or specific
ý
Goals, systems of evaluations, and filters are measurable or specific
q
No verifications of MPCs
ý
Verifications of Measurable Phase Changes
q
No conditional commitment or attainment measurement exists
ý
Conditional commitment or attainment measurements exists
q
Uncertainty over what prompted the proposal
ý
Proposal generated at customers’ request using well-defined goals
q
Proposal contains limited customer input
ý
Proposal uses customer’s input to fill out Q sheet
q
MPs not conducted in proper sequence
ý
MPs conducted in proper sequence
q
Salesperson avoids or supplies own numbers for cost justification
ý
Customer supplies the means for direct or indirect cost justification
q
Proposal considered as a means to flush out concerns or undisclosed goals and filters
ý
Proposal used to formalize agreed-upon MPCs
q
Clarification calls to customers before making presentations are nonexistent
ý
Numerous clarification calls, and customers understand the reasons for them.
q
Unclear time frame for starting
ý
Well-defined time frame for starting
q
Uncertainty over chances of success
ý
Proposal status is well known
q
Proposal focuses on numerous product features without connecting to specific customers’ goals and measurable benefits
ý
⌧ Proposal focuses on customers’ agreed-upon goals and measurable benefits, and demonstrates connections between them and products’ features
Exhibit 7-3: Pushed-through vs. pulled-through test.
Classify your proposal’s status before you present it. If it is pushed through, revisit MP 1 and MP 2 as the checklist indicates. If pulled through, continue on to the rest of MP 3 and MP 4. This checklist helps you to avoid the disappointment of working up proposals doomed to “maybe next year” or lost for unclear or unstated reasons. Another sure-fire way exists to determine the status of your proposals. See how much of a Q sheet you filled out.
Note If you are dealing with a customer that you have not done business with before, the larger the dollar amount of the proposal, the more risk the customer feels he or she is taking. Measurable goals, performance guarantees, and documented success will help the customer to feel less at risk. However, sometimes it’s better to eat an elephant one chunk at a time. If need be, divide your proposal into smaller scopes of project and dollar amounts. Make sure the customer understands the projects are cascaded with no significant redundant costs (such as administrative, labor, and set-up charges).
Sign a memorandum of understanding with a time line on when each smaller project will be completed. This fragment strategy also works when there are budgetary constraints. The customer can spread out costs to encompass more than one fiscal year. Caution: Do not use a fragment strategy if your unbreakable package as a whole provides you with unique strengths to sell compensated value and create competitive barriers.
Note Boilerplate proposals often use a product-oriented format that leaves it up to customers to determine which features apply—and their value. They are always risky. Only highlight features that connect to measurable goals and create maximum value. The customers know they are only paying for what they need to achieve their stated goals.
At the Meeting MP 3 Steps
The big moment is here. You are ready to decommoditize your selected solutions by showing how, feature by feature, they achieve the measurable benefits of the customer’s goals. (See Exhibit 7-4.) The final three MP 3 steps are as follows.
Exhibit 7-4: MP 3— Cement Solution (at presentation).
Step Four: Purpose and Summary
You are in front of the customers again—and eager to make great product presentations. You are sitting on G waiting for O, just rearing to GO! Leading with open-ended dialogue questions, you are ready to shift to business mode when customers indicate it is time. You still do not ask about the sailboat pictures on the wall. The customers let you know they are eager to see what you came up with. Go (slowly)!
Confirm the purpose of your meeting. Let customers know you are going to explain how the products you selected achieve their goals within their purchasing requirements. Do a summary of their goals, measurable benefits, and conditional commitments.
Wait for them to confirm your details as accurate. Before you proceed, make sure you built your proposals on valid information. If any goal, measurable benefit, filter, or system of evaluation has changed, qualify your proposal against these new requirements before beginning the next step. If you find any new misses, understand whether they prevent either you or customers from achieving their goals before you proceed.
Note Do not mention any products by trade name. You want to focus on the customers’ goals. Trade names surface during the next step, Connect the Dots.
Step Five: Connect the Dots
This step makes or breaks the sales. Either you explain how the features of your products achieve customers’ measurable benefits and conditional commitments—or you do not. When you are explaining highly technical features, verify that customers agree it produces benefits by asking, “Have I explained that so it makes sense?” Take responsibility for customers’ comprehension.
Explaining is one of those sales skills you usually take for granted. Most salespeople consider explaining a reflection of their technical expertise and product knowledge. They also like the fact that it is more of a monologue than a dialogue. Customers find it hard to interrupt them as salespeople tick off their features and benefits. Sometimes, product monologues tick off customers who think they are on the receiving end of a technical feature dump.
Yet, explaining is about thinking like customers. Your explanations will be well received if customers accept that at the feature level, your products fulfill their conditional commitments.
How You Connect the Dots
Features of your products and the goals of customers both have benefits. Knowing this tidbit makes connecting them easier to understand and accomplish. Otherwise, you end up pointing out product benefits in the mistaken belief that you are highlighting the benefits of customer goals. It becomes especially difficult to connect features to benefits with perceived value because they can mean anything. Your products create the most value when you can connect their features and benefits to the measurable benefits of a customer’s goals. Look to make sure the benefit has a “by” in it, followed by the dollar amount, to ensure that it is measurable. By equals “buy,” which means compensated value.
Example
Rich Darling sells protective enclosures for electronic components. Jane Austin runs the assembly plant that inserts electronic parts into different types of enclosures for various manufacturers such as computers, telephones, or stereo equipment. Jane’s goal is to reduce the number of products damaged in transit by $50,000.
In his MP 3 presentation, Rich does what most product-focused salespeople do: He talks about the benefits of his enclosures thinking he is talking about the benefits of Jane’s goals. For instance, he explains how one of the features of his enclosures is shatter-resistant plastic that protects the electronic parts better (benefit of feature). Sounds like a good feature and benefit. However, there is one slight problem.