Do you really know what your prospects are looking for? Do you know why they’re looking in the first place?
Were you told by your development group or marketing department why your prospects buy products and services like the ones you sell?
Dismiss it! Buyer’s needs come from, well, buyers and no one else.
Without insight into a buyer’s real needs, you’re at a significant disadvantage. Buyers know what they want before they talk with you. Market research indicates that most buyers are at least 70% through their buying cycle by the time they speak with a vendor. It isn’t so much about features and benefits any longer—it’s about value. The buyer wants to know they’ll get the value in return for what they spend.
Remember that sales training you sprang for? Did it increase your sales? Did you get the long-term payback you expected? The answer is likely no. The problem here is the need for continuous reinforcement of sales basics and the lack of sales tools. Buyers today are far more sophisticated than buyers of the past. They do research and create committees to analyze needs from all departments within the organization. And, don’t forget there is this invention called Google to make research more accessible.
However, there is something you can do to offset this lack of buyer understanding. Conduct a Value Inventory Workshop. (Or better yet, have us do it!) A Value Inventory Workshop is just what it sounds like. It’s the creation of an inventory of the values your products and services bring to your customers.
The workshop is a two-part exercise beginning with a persona. You establish a persona that owns a budget. Once you have chosen that persona, answer the simple question of why buy? Once you’ve collected all the possible reasons someone would buy from you, return to the top and determine the Business Issue. We do this by reading the “Why Buy” statement and adding the word “because.” Add an adjective and unit of measure, and you’ve just identified your Business Issue! Next, it’s essential to determine the buyer’s Desired Outcome. Desired Outcome is simply a metric that identifies the reason to buy and can be measured.
