Issue #78

The Value of Understanding Value

I’m talking about value based selling this week and a story actually put together from a couple of real instances when I worked for the largest supply chain company in the world.

​Click here for another story that uses the same framework, this time for a much more personal and pressing usage, that I published on LinkedIn last week.

James slumped into the chair across from me, rubbing his face.

“I don’t get it,” he said. “They love the solution. They’ve said it’s better than anything they had sketched out. But it’s been stuck in ‘review’ for three months.”

“What’s stopping them?” I asked.

He sighed. “Bureaucracy, probably. Or maybe they’re just dragging their feet.”

(Editor’s note here: If you don’t know the real answer to this question then you really need to find out - guessing is not acceptable.)

“No,” I said. “If a deal stalls, there’s always a reason. Let’s break it down.”

I grabbed a napkin and wrote:

A - Advantages of working with you

B - Benefits of doing nothing

C - Cost of switching

D - Danger of doing nothing

“If A minus B is greater than C minus D, they buy,” I said. “If not, they don’t.”

James frowned. “Okay… but how do I figure that out?”

We went through it. I have given a high level view of the actual detail we went into. This session can get into the real nitty gritty of the offer you are making.

It also needs to reflect all of the key stakeholders in the account, but I will cover that in a future post, as it gets into personality types.

Here is what we wrote:

A (Advantages of working with us)

- Faster, more accurate reporting.

- Reduced manual work, saves them 200+ hours a week.

- Better compliance, no audit headaches.

B (Benefits of staying the same)

- No disruption.

- No training needed.

- No risk of a failed implementation.

C (Cost of switching)

- Price of our solution.

- Internal effort to roll it out.

- Time to train their team.

D (Danger of doing nothing)

- They keep bleeding time on manual work.

- Compliance risks increase.

- Competitors with more efficient ops are pulling ahead.

James stared at the list. “So basically, their fear of change is bigger than their fear of standing still.”

“Exactly, once you factor in costs,” I said. “Right now, B and C feel stronger than A and D. Your job is to flip that.”

“How?”

“Make the risk of doing nothing feel real.

Tell stories with numbers, maybe numbers they don't even monitor right now.

Show them what happens if they wait another year, in real money.”

James went back to his prospect and reframed the conversation. Instead of pitching features, he made them see the cost of inaction.

Two weeks later, the deal went to the board and it closed a month later.

Sales isn’t about pressure, it’s about perspective.

If your deals are stalling, don’t push harder. Rethink the equation.

If you are ready to take a step up in your sales career I can help - you can get my foundations course here or drop me a line to discuss a personal or team approach.