As our society battles inflation, economic uncertainty, and the seemingly inevitable downturn, buyers face stricter requirements for budget approval. While selling solution features may occasionally lead to a win, sellers that better articulate expected business value consistently improve their win rates (See how Databricks wins 6x more Value Selling). To be successful in today’s economy, your revenue team must align to help your buyers understand the value of your solutions and drive internal consensus around the business case. Why?
Building a business case in a downturn sets you apart from competitors that continue to sell features over value. In a 2022 survey, Gartner found the most valuable information in making a final purchase decision was content for business case development or value assessments. While marketing and sales content supports the buying process, it often focuses too much on features and functionality and not enough on expected outcomes from a solution. Many types of content play a role in the decision-making process, but the study proves buyers deem value assessments as the most critical content to making a FINAL decision.
Use value selling tools to help buyers make confident decisions
For many companies, value selling tools are homegrown (think spreadsheets), tough to manage, or nonexistent. Fortunately, several technologies now exist to enable revenue teams to build customized value selling tools to support the buyer journey from start to finish. In selecting the proper partner, you can have self-service options or use professional services to customize more complex tools.
As budgets tighten, revenue teams should prioritize investments in value selling tools for users in marketing, sales, and customer success organizations. Let’s explore how these roles can benefit from value selling tools.
The benefits of marketing tools
As a marketer who lived through the 2008 recession and various other cost-saving times, I can tell you from personal experience that marketing budgets are often the first to get cut and the last to return. Yet, no matter the economic state, marketing still needs to generate leads and build the sales pipeline — even more so when buyer budgets are tight and purchases are harder to justify.
Marketers can leverage value selling tools to give buyers an interactive, self-service, and value-based content experience. As buyers begin their journey, deliver interactive marketing tools on your website to help them learn, in real time, how your solutions will impact their business. Help them identify their specific challenges and assess the cost of those challenges to compel them to learn more, share contact information, and ultimately, become qualified leads.
As prospects become leads, marketers gather insights on what about your solution matters most to them and pass that information on to sellers in the form of a business case framework.
The benefits of sales tools
Regardless of the economy, sales reps are responsible for generating revenue. As buyer spending slows, the market becomes even more competitive. For sellers to achieve quota, they need tools to support value-based conversations.
Enable your sales team with value selling tools to uplevel each seller across the organization to have personalized, relevant, and value-driven conversations with prospects. When revenue teams use value selling tools, sales reps enter each conversation with insights on what matters most to the buyer. Delivering sales reps the metrics buyers care about means they can tailor a personalized, value-based conversation. And linking solution capabilities to the buyer’s desired outcomes gives your buyer the information they need to build a business case to drive internal consensus and make the purchase decision.
The benefits of post-sale tools
Customer success team responsibilities vary depending on the organization. However, they are all responsible for the success of their customers. Showcasing value post-sale is the quickest path to growth or stability in a downturn. Quantifying your value means low churn and more expansion opportunities.
Refocus your success team’s customer conversations, EBRs, and contract renewals on realized value and ROI with post-sale value selling tools. Build the tools from metrics agreed upon with the buyer during the sales process to establish alignment with your customers on what success means. Proving realized value or return on investment shows your existing customers that it is more cost-effective to do business with you than not and erases any cost-cutting concerns they may have regarding your products or services.
Drive adoption of your value selling tools for greater ROI
Keep in mind, using value selling tools to empower your revenue team and provide buyers with value-based content is only beneficial if your teams adopt the methodology and technology. Considering the enhanced importance of delivering value during economic uncertainty, you must choose an experienced vendor with easy administration, an intuitive user interface, and the experience to help drive organizational change. Building a value selling artillery should be a priority investment this year as it will immensely impact the success of your revenue teams during uncertainty and stable economic times.
Want to adopt a value selling approach? Download our All-Inclusive Guide to Value Selling in 2022 to get started now.
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