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Worth Intent Will Fill Your Funnel

https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/?i=z4pp6-103d617-pb&from=embed&share=1&download=1

In my last post: The Oscar for Best B2B Sales Methodology goes to Value Based Sales I shared why a Value Based Sales method is by far the best B2B sales method. Over the last 34 years of solving sales problems I have observed sales teams using a variety of sales methods. In this post I will share how one team I served leveraged value based sales into sweet sales and profits and created a lifetime customer.

If value based sales produces more profitable sales faster why do so few salespeople use this sales method?

From what I have observed in the field on four legged sales calls coaching my sales teams the average B2B salesperson is much more comfortable discussing their products features and benefits than the customers’ market and business issues.

However when you ask buyers what they value and how salespeople can become more important they want B2B sales representatives discussing and sharing solutions that are relevant to their business.

According to SBI, on average 87% of the revenues in complex B2B sales environments are being generated by just 13% of the sales population.

Value based pricing adds value in B2B sales.

As Value Based sales thought leader Bob Apollo shares:

“This terrible mismatch has profound consequences. There’s abundant evidence to suggest that one of the most significant differences lies in their ability to systematically create unique value to their customers through the disciplined application of value-based selling techniques across their entire sales and marketing organization. And the results can be seen in top line revenue growth that far exceeds market averages.”

In 2000 I was asked to help a company Innis Maggiore. Back then they were called an advertising and marketing company. They had been my vendor partner for years. Today they have evolved into one of the top strategic positioning firms in North America. They wanted my help landing large accounts with the focus on creating lifetime customers.

The trouble is all large accounts have marketing departments who own strategy and already have relationships with advertising firms. What most business development salespeople do is try to wear down the buyers with features and benefits of their services, all the awards they have received and so on.

Our team created a list of large accounts that matched our ideal customer profile and one of those accounts was Harry London’s Chocolates just 4 miles from our corporate offices. Harry London’s Chocolates are a premium chocolate supplier and we wanted to serve their team because everything they did demonstrated a value for quality and providing their customers a strong buying experience.

We tried sending brochures and examples of our work. We called their marketing department with a regular cadence  and dropped of creative demential mailers…nothing. We heard “ we are happy with what we have, and if we ever need your help we will call you.” (They even say no thanks in a quality way…we have to work with this company.)

What if we took a Value Based Sales approach?

We did market research into possible new markets for Harry London’s. Our firm had experience serving the floral industry for many years and about 30% of a florist’s revenue are non-flower product like vases, candles and even …chocolates. (Interesting)

We did more research and used our relationships in the floral industry and found:

Number of florists: about 33,000 retailers

Revenue of industry: $7 Billion

Approximately 30% of revenue not flowers: $2 Billion

Estimate of possible Chocolate sales: $750 Million

If we won just 10% of market share: $75 million in incremental sales

Estimated Gross Profit impact to Harry London: $25 Millio

We interviewed three local florists on tape and asked them about their business, their challenges and how they increase sales and profits. Each business owner mentioned adding non-floral  products to their services. We asked about chocolates and they all admitted they use chocolates as an added value offering to bouquets. (Back then the interviews where on VHS tapes and the cameras were so big we looked like a news crew). We asked what brand of chocolates they were using? None could share the brand. (sounds like an opportunity for a leader in quality chocolates to position themselves) We asked if they ever heard of Harry London’s chocolates and what that brand meant. They all shared yeas, and their perception was it was one of the top quality chocolate manufacturers, We asked if they thought using a premium brand chocolate supplier like Harry London’s would give them the opportunity to increase their selling price and increase their gross profits because their consumers would value this brand and each agreed it would.

I reached out to the CEO of Harry London’s chocolates.

First he received an amazing custom floral bouquet with his chocolates in the arrangements with a short note: “we found a sweet new profit opportunity for your company, I will be calling you this afternoon to discuss it. Mark Allen Roberts , Innis Maggiore”

That afternoon I called the CEO and my call went through to him. I asked for 20 minutes latter that week to share a new market opportunity, and I asked if we could have a TV and VHS player in the room and he agreed, …but just 20 minutes.

We started the meeting exactly on time and shared the size of the market opportunity and our estimates and some of his senior leaders baulked at our hypothesis. I remember sharing : “tell you what, lets say we are wrong, lets say we are off by as much as 20%…that would still be a huge amount of incremental revenue wouldn’t it?”

“Nothing speaks louder than the voice of customers”

• Mark Allen Roberts

About 10 minutes had passed and we could tell they were interested but skeptical.

You know that look like …if this was a good idea we would already be doing it …look?

We put in the VHS tape the player and you could have heard a pin drop.

The senior leaders were listening and watching florists share how they would value buying their high quality premium chocolates.

I looked at my watch, about 18 minutes had passed so I took out the tape when it was over, closed my portfolio and said: “we promised to only take 20 minutes, thank you for your time, and we would appreciate the opportunity to help your team add $20-$25 million in incremental profits in the floral market, a market our firm has served for over 20 years…” and I started to get up from the conference table.

Their CEO said: “where are you going?…please sit down lets discuss this more and tell me more about your company.”

After following up and some negotiating we won their business back in 2000 and even after they were acquired years later , Innis Maggiore still has their business in 2018. Why? Because when all the other ad firms (and there are many of them) came in talking about their company and all their awards and cutting their hourly rates, we came in and gave Harry London’s Chocolates a new business opportunity that would increase sales and ultimately add net income to their bottom line.

That was a Value Based Sales Approach.

Lets break it down to its key components:

• Determine your companies value drivers, how you create value for your customers’ businesses
• What possible new customers match your ideal customer profile
• Research the company
• Research their leaders
• Take time to understand their value proposition, brand and positioning
• Take time to understand the business of your customers’ business
• Know your customers’ markets
• Create a challenge, a hypothesis, a way to create value for them
• Present the hypothesis in the language of business
• Build trust in every aspect of communication
• Follow up
• Negotiate after you establish value
• Close with clear next steps
• Follow up and verify the value created
• Ask for another opportunity to create value

How do your salespeople sell today?

Why do you win sales?

Why do you lose sales?

Does your team use a value-based model?

Why wouldn’t a value-based sales model work for your salespeople?

That CEO is now the CEO of a custom candle company. Maybe my old team at Innis Maggiore needs to send another custom floral bouquet with a candle made from bees wax?

Like I shared in posts about the value of doing voice of the customer work in a number of posts sharing examples, I will share other value based sales examples in the next few posts so stay tuned.

Do This One Thing to Increase Sales Revenue and Profits

If you could only do one thing to improve your sales revenue and profits, what would it be?

In this post I will share how capturing and leveraging the current voice of your customers is that “one thing.”

When your team understands your customers – how they buy and what they need to buy today – you will experience the following:

• Increased sales
• Increased profits
• Increased market share
• Improved sales close rate percentages
• (Oh, and much better board meetings!)

Why do most sales plans fail? The most common reason I have experienced is a dated value proposition. What worked years ago are not working now due to some change or shift.

Think about all the changes businesses have gone through in the last 12 months.

When was the last time you captured the voice of your customers?

As the authors of the book The One Thing share, we achieve more when we go small. Each of us can make a long laundry list of things we could do, but that dilutes focus.

The most powerful thing sales leaders can do are equipping sales teams with a repeatable sales process, sales training, and sales tools to hit their numbers based on how buyers buy today.

• What do you need to know?
• Why do customers buy from you today?
• Why don’t customers buy from you today?
• What is your buyer’s buying process today?
• What buying criteria must your buyers have today?

Emphasis is placed on the word “today.”

Many of the teams I have served have been in business 10-20-80+ years.

We serve dynamic markets that are always shifting and we need to adjust to those shifts or realize stalled or declining sales. How do we capture current customer voice and market truth?

We contact our top 100-200 or even 400 customers and we conduct one on one interviews.

We ask open-ended questions to gain actionable insights.

We listen for what customers are promoters, neutral and detractors who are unhappy and preparing to leave.

The time to save a detractor is before they leave and this data equips your sales team to do so.

It can’t be that simple (I hear some of you saying). 

Yep, it is…

What are some questions I have found produce good feedback?

1. If you were the president of our company, what would you have us do to win a larger percentage of your purchases?
2. What do our competitors do very well? How important is that to you?
3. Is there anything we are doing now you wish we would quit doing?
4. Have you experienced any changes in the past 6-12 months that have changed how you make buying decisions?
5. When you search for products or services, where do you look?

I still feel some doubters out there. Below are some companies I have helped leverage the voice of their customers and the results they experienced:

• A plastics company that made mechanical security devices grew more than $38 million in 18 months.
• An adaptive automotive vehicle manufacturer realized a $50 million sales increase over six years and realized a 6 percent increase in gross profits.
• A custom metals fabricator grew sales 160% in 8 months
• A custom tube and pipe builder added over 200 new customers
• A machine shop strategically leveraged the voice of their customers and sales grew 156% in 6 months

I hope I have convinced you there is a power in understanding your buyers today.

In today’s competitive markets you must

1. Understand the current voice of your customers and markets.
2. Develop a repeatable sales process that mirrors how your buyers buy today.
3. Create sales tools that proactively provide answers to the criteria buyers must have to buy today. 

Understanding your customers today is that powerful “one thing” that will position your team for profitable future success.

If you would like to capture the voice of your customers today and gain actionable insights please reach out and we will schedule a call. In most cases we can get the answers you seek to develop a buyer centric sales and marketing strategy in 30 days.

Want to learn more here is a link to my ebook https://otbsalessolutions.com/voc/

Pat, maybe use cover of my eBook as the graphic?

Your business has successfully grown year over year for (you fill in the blank) years.

Your customer base has grown and over time you and your team developed systems and processes and procedures to give your customers the best buying experience and a healthy bottom-line for your shareholders. .

You wanted to invest more in digital marketing, improving your website, sales skills training and targeting new markets …but you were busy.

We can argue what month Covid-19 impacted most businesses and for the sake of keeping our conversations flowing lets just agree the impact of Covid-19 was felt by many businesses in March and April of 2020.

What did we experience?

Think about all the changes and new processes and procedures.

How have your buyers adapted to the constraints of Covid-19?

Prior to 2020 approximately 45% of all sales occurred virtually not face-to-face. Fast forward to December of 2020 and 96% of sales occurred virtually.

Prior to Covid-19 as much as 76% of the buying process was over before buyers spoke with a salesperson.

On a call with the leadership team at a mid market manufacturer this week I was asked: How do we write a sales plan for 2021 in a time of so much change and uncertainty?

My advice? …Reboot your business!

If you were to launch your business today what would it look like?

Chances are you would use the same process someone used when they first launched your business.

1. Clearly understand your current market, buyers and how buyers make decisions
2. Look for urgent common unresolved market problems
3. Design products and solutions to solve your buyers problems
4. Create processes, systems, and procedures to help people with those problems find you
5. Create processes, systems, and procedures to help your team deliver the greatest return on customer experience
6. Constantly listen to your markets, buyers and targeted new buyers sensing any shifts in how they buy, the criteria they use to buy and adapt quickly
7. Measure what matters – you have identified what is important to your customers and the behaviors your team must execute to win business and meet your shareholder expectations

Do you need to reboot your business in 2021?

Maybe you are one of those blessed organizations that had record sales and profit year and your biggest challenges are how do we beat sales and profits in 2020?

The best research I have seen shared approximately 50% of business saw a sales decrease in 2020 of 4% to 35% while the other 50% of businesses realized sales similar or greater than the prior year.

If you want to reboot your business where do you start?

Data!

The first data sets we need to see is sales transaction data and strategically analyze that data. What customers realized sales increases, what markets are they in? What products had sales increases and what products declined? Who are the 20% of our customers that represented 150% to 200% of our net profits and who were the 20% of customers that were profit-leaking accounts?

Second we need to engage with our customers and accounts we want to be customers with voice of the customer research. How are your buyers buying today? Where do they turn for new solutions for current problems? What criteria must that have to make a buying decision? Of your current customers who are your raving fans, and what customers are you in jeopardy of losing if things don’t change?

Last we need to improve the skills of our salespeople. We must assess the overall sales effectiveness of our sales team, systems, and process and close any gaps we discover.

One you have the above data sets you have what your team needs to strategically reboot your business in 2021 and have a profitable year.

I have led a number of teams through this process over the past 36 years and if your team would like to explore rebooting your business for a profitable 2021 let’s schedule a call.