Sales ROI 101: Can your sales team communicate real value?

July 13, 4:43 PMB2B Marketing ExaminerCamberley Bates

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How does your sales team communicate value? ROI, TCO, Cost effective? Even if the sales team uses these words versus talking product, can they translate the company's abilities into real world dollars?

Imagine how many times your prospect has heard “I CAN SAVE YOU BOAT LOADS OF MONEY WITH MY PRODUCT” in the last week. Effective sales translates the product into real value by: 

1. Understand sthe client’s ‘pain” before pitching the product. This means they know the industry and the customer's business, even if the product has a selling a horizontal application. They understand the key initiatives in the company. 
2. They  identify what the customer is trying to solve in terms of cost savings, cost avoidance or increased revenue.  Without this knowledge, nothing the sales person does or says will resonate. The justification has to mirror the prospect's needs.
3. Sales needs to be able to answer the question, “why should theyshould care?” as it relates to the product's capabilities. Caring about a product capability translates into real tangible value the customer can count on. Show the prospect how the product capabilities can attain their goals versus using the competitive product or doing nothing.
4. Understand the prospect's budget and budget process. Most projects have to  fit the purchase into the current budget cycle. This changes the game for how numbers, ROI / TCO, are calculated.  How TCO or ROI is calculated varies from company to company. It is their numbers not the sales person's that matter in the justification.

If the sales people can’t do this, then closing the deal will be tough

For more info: B2B Marketing on ROI