Categories: Sales Messaging | Sales Transformation | Company Alignment
Cross-functional alignment on the value your solutions provide for your customer is the key to accelerating growth. This symmetry is an essential link between your product team and your sales organization. If your salespeople aren't able to articulate the business value of the products you develop, customers won't realize their full potential. How many times have you seen a deal closed where the buyer is only buying one part of your solution, and therefore missing the bigger value for his/her business by not using the platform?
Calvin French-Owen CTO and Co-Founder of Segment recently wrote this blog on selling in a B2B environment. Here are three key takeaways:
1. Don't underestimate the need to have a sales methodology and a selling framework early in your process.
"We’ve gotten Segment surprisingly far without having any of this sort of framework. But frankly, I wish we’d known this much earlier on. There’s no reason not to be great at this from day one."
2. It's not about the cost of your product. It's about the value.
"In enterprise software, customers pay for software based upon the value that software provides, not the cost to deliver or build that software ... A great salesperson steers the conversation towards that value. If you’re not anchoring against the value, you are literally leaving money on the table."
3. Focus on the buyer.
"At the end of the day, selling well means understanding your customer. In some sense, sales is just another form of finding product market fit. Instead of helping a customer use a product, you are helping them make a decision."
French-Owen recently invited our own John Kaplan for a chat on alignment, sales and growth. He was a skeptical participant in our recent Command of the Message® offering, but saw the value after going through the workshop. They talk through the power of alignment in times of uncertainty. You may find value in their short conversation.
