I recently read a couple of articles about marketing during a downturn. Both urged businesses to resist the natural temptation to cut marketing during this, or any, crisis. They got me thinking about what marketing should be doing to prepare the business for the eventuality that things recover.
In the economic downturn of 2008, Philip Lay, Todd Hewlin, and Geoffrey Moore wrote a thought leadership piece for Harvard Business Review (HBR) entitled, “In a Downturn, Provoke Your Customers.” I give them credit for setting off a chain reaction that we now know as “Selling Insight.”
Few people like to talk about money during the sales process. Eventually, though, buyers will ask, “How much does it cost?” If the price is more than nominal, they probably need budget approval. How well can your sales team shift the conversation from finding and solving customer problems to money?
As COVID-19 spreads across the globe, millions of workers have been quarantined and are working from home in an effort to slow the rate of infection. And while employee safety is paramount, organizations are still responsible for marketing and generating revenue to keep their business healthy.
When selling to well-informed buyers, your sales team needs to skip the “features and functions” pitch and get straight to the point: the value your solution delivers relative to the problems it solves. Do they have the right tools and training? Do they understand what’s most important to buyers?
Successful business leaders make it a point to know how their business performs compared to peers and similar businesses. They strategically use this benchmarking information to strengthen all aspects of their business. And they understand its importance in improving competitive advantage.
Two years ago, I heard a “value nugget” that has influenced how I help organizations define their value proposition and distill it down to three words or less. It came from John Chambers, former Chairman of Cisco Systems, who grew Cisco’s annual revenue from $70 million to $47 billion.
Most companies develop sales tools with today’s goals in mind. As you consider whether to build or buy these tools, think about what it would take to create tools that add ongoing value to your sales process and help you continue closing more deals, even as your future needs evolve.
Introducing value into the healthcare industry has significantly disrupted everything from patient care and payment models to product positioning that delivers more than clinical outcomes and the lowest cost. How can medical device and software companies successfully embrace this disruption?
I am always happy to provide value-selling training, but I hesitate when the organization hasn’t already invested in value selling tools or integrated value selling into its overall sales process. Why? Because in my experience, three critical components must be present to ensure a successful value-selling initiative: people, process, and technology.
