One thing that B2B sellers and marketers always have to contend with is buyer skepticism around proof points -- and especially promised revenue gains.
I have previously written on how to handle indirect benefits in a business case (and tips on how to address one specific category, labor savings, is discussed here). But what about sales growth?
Specificity is the key to overcoming a customer’s natural skepticism in this area. If you say you’ll increase sales by one percent, that doesn’t really mean anything to the customer. They might be thinking to themselves, “Yeah, I’ve heard that one before.” By contrast, if you say you can take two weeks off their sales cycle, that starts to bring your value proposition into focus and ward off objections. Customers are more receptive to hearing about removing barriers to closing deals or increasing the number or quality of leads than just about generic promises of revenue increases.
How We Talk about Revenue with Buyers
When we talk with buyers, we focus on four specific aspects of our solutions that impact revenue instead of talking about generic top line revenue gains.
1. Our value calculators increase the number of leads and the quality of leads. Here’s how it works. First, we work with a client to refine their value proposition and create a value calculator. Then, the client makes the value calculator available on their website. When prospects visit our client’s website, they can use the value calculator to evaluate whether our client’s offering delivers enough value to be interesting. However, to download the report, prospects must first fill out a registration form, which then goes to our client as a lead. That results in not only more leads for our client but leads that are typically assigned higher lead scores because they have spent the time to evaluate the value of the offering.
2. Our Value Selling Methodology improves close ratios. Obviously when leads are better qualified, close ratios improve. Also, because ROI tools provide a cost justification for purchase, using the tool helps increase the probability that the project will be approved during an internal evaluation. This also increases close ratios.
3. Our tools shorten the sales cycle. For example, an ROI tool helps take the legwork out of building business cases via spreadsheets. Less time on preparing a business case means a shorter sales cycle. And the business case compels prospects to make a faster buying decision, especially when you include such metrics as “cost to delay per month.”
4. Our solution increases the average selling price of an offering. Value calculators, ROI tools, and the like quantify for buyers the value they can receive from a solution. In turn, this reduces pricing pressure because buyers already believe they are getting a good deal. These tools can also enable you to quantify the value of add-ons and options, thereby increasing the selling price even further.
Only when the specific impact on the buying process is established can you credibly show how your offering will increase sales revenue. The conversation then turns to, “What impact on sales would more and better qualified leads have? What if your close ratio was higher and your sales cycle shorter?”
One final point on revenue growth. Be prepared for the prospect to still push back and discount the impact of revenue gains. Lots of things need to happen to achieve revenue growth and typically the company is already engaged in many activities designed to increase revenue. It is OK to show the total potential revenue increase, but you need to allow the prospect to discount the net result to ensure that both they and the project approvers will believe it. Since revenue gains will usually have the largest impact of any type of benefit, even discounting it by 50% or more will still likely result in significant value.
It is fine to show top line growth using case studies from your other customers as part of the discussion, but I believe you’ll get better traction if you tie those proof points to the process changes that drove that revenue growth (shorter sales cycles, better leads, etc.). That is the best way to justify the cost of your solution and show the customer the level of value your offering can deliver.
Does your offering enable revenue gains for your customers? If so, how have you been able to convince prospects of the revenue gains?
[Image: Flickr / Spike55151]
