Value Selling Blog

Successful B2B marketing campaigns attract and engage buyers and decision makers, and set the stage for the sales team to close the deal. More specifically, value selling campaigns emphasize the business value of solving a set of problems rather than the features and functions of the offering and reveal how it can reduce expenses and/or increase revenue.

Providing a business value framework is an excellent way to capture decision makers’ attention and interest. Value selling tools such as interactive assessment tools and value calculators make it easy to provide such a framework and generate leads.

Has your sales cycle grown longer and more complex? Are you challenged by new buying behaviors that exclude you in the early stages of discovery? Chances are you’re also faced with more restrictive corporate and financial oversight, which shifts purchasing authority to CFOs and inter-departmental committees.

How can you get the attention of buyers and decision makers in such a dynamic sales environment? A proven approach is value selling, a strategy that develops distinct sales messages focused on the bottom line. When all is said and done, prospects want to know how investing in your solution helps save money, increase sales and revenue, and achieve pertinent business goals.

Your prospect has already visited your website, perused your online content and seen a demonstration of your product or service. What do you do next to convert an active inquiry into a sale?

Prospects must understand the short and long term financial benefits of your solution if they are to make a positive purchase decision. This can be a challenge, as many focus on direct acquisition costs and compare them to the cost of what they’re already doing. Such analyses can be short-sighted and inaccurate because they omit the incremental value delivered by a new solution.

Most marketers would agree—effective B2B demand generation revolves around three things:

• Customizing the message
• Encouraging involvement
• Demonstrating financial benefits

Fortunately, online value calculators do all three. In fact, every day, sales reps use these calculators to successfully shorten the sales cycle and close deals. And many (if not most) B2B marketers have a calculator or two parked on their corporate websites.

But imagine the power of online value calculators when they are put directly in front of a larger group of prospects. Easy-to-use calculators that ask a few simple questions are a great way to help your prospects take the first step in understanding the value your solution can bring to their business.

Value calculators can simplify and speed your sales process by helping buyers understand the value of your solution in dollars and cents and in industry-specific terms. In addition to communicating how prospects can save money with your solution, value calculators also reveal any underlying processes and business issues that need attention.

Since 1988, our client IQS has provided manufacturers with enterprise systems for managing quality and industry compliance. The company serves general manufacturers and specific markets including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical devices, and oil and gas.

Why do B2B marketers invest in producing blog posts, white papers, reports, articles, and videos? The general aim is to attract an audience to their website so they can engage them and (hopefully) turn them into customers over time.

As I wrote last week, I believe that marketers often don’t consider ROI tools and value calculators when planning their content marketing mix, and I think this is a missed opportunity. If marketers want a high volumes of well-qualified leads, then my view is that value calculators and ROI tools can often pack a much bigger punch than other forms of digital content.

I truly believe in the power of ROI tools and value calculators to help generate better, more qualified leads for B2B marketers and enhance a B2B salesperson’s ability to close a deal. (If I didn't, I wouldn't be in the business of selling them.)

I recently came across this insightful blog post, How to Sell Value to Your Customer, that outlines a four-step process on how to sell on value. I want to take the last two steps and point you to some real life examples that might help you better relate to the points and achieve B2B sales success.

When customers make a purchase, they typically go through a few different stages. As a seller or marketer, your job is to help shepherd the customer through these stages quickly and efficiently.

Depending on where the prospect is in the buying process, there are different tools or calculators to help you with your value-based selling approach.

In the earliest stages of the sales cycle, you want to establish the prospect’s pain and how much that problem is costing them. This will help set you up for a conversation about how much your offering can help. A value calculator helps you show how much money the prospect is leaving on the table each month, or how much they’re spending that’s unnecessary. This helps you establish the “value” of solving the problem. (Here’s a good example of a value calculator.)