Hot Topic: Differentiation 101

In recent discussions with a number of sales representatives, I've often been asked for the ever so elusive silver bullet questions. You know the ones: those that instantly turn the client from bystander to engaged participant, or vanquish all competition in one fell swoop.

This demonstrates that something at the point of sale is amiss. Maybe it's the sales person's confidence or understanding of his offering. More often than not, it's to do with positioning the solutions so the client can see how they provide extended value, over and above that offered by the competition.

This was not so much of a problem in the days when the client knew they wanted a TLA (Three Letter Acronym) software product and compared functionality tick lists. But such solutions for automating tasks have all been bought and now the sales person is asked to sell solutions that improve processes.

Many sales people find it difficult to map the value of their offerings to the needs of their prospect. In many cases this stems from a lack of understanding of their clients' business and needs. There is an ever present vendor-client language barrier obscuring clarity.

Many sales people have little or no hands-on experience in design and manufacturing. Faced with a torrent of mainly technical deliveries from their in-house trainers and marketing colleagues, the sales people take this collateral as gospel. Then they regurgitate it (with associated acronyms and jargon) to the client. They don't translate the collateral to their client's business processes, issues and priorities.

Many will find this criticism hard to bear. In some cases, such behaviour may be the exception and not the rule. Having talked to clients and sat through many vendor presentations over the past year or so, I'd argue that the message has yet to be assimilated by many of our teams. I see presentation after presentation about new features, interspersed with (possibly) obligatory vendor jargon.

Clients, on the other hand, are often challenged by the situation they face. Rarely, if ever, will they buy technology for technology's sake. They stand confused as to the difference between the vendors' solutions and, more importantly, how these solutions can really impact their business.

To a large degree, it is the sales person's ability to understand the client's business model and requirements which will give the opportunity to differentiate between offerings. He needs to use this knowledge to develop empathy with the client, creating a practical vision of the solution's value to the business.

In many organisations this requires a re-evaluation of the training and deliverables that we use to prepare and arm the sales teams. How many businesses encourage their sales people to develop business skills? How many provide them with intelligence about their clients' situation, language, competitors and markets? Are the collateral and product demonstrations focused on tangible benefits which relate to real business issues in the clients' specific industry - in 'client speak', not vendor jargon?

By engaging in more value focused discussions, sales people will find it easier to differentiate their solutions to their financial gain. Clients, at the same time, will find it easier to select vendors on attributes other than price

Allan Behrens

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