We all learned tons of them as kids: ROY G BIV-- the colors of the rainbow; Every Good Boy Does Fine – the lines on the treble clef as you learn to read music; righty tighty, lefty loosy – how to turn a screw; Thirty days hasSeptember – days in the months; and on and on. A Mnemonic is a device, such as an image, rhyme, or figure of speech, used to assist learning or memory.
So here’s a new one for you – enABLe. How do you improve your sales? You show how your solutions enABLe results for your clients. Remember these three things when you pitch business….Prove how your solutions…
A – Align with your clients key goals
B – Make sense in terms of Business logic
L – Create Lasting benefits for their business
If you aren’t able to explain how your company’s solutions lead to a successful value proposition—if you can’t explain how they enABLe—it’s possible that your company’s solutions aren’t as competitive as you think they are.
Alignment How your solution aligns with the client’s key goals is about more than technology. How does it affect the client from a financial perspective or in terms of its business imperative? Include some insight from stakeholders outside of IT -- maybe the CFO and/or the business process owners. Take a look at their latest numbers releases. What are they talking about? What are their goals? Where are their challenges? Align your solutions with their hot buttons and get their attention. Business logic Business logic goes beyond worn-out references to the “-tion” words: optimization, integration, collaboration, and so on. Today, as a sales professional, you have to go beyond showing the practicality of your solution’s features and functional benefits. You may sell business intelligence solutions that increase the quality of data and make it more readily available—perhaps in a matter of minutes as opposed to days. And better accessibility to data may be a great improvement, but if you aren’t able to explain to client leadership how it ultimately improves broader business processes, how it is a logical business solution, those leaders may take a pass. Lasting benefits Once you’ve shown how your solution Aligns with business goals and have established the Business logic, the next step is to illustrate its Lasting cash flow benefits and overall value to the enterprise. Doing so means your business case needs to go beyond traditional TCO (total cost of ownership) to include lasting benefits not only in the area directly affected by the solution, but impact on other areas of the organization. To be meaningful the impact needs to be measurable. What are the key performance indicators your client’s business is evaluated based on? What about your client’s personal performance? And the key measures broader stakeholders are paying attention to, including senior management, board leadership and even shareholders? Know what these are and show the Lasting measurable impact your solution delivers. The bottom line: a strong value proposition presents greater motivation for your clients to change what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. While it’s important for your value proposition to be stronger than those of your direct competitors, keep in mind that your greatest competition isn’t always another vendor. More often than not, internal competition for company resources is the biggest foe. Making your solution the most memorable by showing how it will enABLe your client will help you garner a greater share of the client’s resource pie.
