Challenge

A national sales team required training and sales materials to sell the value of comprehensive solutions and to stop competing exclusively based on product features and price

"Now that technology is such an important component of our solution portfolio, we need to equip our sales team with the skills to sell the value of comprehensive solutions to our customers' business issues"

VP Sales and Marketing, Industrial Manufacturer

The client had received significant business benefit from sales process and pipeline management tools that Business Unlimited had previously developed and rolled out for their sales staff. But the sales cycle was becoming more complex with the increasing amount of technology that was now bundled with traditional products. Customers and sales prospects were having difficulty "connecting the dots" on the value and cost justification of these comprehensive solutions.

The sales team needed to be equipped with the skills and selling tools to help customers diagnose their business challenges, determine the cost of those issues, collaborate with the customer to measure and demonstrate tangible value, and to build long-term relationships with high barriers to change.

Proposal

Business Unlimited created and delivered custom value and solutions sales training. A value-based sales presentation was created for the sales force to guide target customers through the value encompassed by the manufacturer's offerings, and to create the incentive to change and better understand the cost of current problems, possible solution, and the net value created.

Key elements of the engagement included:

• Custom training materials for selling solutions and value, based on the client's value proposition and suite of solution offerings

o Value-based selling rationale

o Defining value across product, process, and performance

o Interactive decision making processes for complex solutions

o Applying the value equation and working the levers of value

o Defining critical success factors in Account Plans

o Selling value at every stage of the sales process

• Creation of a sales presentation to sell solutions and value to our client's customers

o Core elements

o Audience-specific and situation-specific elements

• Custom sales training exercises to define and use performance metrics to demonstrate value

Outcome

The results of Business Unlimited's project led to:

• A sales team better equipped to compete based on comprehensive solutions and collaboration with the customer

• Consistent use of core elements in sales presentations to sell solutions and value

• Training of the distributors by the sales team to start selling solutions and value

• A comprehensive list of performance metrics to use in the sales cycle and to measure value once the solution is delivered