Seven Magic Questions: How to Improve Your Win Ratio by Selling Value Instead of Price

From SalesVault.com

Proposals
Seven Magic Questions: How to Improve Your Win Ratio by Selling Value Instead of Price
By Tom Sant
Oct 6, 2003, 16:05

There
are lots of consultative sales methods around. You may have been
trained in one, or read a book about one, that you particularly
like.

Each has its unique strengths and techniques. But
they all have at least one thing in common. They try to get sales
people to focus on what matters to the customer. You build sales
momentum by demonstrating that you are delivering an important solution
to an important problem. That is the essence of all these consultative
methodologies.

To be able to create a client-centered solution
- and to be able to write a client-centered proposal - there are
seven questions you must be able to answer.

Oddly enough, lots of people try to write proposals
without knowing the answers to even half of these questions. That
makes it impossible to create a message that sounds "right"
to the buyer.

Here are the seven questions. Make sure your sales
people uncover the answers, make sure every proposal and sales presentation
is based on them, and you'll win a lot more business.

1. What is the client's problem?

Look beyond the obvious. Your contact in the customer organization
may describe the problem in terms that are specific to his or her
interests. An IT manager sees the lack of on-line access to customer
account information as a data integrity problem. To the vice president
of sales, it's a revenue problem, because it's keeping the sales
force from separating good clients from the not-so-good.

2. Why is it a problem?

Who is affected by this problem? How are they affected? Try to trace
the links as high up the organizational ladder as possible to get
a sense of how big the pain is. This will also indicate who else
may need to be part of the decision team.

3. What objectives does the client have
in mind for a successful solution?

How will the client measure success? In terms of business or financial
performance? In terms of improvements in the technology infrastructure?
Or in terms of customer loyalty or employee morale? Each of these
areas - business results, technical outcomes, and social relationships
- is potentially important. Which leads us to the next question:

4. Which of those objectives is most important?

They may all be important, but which one matters the most? This
tells you two things: First, it tells you the order in which to
put your presentation of key outcomes. You want to put the customer's
most important outcome first. That way, the customer will think
that you think the way they think. Second, knowing which objective
is most important tells you where to look to develop your value
proposition. You want to base your ROI or other presentation of
value on what matters the most to the customer.

5. What are the ways we can solve the client's
problem?

Usually there's more than one way to solve a particular problem.
If you're having trouble with how long it's taking your sales force
to write sales proposals, for example, I could recommend software
to automate the process, training to improve their skills, or a
combination.

6. What are the probable outcomes from each
potential solution?

Any of the potential solutions might take care of the problem. The
important issue is what kind of outcome the customer will get. Will
it match up to their expectations for a positive result? Will it
meet their criteria?

7. Which solution is best?

Based on the answers to the previous six questions, we should be
able to answer the final question. It should be fairly obvious which
solution meets the needs and delivers the results the customer desires
most.

Trying to write a proposal or make a sales presentation
without knowing the answers to these questions is like competing
in an archery contest blindfolded. You might hit the bullseye occasionally.
But you're just as likely to shoot yourself in the foot.

About The Sant Corporation:

The Sant Corporation is the leading provider of enterprise-strength
tools for automatically generating proposals, sales letters, RFP
responses, and sales presentations. Sant's award-winning software
is available for desktop, network, and Web installations. It has
been used by organizations ranging from Fortune 100 companies to
individual entrepreneurs. Sant's mission is to help companies increase
revenues by improving win ratios through structured proposals.

Sant software and services are used in a variety
of industries, including high technology, financial services, commercial
real estate, health care, consulting, manufacturing, utilities,
and telecommunications.

To learn more about creating sales messages that
focus on the right content, visit us at www.santcorp.com,
or call us at 888-448-7268 to schedule a demonstration of our award-winning
proposal and RFP software products.