Today we’re talking about how to use your sales offer to create alignment between your go to market messaging, and your customer strategy. The result is your sales, marketing, and technical team have a consistent way to communicate with your target clients using strong, personalized communications.
Below is just one part of our Partner Enablement framework you can use in your teams.
For any Partner organisation, winning new business can feel like a never-ending challenge.
Partners tell us daily that they’re wasting time on unqualified leads, that they’re relying on current customers for new opportunities, and as a result are getting distracted by the need to find new lead sources. What they’d rather is to spend time converting more qualified leads (not qualifying them from the first touch), and they want their sales generated from a mix of existing customers and new business.
Salespeople need the ability to spend time with their highest probability prospects, and this means there is an expectation that the marketing team hands over leads that are already qualified and ready to buy.
We know that this is much easier said than done. Creating a funnel that drives a competitive offer is no easy feat – and requires a specific approach to how you structure and deliver content through each stage of your funnel.
So, what comes after first uncovering market insight, and then defining your value sell?
The first step to generating leads that are more qualified than not, is attracting the right leads into your funnel from the outset. Being specific and targeted about who you want to bring into your funnel means you won’t need to sift through and disqualify those that thought they needed what you offer.
This disconnect happens because you weren’t communicating your offer in a way that helped them make the link between what they need and what you offer. When you can make this link clear and impactful – you create action.
For your offer to create action from a prospect who's interested in what you are positioning with them, you must pique the interest of that core customer. This means not only grabbing their attention so they stop scrolling, but also being clear on the next step they must take to engage with you and move the sales process along.
To understand the importance of creating action we must first uncover some of the key things you’re currently doing wrong.
Your offer is not competing enough
To create action, we firstly need to stop dealing with the frustrations of having an unstructured sales pitch.
We need to move away from awkward sales conversations that don't bring confidence in ourselves when we are positioning to our customer. Having a sales pitch that doesn't compel the customer to make any type of decision, reduces confidence in both what you’re offering, and the business capability, too.
When we have more structured and purposeful sales conversations with our customers, it will drive action and prioritization from them. As a result, you will feel a lot more comfortable in how you position and pitch you value and offering to the customer.
Offer presentation is not effective
Your offer is probably mostly a presentation of facts, figures and data. You’re relying on that to compel the customer to take action. To them, it might feel like a more forceful approach.
Almost everyone uses a series of PowerPoint presentations and slides for their pitch – whether it’s directly in a face-to-face meeting, or sharing the ‘company overview’ via email. We question - who wants to spend all their time with PowerPoints and presentations slides when trying to find a solution to their problem?
Instead, we should be spending our time crafting a unique offer that will actually compel the customer without us having to sit there and spend a lot of time presenting.
Passion is not enough
Yes, we've got passion for our technology and for the solutions that we sell. And we’ve got passion for our experience, but we really can't rely on the passion side to get a customer to take action. But, if we over-compensate with passion and exuberance, we could be having the complete opposite effect.
If you can identify the things you’re doing wrong and overcome them, you will change the way your prospects interact with you and your offer.
Build trust
Think about new business prospects. They might know who you are and what you do, but they also might not. The bottom line is that they have never worked with you before – so they have no reason to trust what you’re telling them first-hand – even if they were referred to you.
Building trust with your leads and prospects is step one to them taking the next step with your business. The way you communicate about your solution through the offer itself must start building that trust from the very first interaction.
Specific communication
Building trust starts with communicating not just the opportunity – but the outcome. As we mentioned above, facts and figures are not enough and the last thing we want is customers grinding you down on price. Being able to unpack your value, articulate the outcome and then sell the opportunity is a sure-fire way to create action.
To design a complete offer that will compel a customer to action, use these six keys
1. Headline
Of course, you need an attention-grabbing headline. The best way to get the attention of your core customer is to tug at their heart strings. Uncover what they’re frustrated, concerned or worried about and work that into your heading.
For example;
Instead of “Cyber Security Risk Analysis”, try “Build your Cyber Security Maturity”
Instead of “Move your Apps to the Cloud”, try “Modernize your legacy Apps with a move to the Cloud”
Instead of “Increase Productivity with Office365” try “How to increase satisfaction and grow productivity with Office365”
2. Relevance
To create action, we must create relevance. Your offer must be relevant to the customer. This means unpacking the fears, frustrations and pains they are experiencing that they’re actively looking to move away from. Of course, the solution for them is what you’re offering so be obvious when you make this connection for them.
3. Be clear about the problem
Most offers start with benefits – but we’ll get to that next.
First, Write down the top 3-5 problems your customers are facing right now, because they don’t have your solution in place. In your offer, talk to these problems first and foremost. It will grab their attention and immediately link you with the way to a solution for them.
4. Benefits
While we don’t start with benefits to attract prospects to the offer, they are just as important to communicate the real outcomes of working with you. Be clear about tangible outcomes that the customer can achieve with only your solution.
5. Why you
Most partners start this section with something along the lines of:
With 15 years’ experience, ABC Consulting has vast experience in delivering state of the art cloud modernization services to the financial services industry. Our highly skilled hybrid team of cloud-first technicians are certified in ... and our projects are delivered on time and on budget."
Instead, here you must talk about your differentiators. A lot of partner organisations have many years’ experience, all the certifications, highly skilled people who can get an outcome. But, what we need to focus on here is what makes you different.
Have you found a way to automate processes so that your implementation is low touch? Do you have a process or IP that is your own?
The most effective way to communicate your value and differentiator is through testimonials. Customers, while looking for a solution to their problem, also want to know that they can effectively work with you. They need to know that you’re a right fit for their organisation as much as they are a right fit customer for you. Firsthand experiences from existing customers is the best way for them to understand your business and how you work with your customers.
6. CTA
All of the information you just used to attract, inform and excite your prospect is wasted without clear next steps.
This means clearly stating where to from here. Do you want them to book a call, download more information, join your event or subscribe to your email list?
We need the customer to clearly understand what the next steps are - and actually take them. This is truly what creates action.