Value-based selling starts with understanding buyers’ needs and what they’re trying to achieve from their point of view. If buyers are either looking for a solution to a stated need or willing to discuss the fact that a problem exists, then a sale can potentially occur. Remember that different buyers have different needs. Your objective is to help buyers close the gap that exists between where their organization is today and where they need to be. Value is defined as the economic benefit achieved by closing the gap.
The Tafaro Growth Accelerator™
The Tafaro Growth Accelerator™ sales process is built on the concept of value-based selling. It all starts with a discussion about a prospect’s current situation and what they are trying to achieve. A sale can occur if buyers agree that there is a discrepancy or gap between their “current state” and “where they want to be.” Value is defined as the economic benefit of “closing the gap.”
The sales process is designed for salespeople to engage buyers (individual members of the buying team) through a rational process. You help them diagnose a specific problem or issue using the Power Index, a sales tool designed to surface user needs (gaps) for upselling or cross-selling opportunities, and then work to determine what was causing it to exist.
A Power Index should list all the capabilities or results a buyer can achieve by using your software and can be sorted by application or functional area. After each capability or result, the buyers are asked to assess whether they are “underpowered” or “adequately powered” in that specific application or functional area.
Once buyers understand the impact of the problem and what caused it to exist, the salesperson can show the buyer how your software can solve the problem—or fill the gap.
The Five Phases to the Sales Process
The Tafaro Growth Accelerator is a sales process configured for new account salespeople and account managers. The process consists of five phases: Qualify, Verify, Position, Solve, and Confirm. Each phase includes measurable and repeatable selling steps that salespeople and account managers are required to perform before moving a prospect to the next phase.
By executing the process, salespeople and account managers will improve the accuracy, speed, and efficiency of the actions they can control. As they gain experience with the process, every interaction with a buyer will have greater impact and contribute to the objective of building long-term, profitable customer relations.
- Qualify: The purpose of the Qualify phase is to gain a general feeling of the prospect’s interest in your software and services and their desire to learn more with the likelihood of advancing the sale.
- Verify: This is the phase that sets the engagement parameters. During the Verify phase, the salesperson should determine if the prospect is ready to engage in the sales process.
- Position: In the Position phase the salesperson is engaging the relevant members of prospect’s buying team, demonstrating your software by showing alternatives that address their issues and the gaps that were identified in the Power Index and establishing the economic value that can be delivered by “closing the gaps.”
- Solve: At this point your salesperson has shown several members of the buying team how their needs can be addressed and how the economic value has been quantified. Now it’s time to present to the executive sponsor and any remaining members of the buying team who are critical to winning.
- Confirm: This is where we submit contracts, stay close to the prospect, and make sure we have active communications. Be aware of last-minute competitive actions.
The Sales Productivity Index
The Sales Productivity Index (SPI) is a foundational element to the process that will enable you to track and measure sales productivity at both an individual and team level. The SPI shows the importance of everything working together to achieve maximum performance.
The SPI will enable you to track and measure sales productivity at both an individual and a team level. By comparing individual or team performance against the productivity factors that were established when the Tafaro Growth Accelerator was configured, the SPI will show the number of opportunities (by units and value) that are required in each phase of the sales pipeline, plus the times the pipeline must turn, to meet a sales objective (note that the number of times the pipeline should turn is based on the Verify Phase).
In addition, by comparing actual results (actual SPI) against the target SPI, individual and team performance can be measured, the areas requiring remediation can be improved, and the cost of noncompliance reduced.
Read the Winning at SaaS playbook to understand the strategic principles and methods of sales excellence inherent in the Tafaro Growth Accelerator, the Power Index and the Sales Productivity Index. You’ll understand how they can help you prepare your go-to-market professionals to meet their opportunities with confidence.
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