Exploiting the Cloud to Sell Value

Adversarial selling approaches don't work, especially in our socially networked world. How can you use the Cloud to be customer centric, while collaborating with your buyer to progress the buying cycle?

We achieve this by following some simple approaches, which we also recommend to our clients:

1. Select a cloud-based collaboration tool which will be used by you and the buyer to structure the buying process. We call the implementation of this tool the Value Roadmap. The primary goal of the Value Roadmap is to develop a collaborative plan which is essentially the road map for the buyer to achieve value from your service.
2. Stop doing account planning without the buyer present. Two hours of planning without the buyer can likely be replaced with five minutes of interaction with the buyer. Account planning is a hypothetical exercise without direct input from the buyer. If you have developed a trusting rapport with the buyer and are creating value during the buying process, the buyer they will gladly share the information you require for success.
3. Develop a library of customer Top Challenges your solutions address to be used during the needs discovery process. These are worded in the customer's language and are used to keep the buying process focused on buyer needs and the relationship of your solutions to the buyer's needs.

I should state that while this approach may support the buying process for commodities, it works best for those selling services (either delivered by consultants or delivered through an online service such as an SaaS application).

The basic premise of the Value Roadmap is to build a plan which is built collaboratively with the buyer to document all of the necessary steps, starting with problem discovery and ending with the implementation of the services, which will both solve the buyer problems and provide the expected value. Depending on the scope of your services, this may include activities such as demonstrations and perhaps a business case. The most critical goal of the Value Roadmap is to focus the buying / evaluation activities on high value customer problems which drive a compelling business case. Rather than discussing endless lists of features or providing services which will be need to be priced lower because they solve low value customer problems, the Value Roadmap strives to keep our activities focused on higher value and can be used to challenge the addition of unrelated activities.

The Value Roadmap is an extremely powerful tool in its own right. When complemented by sales representatives who have been trained in customer centric selling techniques - either SPIN or Customer Centric Selling, it can improve opportunity close rates substantially.

But I started this discussion by presenting the need for a collaborative, cloud-based tool to drive the Value Roadmap process. This is mandatory because:

1. In the online world face-to-face meetings are no longer the primary method of contact. You need a tool which represents you professionally and demonstrates your understanding of how to conduct a sales process collaboratively. Email fails completely (even if you copy the emails into your internal CRM system).
2. Time zones and flexible work hours require a tool which is accessible from any device at any time, to allow the sales process to keep moving.
3. Personal preferences of your buyer dictate how they want to interact with you. Some will work directly in the cloud-based environment, while others will ask you to maintain the online plan on their behalf. Both approaches work - we end up with agreed upon next steps which are transparent to the buying and selling organization at all times. Without an online tool accessible by the buyer, your plan is no better than an account plan collecting dust on your shelf.
4. It forms the repository of all evaluation information, including RFPs, business cases, and presentations. Your client will appreciate the value of this repository and view you favorably as a result.

There are many options for providing a tool for delivering the Value Roadmap online. For companies with large budgets this can be done with the development of an online tool which supports some level of mass-customization. One company I worked with considered the development of a tool which would provide a customized web page for every buyer. Most clients, however, will likely implement Value Roadmaps using one of the readily available online project management / task collaboration tools.

We have used both Basecamp and 5pm Web. Our current preference is for 5pm Web because it is more oriented towards project time lines and our Value Roadmaps are designed as projects with specific delivery dates.

Below is a hypothetical sample of a Value Roadmap from our 5pm Web system. Our guided customer buying approach, which is deployed via the Value Roadmap, starts something like the picture below and is then customized for each client situation.

While we don't represent 5pm Web, we have found it to be a very useful cloud-based service which we use on our client projects (we have joined their affiliate network). Using it for our Value Roadmaps was a natural extension of our use of the tool. If you check their website you will find very competitive pricing plans.

Implementing Value Roadmaps using an online tool where you collaborate with your buyers has many benefits:

1. The buying process is "always-on" and fully transparent to all stakeholders within the selling and buying companies.
2. The seller is viewed as progressive, professional, and value-focused by the buyer.
3. Expensive proof activities, such as demos, are focused on high value customer problems. Low value activities can be negotiated out of the sales process.
4. The approach is customer centric and teaches sales people to make use of that expensive sales training you sent them on (SPIN or Customer Centric Selling). It provides the content that is required to make the sales methodologies work.
5. It accelerates the sales cycle with the buyer's approval.
6. Using the online tool as a central document store saves the buyer and seller time when looking for documents, notes, and next steps.

The Value Roadmap approach can be implemented with very little preparation. You can be executing them in less than a week with your buyers. Follow some simple steps - select a tool like 5pm Web, build your standard plan similar to the example above, and start experimenting with your sales team and selected buyers. The approach is made more powerful by using one of the sales methods described above, and is made most effective when you develop your Top Challenge library as a knowledge repository for your sales team to conduct the Value Roadmap exercise. I will end with a shameless plug - we work with clients to both develop their Top Challenge library and to implement a Value Roadmap selling approach.

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