How to sell on value: five ways to break through the day rate ceiling
Many tech businesses we talk to want to escape the time and materials charging model, and be free from the grip of projects costed on engineer day rates and components. Yet ‘fixed price’ raises its own concerns, with images of projects drifting into the distance along with precious margin.
The solution lies in de-risking the sale, creating more certainty for the customer and moving towards outcome-based value proposition. Here are five ideas that will help and show how to sell on value:
1. Specialise and focus your proposition on a particular target audience
Focus on specific segments and become the ‘go to’ people for this group or problem. Be the best in class. Gather as much evidence as you can to support this positioning including testimonials, case studies or awards. Dedicate space for this target group on your website and make sure that the content on those pages is for them, talking about their problems in their language and showing how you’ve helped others in their sector to be successful.
This makes it harder for competitors to win in your space and helps you to start selling on value
2. Stand out with an clear identity, a strong sense of purpose and authentic points of difference
Do you know how you look and sound to a stranger? Will they trust you or see you as ‘one of them’? Will they see a cultural fit and get a sense of shared purpose and ethos? This is worth spending time on. Avoid clichés, be honest, have a story and a sense of purpose or a ‘why’. When this is clear, align your purpose with that of your prospects to build trust and create certainty and customer confidence in the outcome based value proposition.
A 360 degree analysis provides perspective and gives you ‘the view from behind’.
3. Have a single unifying idea or message to capture your value proposition and start selling on value
What idea or simple message best captures the value proposition? The best ideas come from listening to your customers. Keep it simple and make sure everyone in the business gets it and can explain it? Don’t make it too complicated, or they won’t be able to. Frame the value proposition in the customer’s language and contextualise it with references from the customer’s world. Drop the technical jargon and don’t stray into vendor-speak.
Invest time in hearing how customers talk about you and your solution. You won’t regret it.
4. Qualify, qualify, qualify – then qualify some more
Know the impact of the problem you solve on the customer’s bottom line, how your solution contributes to their longer-term strategic goals and the cost to them of not solving it. Get senior buy-in. The more time you’ve spent on points 1, 2, and 3 the easier this will be. Be ‘best in class’, look and sound the part, have real clarity in your message and getting time with senior decision makers becomes easier. Senior level sponsorship will strengthen your hand with the procurement team. Move the conversation up a gear: create a ‘pain discovery’ tool to gamify or frame the pain discovery process.
A diagnostic framework helps less experienced salespeople or partners uncover the real impact of pain and start selling on value
5. Package all or part of the proposition to make selling on value easier
Make selling on value easier by packaging or pre-defining all or parts of the proposition. Have pre-defined elements that make solutions easier to buy and easier to sell. Build 80 per cent of the solution using repeatable methods, code or automation. Accelerate delivery of standard components using tried and tested methods and customise the last mile with a tailored approach saving expensive experts for tricky integrations or applications. Embed value with additional features like dashboards and portals and wrap in a service bundle. Develop modular delivery frameworks: think pizza bases or cupcakes and charge extra for toppings.
This is one step away from a product but modular or pre-defined propositions are easier to sell on value
How to sell on value – summary
Providers that are known to be ‘for’ someone or something specific become destination suppliers. When customers proactively seek you out, they are already part-invested. If they like what they see and they feel comfortable with you they will be more open, and the qualification process becomes easier. They will practically sell your solution to themselves.
Clarity around your proposition and the outcome it delivers, makes it easier for prospects to make an internal business case, get other decision makers on board and agree budget. When the issues they are experiencing are impacting the bottom line or their ability to meet their own strategic goals, the solution becomes priceless.
Packaged or ‘product-ised’ solutions make marketing and sales and more scalable: messaging, content, collateral, and automation can be predetermined; and qualification, pain discovery and lead conversion techniques can be documented and trained. Partners, junior salespeople or marketers can generate higher quality leads.
When Microsoft service or software partners can automate some repeatable processes, reuse code, or build delivery and support frameworks, efficiency improves, costs go down, job satisfaction increases, operations become slicker, and time is freed up for innovation and other growth opportunities.
Have a look at some of our case studies where we’ve created unique and differentiated identities for Microsoft Partners to start selling on value.