Don’t Forget These Key Steps to a Value-Based Sales Conversation

Value-Based Selling demands an understanding of the stages of a basic buying process.

1. Articulating Requirements


2. Evaluating Options


3. Committing to a Course of Action

The role of the sales rep, then, is to progress the buyer through these stages in a way that leads a buyer towards your solution and away from the competition, and to do so in a way that creates a compelling business case. Your sales process should naturally progress your buyer from his/her pains and objectives to your solution offerings.

Today the Command Center is getting back to basics. Whether you’re a veteran salesperson or someone who is getting his/her feet wet in the sales game, it is important to remember the fundamentals. When you encounter your next sales prospect, make sure you are executing these five steps of a value-based sales conversation.

1. Pain Points and Business Objectives

The first step is to get the prospect to admit pain points and to describe the business outcomes he/she is looking to achieve. Once you have an idea of the business pain and the future state the customer is trying to get to, you will be able to create a compelling business case.

2. Define Requirements

After you uncover the pain, the seller and the customer must jointly develop a specific and finite list of requirements that the solution must satisfy in order to address the pain points and achieve the business objectives. Reconfirm the requirements throughout your sales process, especially when you’re dealing with multiple decision-makers.

3. Solution Mapping and Business Justification

Once you define the required capabilities of the business solution, you need to map the features and functions of your solution back to the requirements that are most pressing from the buyer. These required capabilities need to be tied back to the business objectives that are fueling the purchase.

4. Differentiate

The fourth step is for the seller to clearly differentiate the solution from competitive offerings. Again, this needs to map back to the requirements that are top-of-mind for the buyer. Differentiation is only effective if you map it back to the decision criteria that you’ve established with the required capabilities.

5. Provide the Proof

Provide proof of the value you promise with proof points and customer testimonials that give future customers tangible evidence your solution does what you say it can do. Providing these references from outside sources can help your customers understand the positive business outcomes they can also expect from your solution. These proof points should include testimonials that describe how your company’s solution satisfies the requirements in a way that addresses the pain points and achieves the business objectives.

When it comes to your entire sales team executing these types of customer conversations, a Value Messaging Framework can help drive consistency in your sales organization and achieve the measurable results that improve the bottom-line.

Don’t Forget These Key Steps to a Value-Based Sales Conversation