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A common sales trap is where to center your time with clients. It is easy to talk about what a solution do, rather than the so what aspect of what it mean to your client. And no what, dealing with required actions. The sixth step of commercial teaching address the benefits a solution delivers.

Capture Created Context

Your work up to this point has focused on creating a new context. A context where you are better at delivering than any of your competitors. By defining redefining the context you have created a better fit for your proposition. And created a scenario where the benefits you offer are hard to match. But to win your clients mind you need to articulate the benefits your solution offer.

Bring Best Business Benefits

The most interesting aspect of your solution are the business benefits your client will get. Your focus on benefits and concrete measures for improvements is what finally win over customers.

The best business benefits

• Have a strong connection to the most important pains and gains.
• have crisp values for each benefit
• represent 2-4 crucial aspects

Smart Solution Scope

The best benefits come from solution scoped as close as possible to your client’s needs. Not what your client desire but your insights about what they need. A tricky balancing act.

Be prepared to take risk in the scoping. Your scope need to deliver the benefits you are promoting, without excess cost. Exploit values with low cost vigorously. Be careful with how you offer parts associated with high cost.

At this stage you need to clear view of the underlying characteristics delivering the benefit you promote.

Prepare for Powering Proposals Past Procurement

Even if you are successful in influencing clients, expect a competitive bidding process. A process where a professional procurement team will drive the agenda

The major differences you can expect

• a clear agenda to reduce prices
• reversing to a context where many vendors can play
• scope and volume increases designed to push prices

At first you might feel all your efforts are wasted when the opportunity goes into competitive bidding. But if the path you have laid out is strong, business owners have influence procurement to define the proposal along your path. Second you have more insights than competition about your client’s business drivers. Third the steps in a competitive bidding allow for influencing.

Questions for you and your team

1. Do we have a clear view of the benefits of our solution – skip what the solution is and focus on what it does.
2. Have we articulated the benefits in monetary terms – decision makers are more focused on business outcomes than ever.
3. Can our solution deliver on the promised benefits – marketing is great but your pitch can be delivered in reality too.
4. Have we scoped our proposition in the best possible way – smart scoping is key to current and repeat business.

Additional reading suggestions

• Articulating complex products and services without using industry jargon [BLOGPOST] – by Michael Pici, Sell Inbound
• Defining business benefits: Hard and Soft [BLOGPOST] – by James MacLennan