Categories: Scaling Sales
For investors, helping portfolio company leaders quickly define their biggest opportunities to improve sales execution and accelerate growth, may be one of your first priorities. The challenge often lies in guiding your portfolio company leaders to develop the processes, training and tools necessary to execute a sales transformation initiative that truly moves the needle.
In my experience working with investor firms and their portfolio company leaders, investing early in scalable, value messaging framework has enabled them to increase revenue per rep and time-to-productivity (of new hires) dramatically.
If your portfolio company is pursuing a sales messaging transformation, this framework approach may help them equip their sales teams with an easy-to-use tool that enables them to execute at the buyer level repeatedly.
Value messaging framework defined:
A value framework tool provides consistency around a buyer-focused message. It’s not a script. It’s a repeatable, yet customizable framework that helps sellers guide the sales conversations in a way that achieves high-value outcomes, repeatedly.
A customizable value framework enables each individual rep within a sales organization to have conversations focused on uncovering their buyer’s biggest business problems and then aligning how their solutions help solve those problems. Creating this alignment in their sales conversations, enables sellers to align the value of their solutions to their buyer's critical criteria. This ensures that when price becomes part of the sales conversation, your reps are able to justify their value in charging a premium.
How a value messaging framework enables portfolio leaders to support sales productivity:
1. Messaging framework outlines what's important to the buyer(s)
Buyers want to know that their needs are understood and that the portfolio company can provide them with the best possible solution. Think of the value framework as a navigational aid that helps sales teams engage in a consultative conversation focused on value and position their message in a way that has meaning to each key stakeholder in the buyer’s company.
An effective messaging framework outlines the specific reasons a company would choose to purchase your portfolio company’s solution. It seems simple, but in many organizations there are a variety of viewpoints on what those buying reasons are. If marketing, services, product and sales aren’t aligned on why people buy their products, the portfolio company will suffer from inconsistent messages in the marketplace and ultimately an ineffective sales force.
2. Messaging framework categorizes what makes the portfolio company different from its competitors
A value framework gives salespeople the talking points that clearly explain your portfolio company’s differentiation, in a way that maps to the desired buyer outcomes.
Most salespeople have the ability to confidently speak about the benefits of a strong product. However they struggle when asked why the buyer should buy their solution over a competitor. Less skilled sellers may uncomfortably jostle on price, resulting in margin lose. A value framework will allow sales teams to focus on true differentiation instead of price.
3. Messaging framework provides a tool to uncover business pain
An opportunity is won or lost on discovery. By creating value early in the sales conversation, sales reps can prevent discounting later, when it's time to close the deal. A custom, go-to-market value framework gives your portfolio company a valuable tool their sales teams can use to execute a great discovery process in every opportunity and instill value early on.
Sales reps need questions that allow them to uncover quantifiable business pain, early in their sales conversations with buyers. By having the ability to understand and quantify the prospect’s business pain, the sales reps can use this knowledge to demonstrate how their offerings solve the buyer’s biggest problems and align with the buyer’s solution requirements. When your portfolio company’s reps can generate this value-driven alignment in every opportunity, they’ll be able to capture value and close deals at higher margins, repeatedly.
4. Messaging framework helps to highlight the important metrics of your portfolio company’s previous success
For the buyer, it's all about hearing proof that the company’s products can do what they say they can do.
To be truly convinced that the product or service can alleviate the business pain, the buyer needs to be assured of the positive outcomes that come from working with your portfolio company.
Case studies, success metrics and testimonials aligned to the needs of the prospect provide insurance that the buyer is making the right vendor decision.
The value framework puts proof points in a tool that can be easily accessed by the sales team and positioned in a way that aligns to the top-of-mind issues for the buyer they’re working with. Helping your portfolio company leaders establish a value framework will give their sales teams the ability to stay relevant and credible in every opportunity, which in turn lowers losses and wasted time on deals that don’t close.
5. A messaging framework can be used by the whole organization
Through our work with investor firms and their portfolio companies, I have found that it's almost impossible to grow your sales organization, if salespeople are unable to articulate the value and differentiation of their products in a way that has meaning to the buyer.
While most company leaders know what their buyer-focused sales message may sound like, the challenge often lies in operationalizing the go-to-market message, in a way that enables the entire customer-facing organization to have these high-level sales conversations in front of the buyer.
As an investor, you know growth requires consistency. Support your portfolio companies by helping them develop a repeatable value framework that drives consistently high margins and revenue growth.
See how building alignment around their sales message helped NS1 to grow more than 100% for several quarters in a row.
