However, the number of providers who are able to accomplish this satisfactorily are very less. Even when the providers speak in terms of business outcomes, it is often abstract, generic and high level, not detailed or specific enough to be relevant to the buyer they are actually trying to engage with.
Challenges that IT buyers face
The struggle of IT buyers
The bottom line in the endeavor is to demonstrate value, which is always determined by the consumer. But many providers are oblivious to this fact. Measuring the value of IT’s contribution to the business is a perennial issue for most IT buyers. CIOs are now entering a new age of enterprise IT where they are not viewed as the suppliers (cost centers), but as partners with the business (contributors). They need to understand the value they are delivering to their business and identify the value of any technology investment.
Customer is the starting point
Knowledge of high level industry trends, or even corporate-level strategic initiatives, is fine for broad-brush marketing and communication activities. But providers need to dig deeper to drive consequential engagements with key decision makers, and reach at meaningful metrics for their target buyer. Providers usually rely on marketing or marketing intelligence to capture deep customer insights and share high-level findings with the sales. However, there is not a one-size-fits all customer or industry profile. The sales process is complex, and it evolves with each customer encounter (or at least it should). Providers must find a way to capture what is learned from the sales organization or frontline customer service employees to further refine and develop the target customer, and what will resonate with them.
Understand the industry
Providers need to have a good grasp of what the industry does and how the key stakeholders interact and impact the organization’s results. They can work with industry subject matter experts within their teams or an extended partner network that has worked within the industry, and develop a business context diagram themselves or consult with external sources.
Understand the Organization
While there are standard metrics at the industry level, in a sales situation, it is important that sales operations and enablement help individual sellers become aware of the strategic objectives specific to the organizations, that are time-bound. These will be documented in annual reports and investor presentations in a public corporation. They are the objectives for which the executive leadership team is held accountable. Some of these will reflect in external market operating conditions (for example, cost management in down cycles), and some will be specific to the organization’s own stage of life or position in its industry (for example, geographic expansion). By having a better understanding of those objectives, it becomes easier for sales to develop the appropriate value-based proposal that will resonate with the customer.
Service providers need to train their sales team on the method of identifying a customer’s industry and role-specific organization objectives and metrics so they can tailor stories accordingly. They should also profile their target accounts to better understand and demonstrate how their products will help in achieving the customer’s strategic objective.
