Thanks for the post. I think your list is great. A nice summary of rational needs. I agree how important they are.

Perhaps we will agree to disagree, though, but I believe emotion is just as powerful a motivator as rational factors like return on investment. And while they’re distinct, they’re typically tied together.

One client of ours, an operations improvement firm, was able to show how a $500k engagement will return $6 million in a year or so. Great return. It was a slam dunk and the buyer believed the case was real.

Still, it didn’t sell. Stalled for months.

Problem was the operations VP was intimidated by the firm and nervous about how he would look when what he was doing was “improved” by so much by outsiders.

But the operation VP was also frustrated by coming in on the weekends and at 3am when something broke down. He had to come in because the processes were too convoluted for anyone else to figure out.

Once our client was able to overcome the nervous and intimated emotions, and able to show how what they would do would decrease his frustration, they closed the contract.

In another situation I was involved with, the 5 of the largest accounting firms in the country were vying for business to help take a private company public.

When I asked him why he chose one firm over the other 5, the CFO told me he made the argument to the board of directors in rational terms for why this firm was the best. “A clear winner” he showed them.

Privately, he told me they all had merits, but in the end he picked the firm he liked best. As he told me, “I’m the one that has to work with them for a year for 12 hours a day. They could all do the technical work of prepping us to go public. I picked the ones I thought would provide me the best experience. I liked them best.”

He made the decision on emotional factors, and justified it with a rational case.

Focus on just rational and leave the emotional out, and it’s likely sellers will lose sales.

Anyone else have thoughts?

Value Proposition: This is the single most important question. If you can’t explain–in three jargon-free sentences or less–why customers need your product, you do not have a value proposition. Without a need, there is no incentive for customers to pay. And without sales, you have no business. Period.

What are your Value Propositions? It’s important for customers to understand the value of an offering and it’s associated RETURN.

Let’s run through the value propositions and how we provide a return.

1) Increased revenues or profitability
2) Faster time to market
3) Decreased Costs
4) Improved Operational efficiency
5) Integrating operations globally
6) Revitalizing the Organization
7) Enhancing customer loyalty
8 ) Increased market share
9) Decrease employee turnover
10) Improved customer retention levels
11) Increased competitive differentiation
12) Faster response times
13) Decreased Operations expenses
14) Increased sales per customer
15) Improved asset utilization
16) Faster Collection
17) Reduced Costs of Good sold
18) Minimized risks
19) Additional Revenue Streams
20) Increased Market share
21) Improved time to profitability
22) Increased billable hours
23) Reduced cycle time
24) Increased inventory turns
25) Reduced direct labor costs

To bring value the must be a return. Once a value proposition can be delivered there has to be associated Tangible returns.

In Rainmaking Conversations and in Selling Consulting Services, we cover the two different types of impact: rational and emotional, and how to develop both of them to advance the sale.

Indeed, people buy with their hearts and justify with their heads, even in business contexts. For example, I’ve seen many a buyer *want* to buy something, but they don’t have the business case to justify their sale. The seller didn’t do what they should have to build the rational case with the buyer.

On the other hand, I’ve seen great ROI arguments where buyers have not been emotionally connected to the outcomes. The seller didn’t make the emotional and life impact on the buyers as strongly as they did the numbers. Thus moving forward didn’t *feel* important enough to the buyers to pursue.

Rational and emotional resonance: you need to tend to both if you want to maximize your success.

Heres’ where it gets interesting: What we are all seeking here is an understanding of what makes a prospect “pull the trigger” – i.e. go from considering to contracting, thinking about it to selecting and engaging us, from listening to a pitch to signing the engagement letter & writing the check.

One element that was alluded to but not fully discussed was that prospects don’t act via logic; they act on their emotions. It seems that logic and analysis can determine the outcome. At the end of the day, however, the client goes with the candidate that they “feel” is right. And more, many prospects may NEED the service, but don’t WANT to invest in this service so they delay. Ex. we don’t WANT to invest in legal services or accounting services because we see these services as detracting from our bottom line. But we may very well WANT the guidance of a really smart business advisor on a critical issue and this person happens to be an attorney or accountant.

When we as service providers give prospects the experience of really wanting to invest in what we have to assist them in their business, we will not appear as a questionable cost but an essential to their success. This is an emotional process not logical. Therefore, the value proposition must appeal to the want factor and the feel-good emotion quotient.

Prospects will very often not remember all of what you tell them, but they will always remember how you make them feel.

Mike

Call it Benefit Statement or value proposition the likely hood of success is dependent upon your team and organization believing it. If they do, your customer will too!!!