Sales professionals must be able to effectively collaborate with their customers in order to understand their unique business needs and how they define value for their organizations. Two and a half decades of working with successful salespeople, account managers and their teams have helped Performance Methods, Inc. (PMI) gain powerful insights into what defines modern sales excellence.
Sales professionals who can rise above the noise level of “business as usual” discussions and focus on how to co-create value with their customers have far greater success in aligning their solutions with their customer’s needs and winning more opportunities.
By addressing six fundamental questions, learning and development (L&D) professionals can effect change among salespeople and account managers who can align their solutions with customer objectives, help them navigate their challenges and stand out as trusted advisors in providing solutions for their most important accounts. In this article, we will explore how these questions unlock stronger customer alignment and set the stage for differentiation through creating unique business value for customers.
6 Key Questions of Co-Discovery
1. What are the external pressures and drivers that are impacting the customer’s business and causing them to feel the need to change?
The process of co-discovery starts at the industry level. For your salespeople to understand your customers and connect with them, it is imperative that they first understand the external pressures customers are facing. Think about organizational change — rarely does it happen arbitrarily. It usually happens in response to one or more external pressures from within their industry.
Whether its economic changes, technological advancements or shifts in how new regulations will impact their business model, being able to recognize these shifts and empathize with the pressures the customer will face is the first step in co-discovering opportunities. When your team can discern these pressures and evaluate the impact that they have on your customer, they will be able to conduct richer consultative conversations and create a stronger connection with the customer and their unique situation.
2. What does the customer need to do to address these pressures and drivers?
External pressures drive a variety of business objectives, which are typically unique to each customer. In the same way a doctor only provides a prescription after first listening to the patient’s concerns and symptoms, success in sales requires the ability to ask the right questions in order to understand the specific business objectives the customer will have in response to these external pressures. Inherent in this discussion is learning what the desired business outcomes are that they are seeking to achieve.
Salespeople need to understand how their customers define value, as well as how they are expected to deliver it to achieve these outcomes. This needs to happen before prescribing a solution. A customer’s strategic goals and objectives are dynamic, and salespeople need to be equipped to have deeper ongoing discussions on these topics, which can set them apart from competition that is primarily focused on selling a product or solution.
3. What could prevent the customer from being successful?
While external pressures drive change causing businesses to implement strategic moves to achieve their business outcomes, internal challenges are obstacles that stand in the way of them achieving these objectives. We’ve asked numerous customers what prevents them from achieving their objectives and reported challenges include resource constraints, human capital limitations, available financial investment, resistance to change within the organization among many other issues.
Part of the co-discovery process is engaging in these types of value conversations, recognizing potential obstacles and being able to synthesize them as the salesperson begins to develop solutions that allow the customer to navigate these challenges, meet their objectives and address their external pressures. Today’s most successful salespeople and account managers adapt their approaches and become effective customer problem solvers. By understanding the internal challenges their customers face, salespeople can identify the potential roadblocks that can prevent them from meeting their objectives and reaching their goals.
4. How will the salesperson work with the customer to resolve their internal challenges?
Once they’ve invested the time in co-discovery to gain insights into the customer’s external pressures, business objectives and internal challenges, the salesperson is in a much stronger position to craft a tailored or customized solution that specifically addresses the customer’s unique needs. It’s crucial to convey a deep and genuine understanding of the customer’s situation and provide a compelling solution that aligns with the customer’s unique needs and adds tangible and measurable value. The solution needs to be dynamic.
As the customer develops and conveys new challenges, a fully integrated sales or account team can continue to excel at guiding their customers on the path to success. Sales professionals that work alongside their customers and co-create value through the delivery of enhanced, customer-specific solutions set themselves apart from their competitors as they evolve their relationships to that of a planning partner, and even the customer’s trusted business advisor.
5. How can you co-create value with the customer that will help them achieve success?
Co-creating value for the customer is at the heart of a successful co-discovery campaign. If the salesperson has conducted the co-discovery process effectively, your organization’s unique value will be clearly aligned and connected with customer pressures, objectives and challenges in ways that can be quantified and measured. If done correctly, this co-created value will be a direct response to the customer’s needs and challenges.
Conveying this value is vital in demonstrating your salesperson’s commitment to the customer’s success as well as their understanding of the customer’s unique (and likely changing) business environment, needs and requirements. In essence, this is what today’s most effective salespeople and account managers bring to the table as they consult with their customers and help them meet and exceed their business objectives. This is where co-discovery meets customer success, as the value that is co-created is a result of a collaborative effort between you, your team and your customer.
6. Why is your organization the best option for the customer?
At this point in the value co-creation process, you may need to change the question from “Why us?” to “Why not us?” The salesperson has already demonstrated that they understand the customer’s business and are committed to their success. The unique combination of your organization’s products, resources, expertise, services, industry experience and brand/reputation have differentiated and distinguished your company far beyond others simply selling products or solutions.
The unique blend of resources and capabilities that deliver value to your customers far beyond “the product” creates the causal ambiguity that can provide your company with sustainable competitive advantages in selling. The salesperson’s ability to engage effectively with the customer and leverage the trust they’ve developed through the co-creation of value reinforces their commitment to customer success and demonstrates why your sales team and your organization are best positioned to help the customer meet and exceed their objectives.
Next Steps
Co-discovery and the co-creation of value are the foundations of a meaningful and mutually beneficial relationship between top performing sales organizations and their customers. By engaging in productive conversation about external pressures, business objectives and internal challenges, salespeople can co-create value with their customers.
When salespeople align their unique solutions with the things that matter most to their customers’ key stakeholders and position themselves as trusted partners rather than mere vendors, it demonstrates to the customer that your organization is the best partner to join them in their journey to success. In this fast-paced, hypercompetitive landscape where differentiation is key, being able to engage in value co-creation discussions provides your salespeople and account managers with the opportunity to best align their solutions with customer needs and deliver unique business value.
By answering these six key questions in the process of value co-discovery, co-creation and realization, your organization will create a lasting, mutually beneficial relationship with your customer that will drive success for both organizations.
